“It felt like going completely naked into a supermarket"
Translated into English by Stef Lidell - Placebo Anyway
Interview in German: Link / jetzt.de Sรผddeutsche Zeitung
"How do you remember the MTV Unplugged evening in London?" Brian Molko: The show was better than we expected. We had real jitters before this challenge, because it's not the kind of show you just do normally. We’ve also been on tour for two and a half years with some intermissions and were totally exhausted physically.
Sometimes it’s good when you’re so tired to feel awake again. Absolutely. We felt dazed in an interesting way, and even after the show we couldn't properly relax because we had to work on the edit for weeks. So all this time we were really focused intellectually, and it is surprising that our bodies didn't collapse.
How was the concert? We were so nervous! We knew that it would be different, much softer, more delicate and emotional. Our sensitivity was required (laughs). Normally, we have a wall of sound in the background that kind of acts as a safety net. So we were preparing for a terrifying show, where we would be completely without security, dangling over an abyss with lots of space between notes.
What would you compare the feeling to? Maybe with going completely naked into a supermarket. It was one of the most nerve-wracking concerts I've ever played in the 20 years of Placebo. What we didn’t want was to over-rehearse before the concert. We wanted to leave as much spontaneity and magic for this unique performance as possible.
Do you enjoy being naked in public? No! No! (laughs) I was really relieved when it was over. Our record company heard horror stories from other bands that took nine hours or three days to make finish their unplugged concerts for MTV. I thought it was great that we made it in two and a half hours.
Does this motivate you? In a way. We’ve secretly been dreaming about maybe making a show of this type with a full orchestra. But making it under the MTV banner is a different story because of strict broadcasting rules. The most important one is that you can only play acoustic instruments. We argued that if something is battery operated is technically passes as “unplugged”, that, for example, keyboards and laptops should be allowed to be used. But MTV would not let us (laughs).
Did you get to look at your songs, some of which you’ve been playing for 10-20 years, in a different light? Yes, very much so. In a way, they’re like old school friends that you have not seen for many years and you’re surprised at how they’d evolved. When we look at our old songs under the microscope, we often wonder how some of them became hits.
And? I think the naivety of these songs is a positive thing. Successful songs often follow a simple, almost childlike, scheme. It is no different with us.
Will you be playing a complete acoustic tour next year? No, we want to do a greatest hits tour, when we will play our most commercially successful singles that we’ve distanced ourselves from. We want to make our fans happy. Some of them always complain that we do not play their favorite songs. So I can only emphasized: beloved Placebo fans, if you want to hear songs like Pure Morning or Nancy Boy live again, this is the time. Next time we will play them again only in 2036!
Which song is both a single and a fan favorite? The song that we have played most often is Every You Every Me. Paradoxically, it is the one song which I always seem to forget the words to, which makes me appear slightly lost.
You’ve been the singer of Placebo for half your life. Have you ever doubted that the band would last so long as your life purpose? Our main motivation behind starting Placebo was to do everything possible so as not to wind up with what people call a “real job”. Stefan and I never worked in an office. We would have been perfectly happy, however, if we could earn enough with Placebo so as to afford a roof over our heads and food on the table. So this meteoric rise, if we can call it that, was not expected.
And now a political question. You practically personify the European Union. You were born in Brussels, your father is half French, half Italian, and your mother is Scottish. What do you think about all of the crises that Europe is currently having to deal with? I’ve always had a very positive attitude towards the EU. But the older I get, the more skeptical I become, and now I wish the EU would not exist.
Why is that? I am a leftist. My heart goes out to the refugees. In an ideal world, there would be no refugee crisis, as there would be no borders. As for all these politicians, who are those people in Brussels to say anything? I do not trust them. I’m sorry. They haven’t even been elected by the people. But they still set rules for countries that are massively different. This can’t work. And yes, I myself am a mongrel from many countries, which I still find kind of cool. I also stand for immigration, for Palestine and for the tearing down of all fences and walls around the world.
Pretty radical. I’m really awake now! (laughs)
