Today I want to share an excerpt of a radio chat that Placebo did with their fans on BBC Radio 1 back in the year 2003. Enjoy reading!
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| Photo credit: Jesus Aparicio |
♦𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗖𝗘𝗕𝗢♦
𝙎𝙈𝙎: 𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙬𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙨𝙖𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙣𝙚𝙜𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙥𝙤𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙛𝙖𝙢𝙚 𝙖𝙧𝙚?
𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻: “There's the loss of anonymity, the idea that thousands of people you've never met have made their minds up about you as a person. You meet a lot of people who have pre-judged you, and once you have a reputation for something it's difficult to shake it. Thankfully we can still walk on the streets, and I still take the tube a lot, so it's good to be able to do that. I think people who get into the music business because they want to be famous are doomed, and quite rightly so. I understand that it's every teenage boy's dream to strap on a guitar and go on stage, but you have to have something unique or honest to say. Something to communicate to people. Or even a very, very amazingly joyful way of making people escape from their everyday lives. The shallow plus points are being able to get tables at restaurants, but it is shallow. You get respect from your peers, which means you get to meet a lot of amazing artists who you can learn from.“
𝘿𝙖𝙬𝙣: 𝘿𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙨𝙚𝙚 “𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙚𝙣𝙙“ 𝙖𝙨 𝙖 𝙣𝙖𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙖𝙡 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙜𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 “𝘽𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙠 𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙠𝙚𝙩 𝙢𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙘“ 𝙤𝙧 𝙞𝙨 𝙞𝙩 𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙖 𝙜𝙤𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙗𝙖𝙘𝙠 𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙤𝙡𝙙𝙚𝙧 𝙨𝙩𝙪𝙛𝙛?
Steve: “It's fresh but there's a line that refers back to the first album. To us it still feels like a fresh, Placebo energy.“
𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻: “After the thousandth interview, whenever anyone says representative it makes me feel very tense. Nothing's representative apart from where we are now. We have a history of releasing very unrepresentative singles of our new albums as the first singles, and we did that on purpose to confuse people, to not play that game. The other words that fill me with terror are 'natural progression' - I don't even know what they mean now.“
𝙆𝙖𝙡: 𝙎𝙤 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩'𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙢𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 “𝙎𝙡𝙚𝙚𝙥𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙜𝙝𝙤𝙨𝙩𝙨“?
𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻: “There are many themes. There's never a full unity to an album we make. Sometimes one presents itself, but there are songs that stick out like a sore thumb. On a songwriting level, I think we've gone back to what we do best which is writing twisted love stories. They have a certain darkness to them, an acid lullaby, which is important otherwise they become insipid and disposable.“
𝙎𝙪𝙢𝙢𝙚𝙧 𝙍𝙖𝙞𝙣: 𝙔𝙤𝙪'𝙧𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙙𝙪𝙗𝙗𝙚𝙙 '𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙘𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨'. 𝙃𝙤𝙬 𝙙𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙛𝙚𝙚𝙡 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙞𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙮 𝙨𝙤𝙣𝙜 𝙬𝙝𝙞𝙘𝙝 𝙮𝙤𝙪’𝙙 𝙧𝙚𝙛𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙘𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙛𝙚𝙖𝙧 𝙤𝙛 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙙𝙤𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙞𝙩 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙚?
𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻: “We're not gonna cover any Gareth Gates songs. Has he written any yet? We've covered T-Rex, Nick Drake, Robert Palmer - that was inspired, Kate Bush. I really wanna cover Total Eclipse of the Heart. I'll probably make it my life's work actually! If all three of us want to work on something, if it makes us laugh, then it works. If a cover version becomes too much like hard work you just have to give up.“
𝙁𝙚𝙚𝙗𝙯 𝙈𝙞𝙩𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙡𝙡: 𝙔𝙤𝙪'𝙫𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙗𝙖𝙘𝙠 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙥𝙤𝙬𝙚𝙧𝙛𝙪𝙡 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙣 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙖 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙖𝙙𝙪𝙡𝙩 𝙞𝙢𝙖𝙜𝙚. 𝙒𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙨𝙞𝙘𝙠 𝙤𝙛 𝙗𝙚𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙨𝙚𝙚𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙚𝙚𝙣𝙨?
𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻: “We haven't been teenagers for a long time, so I suppose it's gonna **** any adult off being a teenager. What did anger us for a while was that we were dismissed as a punky boy band or people who couldn't play their own instruments. You wanna be taken seriously.“
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| Photo credit: Kevin Cummins |
𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗳𝗮𝗻: “I don't know what he was like at 12. We met when we were 14 or 15. It was about five or six years after we went to school we got to know each other.“
𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻: “How we meet is our most hated question! We had different social circles so we never hung out, not until we had a conversation and found out we had a lot in common.“
𝙄𝙜𝙜𝙮: 𝙒𝙝𝙮 𝙙𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙬𝙚𝙖𝙧 𝙨𝙤 𝙢𝙪𝙘𝙝 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙘𝙡𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙨?
𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻: “We're wearing a lot of blue today. And wearing some grey. I dunno. It's difficult to live your life in leather in general. It can be quite restricting and it's really hot, you know? You can't spent a lot of time in bright lights. So clothes have to be functional as well. It's a particularly British thing, as soon as the first spring time sun comes out you see people walking around on a Friday night in shirts and shorts. Leather has to be functional too.“
𝙃𝙚𝙞𝙙𝙞 𝘽𝙖𝙗𝙮: 𝙃𝙞 𝙜𝙪𝙮𝙨, 𝙬𝙝𝙮 𝙙𝙤𝙣'𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙚𝙖𝙧 𝙤𝙣 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝘾𝘿 𝙘𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙨?
𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻: “It's just a bit too boy bandy. It's very old school, reeks of marketing. I think your album cover should represent something else as well as who you are as people. It's important to make your album cover a work of art, not just a masturbation shot. This time we worked with a huge and well-respected artist, John Baptiste Mondino, who's done stuff for Prince and Bjork. He also did Madonna's Justify My Love video. So you want his interpretation of your album. You work quite closely but you want to set them free to do what they do best. And it's working out very well. There's only so far you can take that ghostlike motif which we're playing with at the moment. Eventually you have to subvert that a little bit. It's really lazy to just stick your face on the cover.“
𝙎𝙞𝙢𝙤𝙣: 𝘿𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙙𝙚𝙨𝙘𝙧𝙞𝙗𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙫𝙚𝙨 𝙖𝙨 ‘𝙘𝙤𝙘𝙠𝙨 𝙞𝙣 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙘𝙠𝙨’?
𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻: “I wear a lot less dresses these days than I used to. I think I understand androgyny a lot more now. It's not about transvestism, it's about a frame of mind, the way you carry yourself, an attitude. I think I've been guilty of many fashion crimes in the past, but that's okay. You live and learn! I had my hair cut on vacation and I wanted something very low maintenance. It took a long time to get my hair ready every day, and I'm a bit lazy. You have to stay a haircut ahead of your fans.“
𝙅𝙞𝙢𝙢𝙮: 𝙃𝙤𝙬 𝙙𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙛𝙚𝙚𝙡 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙛𝙖𝙣𝙨 𝙙𝙤𝙬𝙣𝙡𝙤𝙖𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 “𝙎𝙡𝙚𝙚𝙥𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙜𝙝𝙤𝙨𝙩𝙨“ 𝙤𝙛𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙣𝙚𝙩?
𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻: “As long as you buy it that's okay, that's fine. I understand the feeling of urgency. The people we have a problem are the people on fan sites who make it available. That's an issue. I don't want to sound like a money grabbing idiot, but if you want your favourite band to survive you have to buy their records. We have children to support, and responsibilities to continue to make music and for you to enjoy it. If that ceases to be the case, your favourite bands won't be able to make music anymore because they won't be able to live from that.
𝗦𝘁𝗲𝘃𝗲: “Downloading from the internet is good for rarities and things like that I guess.“
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| Photo credit: Mick Hutson |
𝙏𝙧𝙪𝙚𝘽𝙡𝙪𝙚: 𝙌𝙪𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙝 𝙞𝙨 𝙖 𝙣𝙞𝙘𝙚 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙙. 𝘾𝙖𝙣 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙠 𝙤𝙛 𝙖𝙣𝙮 𝙣𝙞𝙘𝙚 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙙𝙨?
𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻: “Simulacrum. I like that one.“
𝗦𝘁𝗲𝘃𝗲: “Beer.“
𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙨𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙠: 𝙄𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙝𝙖𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙣𝙖𝙢𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙖𝙣𝙙, 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙬𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚 𝙞𝙩 𝙩𝙤?
𝗦𝘁𝗲𝘃𝗲: “Spandex Luxury.“
𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻: “Yoo-hoo!“
𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗳𝗮𝗻: “We tried a few out beforehand, they were all taken.“
𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻: “Ashtray Heart, Peepshow.“
𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗳𝗮𝗻: “I preferred Placebo actually.“
𝘽𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙤: 𝙏𝙚𝙡𝙡 𝙪𝙨 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙝𝙤𝙩𝙚𝙡 𝙗𝙚𝙙𝙧𝙤𝙤𝙢 - 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩’𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙞𝙜𝙜𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙝𝙤𝙩𝙚𝙡 𝙗𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙮𝙤𝙪’𝙫𝙚 𝙧𝙪𝙣 𝙪𝙥?
𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻: “Which one?! The first, second, third, fourth, fifth we didn't get stung for it at all. A TV set once cost me £1200 though in the south of France. I think it was 'we're gonna make you pay' money.“
𝗦𝘁𝗲𝘃𝗲: “I think things just generally erupt out of frustration cos of life on the road. Those pressures will push someone that far, just to break stuff. Crazy.“
𝙁𝙚𝙚𝙗𝙯 𝙈𝙞𝙩𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙡𝙡: 𝙄𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙬𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙚 𝙖 𝙛𝙖𝙢𝙤𝙪𝙨 𝙜𝙞𝙧𝙡 𝙬𝙝𝙤 𝙬𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙚?
𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻: “Betty Boop. I've always adored her. She's fantastic. Uma Thurman maybe because she has amazing elegance and poise. Maybe Anne Widdecombe for a day.“
𝙆𝙖𝙧𝙡𝙖 𝘾: 𝙒𝙝𝙤 𝙬𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙘𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙖 𝙋𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙚𝙗𝙤 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙠?
𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻: “Gareth Gates! Without a doubt. I'd love to see Gareth Gates do 'Nancy Boy'.“
𝙋𝙚𝙣: 𝙒𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚'𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙪𝙣𝙣𝙞𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪'𝙫𝙚 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙗𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙘𝙠 𝙗𝙮 𝙞𝙣𝙨𝙥𝙞𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣?
𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻: “On the toilet. Some of your good ideas come while you're on the loo. Sometimes you gotta finish quickly so you can go out and write it down. The music always comes first before the lyrics.“
𝙏𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙈: 𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙝𝙖𝙨 𝙗𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙖𝙙𝙫𝙞𝙘𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪’𝙫𝙚 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙗𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙜𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙣 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙖𝙙𝙫𝙞𝙘𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙨?
𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻: “David Bowie told us never to lose our spontaneity and to read as much as possible on tour. I'm reading a book by Michael Faber called Under the Skin, about a civilisation of mutant dogs who kidnap humans and vivisect them. It's pretty funky.“
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