Brian Molko - Placebo - Interview: "I do not need social media"

“I do not need social media”

Interview Christian Schwarz. Translation into English SusanneCk with the helping hand of Xenia Gerasimova  - Placebo Anyway

19/08/2014 Germany (Link interview in German)

The band Placebo from London comes to Mönchengladbach. Tomorrow the trio will play at the Hockeypark and present their hits from the 90th like “Every You Every Me” as well as the staff from the new album “Loud Like Love”. The band will come out on the stage about 20h.

The Singer Brian Molko spoke about 20-year-old history of the band before the show.

You are celebrating the anniversary.

Brian Molko: To be very honest we are celebrating it only because of the decimal system (sistema decimal). In other countries there are different calenders, so we could celebrate a completely different number. The decimal system is simple, that's why we like it. But we don’t want to be defined because of it.

You aren’t happy?

Molko: Oh, I’m greatful I can go on with making music and make a good living. Many other bands haven't got this. And it’s a privilege that people still listen to us. I wouldn’t know, what else to do. I've spent all my adult life making music.

It wasn't always easy: There were tensions inside the band Placebo and there were talks about a separation.

Molko: That’s true. Especially seven years ago, it was a very dramatic and hard time for us as a band. That time we changed also in a personal way. We had to find a way to go on. Now we are in a phase I like very much. We enjoy our mutual company  – This is something new for Placebo (he’s laughing).

However, after so many years in this business, the pressure to remain success is growing.

Molko: Well, it has become tougher, because we don’t want to repeat ourselves. In fact, we try to become better – this is for me a big motivation in a personal way. I want to become a better writer, a better guitarist.

Well, are there songs you don’t like anymore?

Molko: Yeah, lots of them. I have a light disfuncional relation to my owncreations. 

So, how do you decide what you will play on the concerts?

Molko: Sometimes it’s quiet difficult. We even do not play two our most successful songs “Nancy Boy” and“Pure Morning” anymore. We do not feel any connection with these songs. Itwould be a lie to perform them. I refuse to come out in the stage and to be dishonest there. I need to believe in every single word I sing. This is not easysometimes.
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However, there must be a connection to these songs, isn’t it?
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Molko: Right. But it is like friendship: With some of your friends you had stronger relations in the past than nowadays. It can change again in the future – it depence on the circumstance. Songs are like human beings in this way.

However, people who come to your concerts, do have certain expectations.
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Molko: Meanwhile, I understand what it means to be on the stage. It’s a matter of getting a connection with thousands of people. It is less about me, it’s more about them. This helps me to play many old songs.
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Over the years your songs have become more melancholic, in part they have remained gloomy. Why hasn't it changed?

Molko: All that, what touches a human soul, for me is a very interesting aspect. I try to understand why sometimes I have so different emotions inside me. Because I see the songwriting as a kind of self-therapy. But, of course, I do not only write about myself, I write also about the world around me.
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Like in your song "Too Many Friends", a criticism of the treatment of the social media.

Molko: Our society faces trendsetting changes. The question I ask myself is do we feel more or less lonely with all the social media and the communication by use of modern technologies? Finally, we speak less with each other, because we do not use the traditional phone as we did before. This is fascinating.

Should we perceive social networks in a more critical way?
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Molko: It’s a temptation many people are succumbed to without questioning it. There are big companies out there that claim they will improve the world. To believe in this, in my opion, is so naive, as at the same time being shocked that the American government is reading our e-mails.
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Many see it as a form of technical advance.
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Molko: Yeah, it’s hardly possible to maintain the technical progress. We only have to be carefull: If the technology developes as fast as it has been going since the industrial revolution, we will come to a point where the artificial intelligence will surpass human one.

This would change the history for ever, machines would look at us at the same way as we look at insects. Ray Kurzweil wrote a lot about it.

Do you believe in it?
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Molko: It's a very scary conception. It’s possible that we will come to this. Maybe not during my lifetime, but in the next generation. Y’ know, I only ask a question, I don’t want to criticise or say that social media or technical development is bad. You only need to look at which kind of effect it has on our society.
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Therefore our society is blind?
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Molko: Let us travel years back in time. At that time almost everyone had an axe. With the aid of it you could go to the forest and cut a tree and keep your family warm. On the other hand, you could come back to your village with an axe and kill 20 people. Who is guilty now? An axe or a human being? To blame the technologies would be ridiculous.

So, do you benefit from the technologies?

Molko: Of course, but nevertheless I do not need social media... I don´t want lead this kind of life, I prefer the personal contact with other people. Anyway, I use the video conference on my phone, for example, to keep in touch with my friends and family. I do not say, I’m against every kind of technology – this would be hypocritical.

 “I do not need social media”

Interview Christian Schwarz. Translation into English SusanneCk with the helping hand of Xenia Gerasimova  - Placebo Anyway

19/08/2014 Germany
Sources: RP

Photos: Cristina Meso, Capellia, Stephanie W. , Placebo Belgium,DanceTheDay