Thursday, July 8, 2021

๐€๐๐๐ˆ๐•๐„๐‘๐’๐€๐‘๐˜ ๐—ข๐—™ ๐‚๐€๐‘๐๐Ž๐ ๐Š๐ˆ๐ƒ

“๐‚๐€๐‘๐๐Ž๐ ๐Š๐ˆ๐ƒ”, a collaboration of Brian and and electronic rock band Alpinestars from Manchester, was released on the album “White Noise” 19 years ago today on June 8th 2002. The song was also released as single one month earlier, on June 3rd. The music clip directed by Dougal Wilson was published exactly one week later.


๐ŸŽฌ ๐—”๐—Ÿ๐—ฃ๐—œ๐—ก๐—˜๐—ฆ๐—ง๐—”๐—ฅ๐—ฆ ๐—ณ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐˜. ๐—•๐—ฅ๐—œ๐—”๐—ก ๐— ๐—ข๐—Ÿ๐—ž๐—ข – ๐—–๐—”๐—ฅ๐—•๐—ข๐—ก ๐—ž๐—œ๐——
๐ŸŽต https://bit.ly/3gJT7lq ๐ŸŽต


Photo credit: Screenshots from the video, unknown (1) / edit by me


Richard Woolgar and Glyn Thomas, the two halves of Alpinestars, got to know Placebo because they had the same management. After the “Black market music” tour Brian stayed in the studio for a while when he was looking for a new flat. Alpinestars were recording there at that time and so the guys started to hang out.

Glyn Thomas: “We didn't know who would be singing “Carbon Kid”, but we knew that Brian was sort of up for doing it, so we just gave it a go” (see quotes below). They handed him over a CD with the music to listen to and the Placebo singer liked it. The song was recorded very quickly.

Brian revealed that they went into the studio inbetween a few beers in the pub and that the vocals were done in about an hour. “I can't really imagine any kind of collaboration when you're the one who has to do a lot of work, you know. It's just something you do for fun“, he explained in an interview with DNAsix when he talked about “Carbon Kid”.

The song was recorded at Townhouse Studios in London and produced by Alpinestars and Andy Green. It's an interesting fact that David Bascombe, who did the mixing, also worked on a number of Placebo songs over the years.

Photo credit unknown

๐Ÿ“Œ ๐—ฅ๐—œ๐—–๐—›๐—”๐—ฅ๐—— ๐—ช๐—ข๐—ข๐—Ÿ๐—š๐—”๐—ฅ ๐—ข๐—ก “๐—–๐—”๐—ฅ๐—•๐—ข๐—ก ๐—ž๐—œ๐——” ๐Ÿ“Œ
๐Ÿ“ข “We weren't going to have any guest vocalists on the album at all, except that Brian had said a while ago when we did a remix of Placebo "if you ever want a vocalist just let me know". He was staying in the flat above where we were in the studio so we left a CD-R outside his room and at 4 o'clock the day before he was supposed to leave he ran down and was like I've learnt the lyrics, I wanna do it.”
(Designer Magazine, 2002)

๐Ÿ“Œ ๐—š๐—Ÿ๐—ฌ๐—ก ๐—ง๐—›๐—ข๐— ๐—”๐—ฆ ๐—ข๐—ก “๐—–๐—”๐—ฅ๐—•๐—ข๐—ก ๐—ž๐—œ๐——” ๐Ÿ“Œ
๐Ÿ“ข "And we didn't know at the time who would be singing “Carbon Kid”, but we knew that Brian was sort of up for doing it, so we just gave it a go. And it absolutely worked. [...] Well, we've known him for a while. He was living in the flat above the studio we were working in. He sort of woke up at three in the afternoon, and we gave him the CD to have a listen to. He really liked it and he came down and did the vocals that evening. It all worked out really well."
(Outburn magazine, 2003)

๐Ÿ“Œ ๐—•๐—ฅ๐—œ๐—”๐—ก ๐—ข๐—ก ๐—”๐—Ÿ๐—ฃ๐—œ๐—ก๐—˜๐—ฆ๐—ง๐—”๐—ฅ๐—ฆ ๐—”๐—ก๐—— “๐—–๐—”๐—ฅ๐—•๐—ข๐—ก ๐—ž๐—œ๐——” ๐Ÿ“Œ
“๐Ÿ“ข I've sung an afternoon with the Alpinestars. We went into the studio inbetween a few beers in the pub. I recorded the vocals in an hour and that was it. I can't really imagine any kind of collaboration when you're the one who has to do a lot of work, you know. It's just something you do for fun.“
(DNAsix, March 2003)

๐Ÿ“ข "Well when we were making 'Black market music', we got a phone call from our management saying 'we want to manage another band, if that's OK with you' and we said, 'yeah sure that's fine as long as they're not shit'.
And an Alpinestars track came out on an NME free CD and I heard it when we were at Olympic Studios and was really, really impressed. It really reminded me of Kraftwerk and their early stuff which is really quite cold and robotic in a similar way. So we were totally down with it and we were really happy with the fact that our managers who are total rock heads were getting into some electronic tunes.
And so the Alpinestars did their first album 'Basic' which we really liked and they also did the 'Taste In Men' remix, which still stands as one of the best ones. And after we'd mixed the album I still found myself looking for a flat and staying in the studio flat above the recording studio in Shepard's Bush, and I didn't actually manage to find myself a place until after we got back off tour, so I ended up staying there for a while. And after touring, the Alpinestars were in the studio doing their second album and they were my downstairs neighbors.
They were doing this album, 'White Noise' and I used to go down and use the washing machine a lot, cos I didn't have one, and we just started hanging out and they just wanted me to try 'Carbon Kid'. So I listened to it and then we went to the pub, then back to the studio, did two takes, the second was the one, went back to pub and that was that. And for me it was really good cos I didn't write the lyrics, didn't write the vocal melody line. Just my soul purpose there was to be the singer and it was responsibility free. There was the performance, but there's just no pressure, which was why it kind of like happened so quickly and why I think it's so natural and so accomplished."
(Silver Rocket magazine, 2002)

Photo credit unknown

๐Ÿ“œ ๐—Ÿ๐—ฌ๐—ฅ๐—œ๐—–๐—ฆ
Image image you do what you want,
Image image you do what you want,
Image image you do what you want,
You're a carbon kid
With a sinister diagram

Image image we're leaving the ground,
Image image we're leaving the ground
Image image we're leaving the ground,
Image image we'll never be found,
You're a carbon kid
With a sinister diagram
With a sinister diagram
Sinister diagram

And when this half is over and
We claim our second skin,
We can can compliment each other
On the state that we are in,
And when we leave this place forever and
We're floating round in space,
Take the easy way to heaven with a smile upon your face

You're a carbon kid with a sinister diagram,
Image image you do what you want,
Image image you do what you want,
Image image you do what you want,
You're a carbon kid with a sinister diagram,
You're a carbon kid with a sinister diagram,
You're a carbon kid with a sinister diagram,
You're a carbon kid with a sinister diagram,
Sinister diagram,
You're a carbon kid with a sinister diagram,

Post by Silke