๐๐ฅ๐๐๐๐๐จ: "๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐"
๐ญ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐, ๐ฉ๐๐๐๐ ๐ด๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐บ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ถ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ท๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ต๐๐, ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐, ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ต๐๐๐๐ ๐ณ๐๐ ๐ด๐ ๐ฎ๐, ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐จ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐…
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Photo credit: Mads Perch / Kerrang! cover |
What’s my state of mind right now?” Brian Molko ponders, repeating Kerrang!’s question slowly, deliberately and with that unmistakable purr. “Anticipation. Mild frustration. Impatience. This has been a long time coming.” The ‘this’ the 49-year-old is referring to is Never Let Me Go, Placebo’s forthcoming eighth album and their first since 2013. “We’ve been sitting on this record for two years longer than we probably should have been. We have to get back into this rock’n’roll machine.” [...]
Questioning their own methods is how Placebo ended up making Never Let Me Go. As with all of their albums, starting things off brings on “a major existential crisis” in Brian, who’ll use an exercise in creativity to aid him out of his bind. This time it involved reversing the process of making a record entirely, starting with the cover art, for which he selected a striking image of a beach. At first glance, it appears to be covered by beautiful multicoloured pebbles. On closer inspection, however, it becomes clear the beach is strewn with man-made items altered by time and tide, but unable to break down entirely.
This image is the perfect accompaniment for Try Better Next Time, a song that manages the feat of being both breezy and devastatingly depressing. “It’s basically saying, ‘Good riddance humanity, try better next time you come back and get a chance to live on this beautiful planet,” explains Brian. “It’s a very disillusioned song about the climate disaster presented in a sort of three-minute Weezer-ish kind of pop-punk thing. If you dig deeper, it’s one of the more disturbing songs because it’s talking about an extinction event, you know, the extinction of human beings.”
The fifth track on Never Let Me Go, The Prodigal, pairs a downbeat vocal with spritely orchestral swells. On a record characterised by a love of synthesisers, this organic sound makes it something of a one-off. The track started out differently, though, strikingly similar to the Pixies classic Where Is My Mind? in fact, before producer Adam Noble suggested a change of approach. The finished version is more reminiscent of Eleanor Rigby, bringing Brian and Stefan’s shared love of The Beatles to the fore.
Both men greedily devoured the eight hours of Get Back, the Peter Jackson-directed documentary series of never-before-seen footage of The Fab Four that dates back to 1969. “I felt privileged to be there, that close to one of my favourite bands,” enthuses Stefan. “It’s a gift. And it’s very brave that they let people that close to them.”
Those expecting Placebo to open the archives as freely will be in for a similarly long wait, though, if any such footage exists at all. “That invasion of privacy kind of scares me,” squirms Stefan in response to the idea of doing something similarly fly-on-the-wall. He certainly practices what he preaches when it comes to avoiding oversharing; earlier when K! asked the location of the studio he’s calling from, he’ll only divulge that it’s “on Planet Earth”.
Stefan has his reasons. “When we started the band, it was something of a dawning for the age of modern technology,” he explains. “We led our lives in private and there wasn’t much intrusion, and we certainly didn’t want to parade ourselves on the red carpet. And that continues today. We’re still private people who don’t feel we need or want to share our personal moments, or intimate moments, or creative moments. It just doesn’t feature on our radar. We’ve chosen to control the narrative as much as possible, so rather than divulging too much, we’ve held back a little.”
Brian agrees, though understands this ethos isn’t for everyone, which is why he wrote Surrounded By Spies; a sleek, throbbing treatise on navigating a world in which some decry being surveilled too much, while others desperately yearn for more limelight. “If you want to talk about your most private moments on social media, if you get validation from that or if you find therapeutic relief from that, or you just want to post your dinner, it’s your prerogative,” reasons Brian. “But just because you do, don’t expect me to. Why should I make the same deal with the devil you made?”
If you’re reading this and are about to suggest that, as someone whose art has put them in the public eye, Brian can’t have it both ways, then we suggest you don’t. Not to him, anyway. “There’s a kind of tacit pressure for people who are quiet and private like me, that we should be exposing ourselves because you’re a performer,” continues Brian. “But I don’t. I don’t have a Faustian pact with the media. I don’t actively go out there and search for column inches.”
[...]
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| Photo credit: Mads Perch |
Talk of achievements, eventually leads us to the topic of David Bowie, who played a pivotal mentorly role in Placebo’s career – taking them on tour, guesting on the single version of the track Without You I’m Nothing, and appearing with them during live shows. Stefan recently found a photograph from the legend’s 50th birthday concert back in 1997. Taken backstage at New York’s Madison Square Garden, it features Placebo alongside members of The Cure, Foo Fighters, Smashing Pumpkins and Sonic Youth, arranged around the birthday boy who’s sat on the edge of a sofa, bleached blonde hair like a cockatoo’s crest, a cigarette between his fingers and a grin across his face. “We were trying not to wee ourselves with excitement,” Stefan admits now.
David Bowie’s death on January 10, 2016, two days after his 69th birthday and the release of final studio album Blackstar, certainly left its mark on the members of Placebo. The aching Happy Birthday In The Sky, while not exclusively about that particular loss, pays tribute to those whose birthdays we continue to mark even after they have passed, as Brian does with his late hero. “It communicates that kind of heartbreak,” he explains. “That sense of loss. That sense of desperation. It’s as if a part of your body and soul has been ripped from you unfairly. And you pine – and you pine.”
[...]
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| hPhoto credit: Mads Perch |
David Bowie was a notoriously prescient thinker, whether it was predicting success for Placebo, Stefan’s untapped vocal abilities, or his remarkable foresight about the societal fragmentation brought about by the internet, as explained during an interview with Jeremy Paxman in 1999. But with that inquisitive, envelope-pushing brain no longer with us, it’s up to the likes of Placebo to continue making records that ask important questions while not standing still. With Never Let Me Go exploring themes of climate change, surveillance and privacy, being released into a world growing hotter, in which more than three million people have fled the war in Ukraine and the UK has provided visas to less than 7,000 of them, it’s natural to wonder: are the two members of Placebo at all hopeful for the future?
Unsurprisingly for a self-confessed “catastrophiser”, Brian doesn’t have a good feeling. “Forgive me for saying so, because I don't want to depress a bunch of people, but I'm not particularly optimistic. I suffer from depression, so it's very difficult to have a tendency towards depression and to not have climate depression, for example, or not be completely aghast at the treatment of refugees in this country. Or not be completely aghast at the lies and manipulation we're being subjected to by the powers that be in this country. And it's very difficult, I think, to take a cold, hard look at what's going on and empathise with it and find optimism.”
Perhaps, adds Brian, none of us are in a position to see clearly at this point, given that we’re firmly in the eye of multiple storms. “There's no historical distance – we're living it – maybe it feels more intense because we're living it right now.”
Stefan agrees, suggesting that our current set of circumstances, climate change notwithstanding, are nothing new, as tough as it can feel to be in the throes of them. “People have lived through pestilence and bigger wars. And somehow, in despair, humans have clung onto something to move forward, even when there is very little light. It seems the only reason we’re here is to survive and procreate, and that’s essentially all that we do. But then again we’re burdened with this consciousness that means we’re always asking, ‘Why?’”
Grappling for the answers to life’s big questions is one of the most important reasons we need music. It gives us the power to understand what it means to be human, and by encouraging us to listen to a variety of different kinds of expressions, we become more open to understanding the thoughts and feelings of others. It’s a gift Placebo have provided us with for almost three decades. Without that expression, we’re nothing. And as it turns out, without people to share their expression with, Placebo would be nothing too. It’s a mutually beneficial relationship, then, so it’s vital we continue holding on to each other.
(๐พ๐๐๐๐๐๐! ๐๐๐๐๐ง๐๐๐, ๐๐๐๐โ 23๐๐, 2022)
Read the full interview here:
https://bit.ly/3ty6RG3
Post by Olga
