Friday, December 25, 2020

Christmas Eve - Interview with Brian Molko 2000 ๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ…

Placebo by Anja Wall Backstage 2000



๐‘ฏ๐’Š ๐’…๐’†๐’‚๐’“ ๐’”๐’๐’–๐’๐’Ž๐’‚๐’•๐’†๐’”!
It's Christmas Eve, and I hope you all are having a beautiful peaceful day ๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ…
If you ask me, I’d say this time of the year should be dedicated not to crazy shopping and hunting for the best gifts ever but rather to some personal reflections on the passing year and, possibly, spending more time with people we love. Virtually too, why not Let me know what you think about it, by the way.
Today, I want to share an ๐ˆ๐๐“๐„๐‘๐•๐ˆ๐„๐– Brian did for ๐‘ฒ๐’†๐’“๐’“๐’‚๐’๐’ˆ just before Christmas 20 years ago. Celebrating of the ๐๐ฅ๐š๐œ๐ค ๐Œ๐š๐ซ๐ค๐ž๐ญ ๐Œ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ข๐œ anniversary recently refreshed our memories about that period in Placebo’s career. So I believe you would be interested to know Brian’s thoughts about the highlights and achievements of 2000 for him.

Enjoy reading!


Some of the questions are quite universal so probably you’d like to answer them too, about your 2020. I’m looking forward to your comments, dear soulmates!

๐‘จ๐’๐’… ๐‘ด๐’†๐’“๐’“๐’š ๐‘ช๐’‰๐’“๐’Š๐’”๐’•๐’Ž๐’‚๐’”!๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ… ๐‘พ๐’Š๐’•๐’‰ ๐’๐’๐’—๐’†, ๐‘ถ๐’๐’ˆ๐’‚๐Ÿ’“


๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ๐ŸŽ๐ŸŽ: ๐‡๐จ๐ฐ ๐ฐ๐š๐ฌ ๐ข๐ญ ๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ?

“It's not over yet! It's been work, work, work and hardly any play. It's been a full-on emotional year.”

๐€๐ฅ๐›๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฒ๐ž๐š๐ซ?

"’At The Drive-in's 'Relationship Of Command'. It's an amazing record. I heard 'One Armed Scissor' and managed to get a copy of the album before it came out. It's like a cross between Fugazi and Jane's Addiction. They're my favourite band and they harness energy and passion. It's all over the Place musically. It goes off on tangents and there's a rebellious spirit which I like. I also love the new Queens album, 'Rated R'. It's hedonistic and really fun. 'Feel Good Hit...' is my karaoke favourite.”

๐“๐ก๐ž ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ญ-๐ก๐š๐ฏ๐ž ๐ข๐ญ๐ž๐ฆ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ๐ŸŽ๐ŸŽ ๐ฐ๐š๐ฌ?

“I've just bought an Apple I-book laptop. That opens up several new doors of entertainment. Never a dull moment. I check out the Placebo chat rooms and have a bit of fun trying to find out what everybody thinks. It hasn't backfired yet!”

๐–๐ก๐ž๐ซ๐ž ๐๐ข๐ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐ ๐จ ๐จ๐ง ๐ก๐จ๐ฅ๐ข๐๐š๐ฒ ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ฌ ๐ฒ๐ž๐š๐ซ?

“I haven't really been on holiday this year. We've done a whole bunch of festivals: Japan, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Germany, France, Belgium. We never get the chance to check anv of the cities out. It's been a series of hotels and tour buses.”

๐…๐ข๐ฅ๐ฆ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฒ๐ž๐š๐ซ?

"’Boy's don't cry’. It's shocking that that kind of thing happens even today, that people can be that backward. The fact that it's a true story makes it all the more heartbreaking.”
๐๐ž๐ซ๐ฌ๐จ๐ง ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฒ๐ž๐š๐ซ?

"Anne Widdecombe for taking the legalisation of marijuana one step forward instead of backward, which was what she was originally trying to do.”

๐–๐š๐ง๐ค๐ž๐ซ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฒ๐ž๐š๐ซ?

“Me.”
๐“๐ซ๐š๐ ๐ž๐๐ฒ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฒ๐ž๐š๐ซ?

"What's going on in the Middle East right now. It seems to me that people there don't want peace and it's pretty heavy."

๐๐ž๐ซ๐ฌ๐จ๐ง๐š๐ฅ ๐ก๐ข๐ ๐ก ๐ฉ๐จ๐ข๐ง๐ญ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฒ๐ž๐š๐ซ?

“The tour we're on at the moment. It feels like freedom from responsibility. It's th. most fun because you feel like a teenager all the time.”

๐๐ž๐ซ๐ฌ๐จ๐ง๐š๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฐ ๐ฉ๐จ๐ข๐ง๐ญ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฒ๐ž๐š๐ซ?

"I've had several, and it's all relationship based."

๐–๐จ๐ซ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐ก๐š๐ง๐ ๐จ๐ฏ๐ž๐ซ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฒ๐ž๐š๐ซ?

“After Mark Richardson (drums) from Skunk Anansie's 30th birthday. We went out and partied like it was 1997. I couldn't make it to the studio the next day. It was the last time I break danced too. It was a good party."

๐–๐ž๐ข๐ซ๐๐ž๐ฌ๐ญ ๐Ÿ๐š๐ง ๐ซ๐ž๐ช๐ฎ๐ž๐ฌ๐ญ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฒ๐ž๐š๐ซ?

"It involved deflowering. No, I didn't."

๐Œ๐จ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐Ÿ๐š๐ฆ๐จ๐ฎ๐ฌ ๐ฉ๐ž๐ซ๐ฌ๐จ๐ง ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ'๐ฏ๐ž ๐ฆ๐ž๐ญ ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ฌ ๐ฒ๐ž๐š๐ซ?

“PJ Harvey. Outside Ladbroke Grove tube station by accident. Her drummer Rob Ellis worked on our new album.”

๐Œ๐จ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐ž๐ฆ๐›๐š๐ซ๐ซ๐š๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ฆ๐จ๐ฆ๐ž๐ง๐ญ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฒ๐ž๐š๐ซ?

“I don't get embarrassed about break dancing. None so far thankfully. I haven't been really embarrassed, it would be difficult.”

๐’๐ž๐ฑ๐ข๐ž๐ฌ๐ญ ๐ฉ๐ž๐ซ๐ฌ๐จ๐ง ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐ฆ๐ž๐ญ ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ฌ ๐ฒ๐ž๐š๐ซ ๐ฐ๐š๐ฌ?

“I think Melissa Auf der Maur has to be one of the sexiest people in rock. It was a real shame because we were on tour when The Smashing Pumpkins played at Wembley. Typical.”

๐๐ž๐ฌ๐ญ ๐›๐š๐ง๐ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐ฌ๐š๐ฐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ฌ ๐ฒ๐ž๐š๐ซ?

“Queens Of The Stone Age at a festival in Belgium. That was amazing. Nick Oliveri, their bassist, was naked and how he didn't get sunburn on his ass I'll never know. Sonic Youth and Einstfirzende Neubauten too. We had a studio outing and came back feeling really inspired.”

๐๐ž๐ฌ๐ญ ๐ฌ๐จ๐ง๐  ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐ฐ๐ซ๐จ๐ญ๐ž ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ฌ ๐ฒ๐ž๐š๐ซ?

"All of the songs we've written since the new album came out. They have to remain a secret, sorry.”

๐‰๐จ๐ค๐ž ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฒ๐ž๐š๐ซ?

“I'm really bad with jokes. I would have to say Limp Bizkit.”

'๐๐ข๐  ๐๐ซ๐จ๐ญ๐ก๐ž๐ซ': ๐š๐œ๐ž ๐จ๐ซ ๐š๐ซ๐ฌ๐ž?

“I unfortunately saw that programme. Arse. Complete arse. They should have axed the show. The fact that these people are becoming celebrities is disgusting. What's the point?”

๐–๐ก๐š๐ญ ๐ฌ๐ก๐จ๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ ๐’๐ฅ๐ข๐ฉ๐ค๐ง๐จ๐ญ ๐๐จ ๐ง๐ž๐ฑ๐ญ ๐ฒ๐ž๐š๐ซ?

“Go unmasked, and see if they can Pull it off without their costumes.”

๐๐ž๐ซ๐ฌ๐จ๐ง๐š๐ฅ ๐ฆ๐จ๐ญ๐ญ๐จ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฒ๐ž๐š๐ซ?

“Fear of flying'. I usually have a few double vodkas before getting on the plane and after that, I'm still shitting it.”

๐ˆ๐Ÿ ๐ˆ ๐œ๐จ๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ ๐œ๐ก๐š๐ง๐ ๐ž ๐จ๐ง๐ž ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ง๐  ๐š๐›๐จ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ๐ŸŽ๐ŸŽ, ๐ข๐ญ ๐ฐ๐จ๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ ๐›๐ž...

“Peace in the Middle East.”

๐–๐ก๐š๐ญ ๐ฐ๐จ๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐๐จ ๐ฐ๐ข๐ญ๐ก ๐๐ซ๐ข๐ญ๐ง๐ž๐ฒ ๐’๐ฉ๐ž๐š๐ซ๐ฌ?

“Ignore her.”

๐Œ๐ฒ ๐ข๐๐ž๐š๐ฅ ๐‚๐ก๐ซ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐ฆ๐š๐ฌ ๐ฉ๐ซ๐ž๐ฌ๐ž๐ง๐ญ ๐ข๐ฌ?

“Mental stability…”

๐‡๐จ๐ฐ ๐ฐ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐›๐ž ๐ฌ๐ž๐ž๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ข๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐๐ž๐ฐ ๐˜๐ž๐š๐ซ?

“I'm not sure where I'll be. Somewhere exotic, hopefully. I definitely don't want to be in London. I haven't decided who I'm going to take yet.”

๐ˆ๐ง ๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ๐ŸŽ๐Ÿ, ๐ˆ ๐ข๐ง๐ญ๐ž๐ง๐ ๐ญ๐จ...

“Try to give up smoking, but it's not going to be very easy. it improves my voice, but I can't keep going on like this.”
๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ…
(๐พ๐‘’๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘” "๐ต๐‘Ÿ๐‘–๐‘Ž๐‘› ๐‘€๐‘œ๐‘™๐‘˜๐‘œ - ๐‘€๐‘ฆ ๐‘ฆ๐‘’๐‘Ž๐‘Ÿ", ๐ท๐‘’๐‘'00)
Photo credit: Anja, Wall Backstage, 2000