Sunday, November 1, 2020

♦๐—–๐—›๐—”๐—ง ๐—ช๐—œ๐—ง๐—› ๐—ฃ๐—Ÿ๐—”๐—–๐—˜๐—•๐—ข♦



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!

Photo credit: Jesus Aparicio

♦๐—–๐—›๐—”๐—ง ๐—ช๐—œ๐—ง๐—› ๐—ฃ๐—Ÿ๐—”๐—–๐—˜๐—•๐—ข♦


๐™Ž๐™ˆ๐™Ž: ๐™’๐™๐™–๐™ฉ ๐™ฎ๐™ค๐™ช ๐™ฌ๐™ค๐™ช๐™ก๐™™ ๐™จ๐™–๐™ฎ ๐™ฉ๐™๐™š ๐™ฃ๐™š๐™œ๐™–๐™ฉ๐™ž๐™ซ๐™š ๐™ฅ๐™ค๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™ฉ๐™จ ๐™ค๐™› ๐™›๐™–๐™ข๐™š ๐™–๐™ง๐™š?
๐—•๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐—ป: “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.“

๐˜ฟ๐™–๐™ฌ๐™ฃ: ๐˜ฟ๐™ค ๐™ฎ๐™ค๐™ช ๐™จ๐™š๐™š “๐™๐™๐™š ๐™—๐™ž๐™ฉ๐™ฉ๐™š๐™ง ๐™š๐™ฃ๐™™“ ๐™–๐™จ ๐™– ๐™ฃ๐™–๐™ฉ๐™ช๐™ง๐™–๐™ก ๐™ฅ๐™ง๐™ค๐™œ๐™ง๐™š๐™จ๐™จ๐™ž๐™ค๐™ฃ ๐™›๐™ง๐™ค๐™ข “๐˜ฝ๐™ก๐™–๐™˜๐™  ๐™ข๐™–๐™ง๐™ ๐™š๐™ฉ ๐™ข๐™ช๐™จ๐™ž๐™˜“ ๐™ค๐™ง ๐™ž๐™จ ๐™ž๐™ฉ ๐™ ๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™™๐™– ๐™œ๐™ค๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™œ ๐™—๐™–๐™˜๐™  ๐™ฉ๐™ค ๐™ฉ๐™๐™š ๐™ค๐™ก๐™™๐™š๐™ง ๐™จ๐™ฉ๐™ช๐™›๐™›?
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.“
๐—•๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐—ป: “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.“

๐™†๐™–๐™ก: ๐™Ž๐™ค ๐™ฌ๐™๐™–๐™ฉ'๐™จ ๐™ฉ๐™๐™š ๐™ฉ๐™๐™š๐™ข๐™š ๐™ฌ๐™ž๐™ฉ๐™ “๐™Ž๐™ก๐™š๐™š๐™ฅ๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™œ ๐™ฌ๐™ž๐™ฉ๐™ ๐™œ๐™๐™ค๐™จ๐™ฉ๐™จ“?
๐—•๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐—ป: “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.“

๐™Ž๐™ช๐™ข๐™ข๐™š๐™ง ๐™๐™–๐™ž๐™ฃ: ๐™”๐™ค๐™ช'๐™ง๐™š ๐™—๐™š๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™œ ๐™™๐™ช๐™—๐™—๐™š๐™™ '๐™๐™๐™š ๐™ ๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™œ๐™จ ๐™ค๐™› ๐™˜๐™ค๐™ซ๐™š๐™ง ๐™ซ๐™š๐™ง๐™จ๐™ž๐™ค๐™ฃ๐™จ'. ๐™ƒ๐™ค๐™ฌ ๐™™๐™ค ๐™ฎ๐™ค๐™ช ๐™›๐™š๐™š๐™ก ๐™–๐™—๐™ค๐™ช๐™ฉ ๐™ฉ๐™๐™–๐™ฉ, ๐™–๐™ฃ๐™™ ๐™ž๐™จ ๐™ฉ๐™๐™š๐™ง๐™š ๐™–๐™ฃ๐™ฎ ๐™จ๐™ค๐™ฃ๐™œ ๐™ฌ๐™๐™ž๐™˜๐™ ๐™ฎ๐™ค๐™ช’๐™™ ๐™ง๐™š๐™›๐™ช๐™จ๐™š ๐™ฉ๐™ค ๐™˜๐™ค๐™ซ๐™š๐™ง ๐™›๐™ค๐™ง ๐™›๐™š๐™–๐™ง ๐™ค๐™› ๐™ฃ๐™ค๐™ฉ ๐™™๐™ค๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™œ ๐™ž๐™ฉ ๐™Ÿ๐™ช๐™จ๐™ฉ๐™ž๐™˜๐™š?
๐—•๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐—ป: “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.“

๐™๐™š๐™š๐™—๐™ฏ ๐™ˆ๐™ž๐™ฉ๐™˜๐™๐™š๐™ก๐™ก: ๐™”๐™ค๐™ช'๐™ซ๐™š ๐™˜๐™ค๐™ข๐™š ๐™—๐™–๐™˜๐™  ๐™ข๐™ค๐™ง๐™š ๐™ฅ๐™ค๐™ฌ๐™š๐™ง๐™›๐™ช๐™ก ๐™ฉ๐™๐™–๐™ฃ ๐™š๐™ซ๐™š๐™ง ๐™ฌ๐™ž๐™ฉ๐™ ๐™– ๐™ข๐™ค๐™ง๐™š ๐™–๐™™๐™ช๐™ก๐™ฉ ๐™ž๐™ข๐™–๐™œ๐™š. ๐™’๐™š๐™ง๐™š ๐™ฎ๐™ค๐™ช ๐™จ๐™ž๐™˜๐™  ๐™ค๐™› ๐™—๐™š๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™œ ๐™ฉ๐™ง๐™š๐™–๐™ฉ๐™š๐™™ ๐™ก๐™ž๐™ ๐™š ๐™–๐™ฉ๐™ฉ๐™š๐™ฃ๐™ฉ๐™ž๐™ค๐™ฃ ๐™จ๐™š๐™š๐™ ๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™œ ๐™ฉ๐™š๐™š๐™ฃ๐™จ?
๐—•๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐—ป: “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.“

Photo credit: Kevin Cummins

๐™‡๐™š๐™ฌ๐™ž๐™จ: ๐™Ž๐™ฉ๐™š๐™›๐™–๐™ฃ ๐™ฌ๐™๐™–๐™ฉ ๐™ฌ๐™–๐™จ ๐˜ฝ๐™ง๐™ž๐™–๐™ฃ ๐™ก๐™ž๐™ ๐™š ๐™–๐™ฉ 12?
๐—ฆ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ณ๐—ฎ๐—ป: “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.“
๐—•๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐—ป: “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.“

๐™„๐™œ๐™œ๐™ฎ: ๐™’๐™๐™ฎ ๐™™๐™ค ๐™ฎ๐™ค๐™ช ๐™ฌ๐™š๐™–๐™ง ๐™จ๐™ค ๐™ข๐™ช๐™˜๐™ ๐™ก๐™š๐™–๐™ฉ๐™๐™š๐™ง ๐™˜๐™ก๐™ค๐™ฉ๐™๐™š๐™จ?
๐—•๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐—ป: “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.“

๐™ƒ๐™š๐™ž๐™™๐™ž ๐˜ฝ๐™–๐™—๐™ฎ: ๐™ƒ๐™ž ๐™œ๐™ช๐™ฎ๐™จ, ๐™ฌ๐™๐™ฎ ๐™™๐™ค๐™ฃ'๐™ฉ ๐™ฎ๐™ค๐™ช ๐™š๐™ซ๐™š๐™ง ๐™–๐™ฅ๐™ฅ๐™š๐™–๐™ง ๐™ค๐™ฃ ๐™ฎ๐™ค๐™ช๐™ง ๐˜พ๐˜ฟ ๐™˜๐™ค๐™ซ๐™š๐™ง๐™จ?
๐—•๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐—ป: “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.“

๐™Ž๐™ž๐™ข๐™ค๐™ฃ: ๐˜ฟ๐™ค ๐™ฎ๐™ค๐™ช ๐™จ๐™ฉ๐™ž๐™ก๐™ก ๐™™๐™š๐™จ๐™˜๐™ง๐™ž๐™—๐™š ๐™ฎ๐™ค๐™ช๐™ง๐™จ๐™š๐™ก๐™ซ๐™š๐™จ ๐™–๐™จ ‘๐™˜๐™ค๐™˜๐™ ๐™จ ๐™ž๐™ฃ ๐™›๐™ง๐™ค๐™˜๐™ ๐™จ’?
๐—•๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐—ป: “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.“

๐™…๐™ž๐™ข๐™ข๐™ฎ: ๐™ƒ๐™ค๐™ฌ ๐™™๐™ค ๐™ฎ๐™ค๐™ช ๐™›๐™š๐™š๐™ก ๐™–๐™—๐™ค๐™ช๐™ฉ ๐™›๐™–๐™ฃ๐™จ ๐™™๐™ค๐™ฌ๐™ฃ๐™ก๐™ค๐™–๐™™๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™œ “๐™Ž๐™ก๐™š๐™š๐™ฅ๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™œ ๐™ฌ๐™ž๐™ฉ๐™ ๐™œ๐™๐™ค๐™จ๐™ฉ๐™จ“ ๐™ค๐™›๐™› ๐™ฉ๐™๐™š ๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™ฉ๐™š๐™ง๐™ฃ๐™š๐™ฉ?
๐—•๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐—ป: “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.
๐—ฆ๐˜๐—ฒ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ: “Downloading from the internet is good for rarities and things like that I guess.“

Photo credit: Mick Hutson


๐™๐™ง๐™ช๐™š๐˜ฝ๐™ก๐™ช๐™š: ๐™Œ๐™ช๐™š๐™ฃ๐™˜๐™ ๐™ž๐™จ ๐™– ๐™ฃ๐™ž๐™˜๐™š ๐™ฌ๐™ค๐™ง๐™™. ๐˜พ๐™–๐™ฃ ๐™ฎ๐™ค๐™ช ๐™ฉ๐™๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™  ๐™ค๐™› ๐™–๐™ฃ๐™ฎ ๐™ฃ๐™ž๐™˜๐™š ๐™ฌ๐™ค๐™ง๐™™๐™จ?
๐—•๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐—ป: “Simulacrum. I like that one.“
๐—ฆ๐˜๐—ฒ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ: “Beer.“

๐™๐™š๐™–๐™ง๐™ฉ๐™จ๐™ฅ๐™–๐™ง๐™ : ๐™„๐™› ๐™ฎ๐™ค๐™ช ๐™๐™–๐™™ ๐™ฉ๐™ค ๐™˜๐™๐™–๐™ฃ๐™œ๐™š ๐™ฉ๐™๐™š ๐™ฃ๐™–๐™ข๐™š ๐™ค๐™› ๐™ฉ๐™๐™š ๐™—๐™–๐™ฃ๐™™, ๐™ฌ๐™๐™–๐™ฉ ๐™ฌ๐™ค๐™ช๐™ก๐™™ ๐™ฎ๐™ค๐™ช ๐™˜๐™๐™–๐™ฃ๐™œ๐™š ๐™ž๐™ฉ ๐™ฉ๐™ค?
๐—ฆ๐˜๐—ฒ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ: “Spandex Luxury.“
๐—•๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐—ป: “Yoo-hoo!“
๐—ฆ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ณ๐—ฎ๐—ป: “We tried a few out beforehand, they were all taken.“
๐—•๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐—ป: “Ashtray Heart, Peepshow.“
๐—ฆ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ณ๐—ฎ๐—ป: “I preferred Placebo actually.“

๐˜ฝ๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™œ๐™ค: ๐™๐™š๐™ก๐™ก ๐™ช๐™จ ๐™–๐™—๐™ค๐™ช๐™ฉ ๐™ฉ๐™ง๐™–๐™จ๐™๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™œ ๐™๐™ค๐™ฉ๐™š๐™ก ๐™—๐™š๐™™๐™ง๐™ค๐™ค๐™ข - ๐™ฌ๐™๐™–๐™ฉ’๐™จ ๐™ฉ๐™๐™š ๐™—๐™ž๐™œ๐™œ๐™š๐™จ๐™ฉ ๐™๐™ค๐™ฉ๐™š๐™ก ๐™—๐™ž๐™ก๐™ก ๐™ฎ๐™ค๐™ช’๐™ซ๐™š ๐™ง๐™ช๐™ฃ ๐™ช๐™ฅ?
๐—•๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐—ป: “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.“
๐—ฆ๐˜๐—ฒ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ: “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.“

๐™๐™š๐™š๐™—๐™ฏ ๐™ˆ๐™ž๐™ฉ๐™˜๐™๐™š๐™ก๐™ก: ๐™„๐™› ๐™ฎ๐™ค๐™ช ๐™ฌ๐™š๐™ง๐™š ๐™ฉ๐™ค ๐™—๐™š ๐™– ๐™›๐™–๐™ข๐™ค๐™ช๐™จ ๐™œ๐™ž๐™ง๐™ก ๐™ฌ๐™๐™ค ๐™ฌ๐™ค๐™ช๐™ก๐™™ ๐™ฎ๐™ค๐™ช ๐™ก๐™ž๐™ ๐™š ๐™ฉ๐™ค ๐™—๐™š?
๐—•๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐—ป: “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.“

๐™†๐™–๐™ง๐™ก๐™– ๐˜พ: ๐™’๐™๐™ค ๐™ฌ๐™ค๐™ช๐™ก๐™™ ๐™ฎ๐™ค๐™ช ๐™ก๐™ž๐™ ๐™š ๐™ฉ๐™ค ๐™˜๐™ค๐™ซ๐™š๐™ง ๐™– ๐™‹๐™ก๐™–๐™˜๐™š๐™—๐™ค ๐™ฉ๐™ง๐™–๐™˜๐™ ?
๐—•๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐—ป: “Gareth Gates! Without a doubt. I'd love to see Gareth Gates do 'Nancy Boy'.“

๐™‹๐™š๐™ฃ: ๐™’๐™๐™š๐™ง๐™š'๐™จ ๐™ฉ๐™๐™š ๐™›๐™ช๐™ฃ๐™ฃ๐™ž๐™š๐™จ๐™ฉ ๐™ฅ๐™ก๐™–๐™˜๐™š ๐™ฎ๐™ค๐™ช'๐™ซ๐™š ๐™š๐™ซ๐™š๐™ง ๐™—๐™š๐™š๐™ฃ ๐™จ๐™ฉ๐™ง๐™ช๐™˜๐™  ๐™—๐™ฎ ๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™จ๐™ฅ๐™ž๐™ง๐™–๐™ฉ๐™ž๐™ค๐™ฃ?
๐—•๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐—ป: “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.“

๐™๐™š๐™จ๐™จ ๐™ˆ: ๐™’๐™๐™–๐™ฉ ๐™๐™–๐™จ ๐™—๐™š๐™š๐™ฃ ๐™ฉ๐™๐™š ๐™—๐™š๐™จ๐™ฉ ๐™–๐™™๐™ซ๐™ž๐™˜๐™š ๐™ฎ๐™ค๐™ช’๐™ซ๐™š ๐™š๐™ซ๐™š๐™ง ๐™—๐™š๐™š๐™ฃ ๐™œ๐™ž๐™ซ๐™š๐™ฃ ๐™–๐™ฃ๐™™ ๐™ฌ๐™๐™–๐™ฉ ๐™ž๐™จ ๐™ฎ๐™ค๐™ช๐™ง ๐™–๐™™๐™ซ๐™ž๐™˜๐™š ๐™ฉ๐™ค ๐™ค๐™ฉ๐™๐™š๐™ง๐™จ?
๐—•๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐—ป: “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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