♦️ 𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗜𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗦𝗔𝗥𝗬 ♦️ 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐆𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐈... 𝒅𝒆 𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒅𝒆́𝒔𝒊𝒓𝒔... ♦️

𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒕𝒆̀𝒈𝒆-𝑴𝒐𝒊 is a song released in 2003 on the limited edition of the album 𝑺𝒍𝒆𝒆𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑮𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒕𝒔, released on March 24, 2003, and then issued as a single exclusively to the French market on April 8, 2004. It was recorded at The Townhouse and Sarm West in London.

It's the 𝑭𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒉 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒕𝒆𝒄𝒕 𝑴𝒆 𝑭𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰 𝑾𝒂𝒏𝒕 from the Sleeping with Ghosts album. The original English lyrics were written by 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝑴𝒐𝒍𝒌𝒐 and translated into French by 𝑽𝒊𝒓𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒆 𝑫𝒆𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒔. The official video is from Soulmates Never Die: Live in Paris 2003, another one was shot by 𝑮𝒂𝒔𝒑𝒂𝒓 𝑵𝒐𝒆́ and then censored for being pornographic.

It's a song about desire, a "𝑠𝑡𝑢𝑑𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑙𝑜𝑔𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑛𝑒𝑒𝑑 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑐𝑜𝑝𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒" as 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝑴𝒐𝒍𝒌𝒐 stated (see quote below)

🔹 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗲̀𝗴𝗲-𝗠𝗼𝗶 (𝗮𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗼) https://bit.ly/3r3G1DT 🎶

Photo xredits: JB Mondino, Single cover, DVD from Les Inrockuptibles cover, Edit by Laetitia

🔷 𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗧𝗘𝗚𝗘-𝗠𝗢𝗜 🔷

🔸 𝙒𝙝𝙮 𝙙𝙞𝙙 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙧𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙚 𝙖 𝙁𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙝 𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙤𝙛 𝙋𝙧𝙤𝙩𝙚𝙘𝙩 𝙈𝙚 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙄 𝙒𝙖𝙣𝙩 ?
💬 The song is a waltz. So there was this slightly continental, Viennese, slightly European vibe. And the French people I know in London thought it sounded French. So it was a Franco-German thing. But we didn't do a Teutonic version. Sometimes when I sing it, I feel like Edith Piaf. (𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘔𝘰𝘭𝘬𝘰 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘌𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘗𝘪𝘢𝘧)
✔️ 𝙱𝚛𝚒𝚊𝚗 𝙼𝚘𝚕𝚔𝚘 - 𝙽𝚎𝚠 𝚉𝚒𝚌 𝚗° 𝟼 - 𝟸00𝟺


💬 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏: This waltz sounded French when we recorded it. Half German, half French. It sounded continental, European, probably because it's a waltz. This song is a ballad. It makes us face our weaknesses. It shows us how we miss out on every bit of present happiness. When we are diverted by our weaknesses or our desires, contradictory desires. Like many other songs, it's about confusion.
💬 𝑺𝒕𝒆𝒗𝒆: And social pressure too.
💬 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏: It's like being locked in a cage, feeling guilty for destroying that happiness at every turn. We worked with Virginie Despentes on the translation, because she's a friend, and we prefer to work with people we know rather than strangers. We said to ourselves "we need a translation. Which French writer do we know ? Virginie !" We offered her to do it and she said yes.
✔️ 𝙱𝚛𝚒𝚊𝚗 𝙼𝚘𝚕𝚔𝚘 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚂𝚝𝚎𝚟𝚎 𝙷𝚎𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚝 - 𝙼𝟼 𝙼𝚞𝚜𝚒𝚌 - 𝙼𝚊𝚛𝚌𝚑 𝟸00𝟺


🔷 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗔𝗡 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗢𝗡𝗚 🔷
💬 I wrote it during Black Market Music, at the same time as I'll Be Yours. They're two songs that throw up, that came out of me without me realizing it. At the time, I was fragile. I was going through a painful divorce and I needed to express that.
✔️ 𝙱𝚛𝚒𝚊𝚗 𝙼𝚘𝚕𝚔𝚘 - 𝙻𝚎𝚜 𝙸𝚗𝚛𝚘𝚌𝚔𝚞𝚙𝚝𝚒𝚋𝚕𝚎𝚜, 𝚑𝚘𝚛𝚜 𝚜𝚎́𝚛𝚒𝚎 𝙿𝙻𝙰𝙲𝙴𝙱𝙾 - 𝟸00𝟺


💬 Protect Me From What I Want, in the context of the song to me was like... protect me from that pathological need to share myself with somebody... to feel that i'm significant only if i'm part of somebody else's world. The line about coffee republic and cakes I think was a reaction against Starbuck's opening on Portobello road because it's such a beautiful street with all this character and afro-Caribbean thing going on, I used to live there, and allof a sudden there's this strbucks there and I was thinking to myself: "Fucking hell, what's next a McDonalds on Portobello road". Same thing is happening with Columbia road, down in the east-end.
✔️ 𝙱𝚛𝚒𝚊𝚗 𝙼𝚘𝚕𝚔𝚘 - 𝚂𝚒𝚕𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚁𝚘𝚌𝚔𝚎𝚝 - 𝙸𝚜𝚜𝚞𝚎 𝟷𝟻


💬 For me, it is the study of the pathological need that people have to copulate, the search for a meaning to copulation. As if celibates or monogamists were aliens. As if we are only one by being two. The song is about how one relationship destroyed me but I can't stop looking for another... Why do I keep coming back to this ?
✔️ 𝙱𝚛𝚒𝚊𝚗 𝙼𝚘𝚕𝚔𝚘 - 𝙳𝚎𝚜 𝚌𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚜 𝚎𝚝 𝚍𝚎𝚜 𝚖𝚊𝚞𝚡 𝚋𝚢 𝚂𝚎𝚋𝚊𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚎𝚗 𝙼𝚒𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚞𝚍

Photo credit: Helena Berg

🔷 𝗩𝗜𝗥𝗚𝗜𝗡𝗜𝗘 𝗗𝗘𝗦𝗣𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗦 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗖𝗢𝗟𝗟𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗖𝗘𝗕𝗢 🔷
🔸 𝙃𝙤𝙬 𝙙𝙞𝙙 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙜𝙚𝙩 𝙞𝙣𝙫𝙤𝙡𝙫𝙚𝙙 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙋𝙧𝙤𝙩𝙚̀𝙜𝙚-𝙈𝙤𝙞 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙟𝙚𝙘𝙩 ?
💬 I'd known Placebo for two or three years already. Brian is bilingual and he had been wanting to adapt a song into French for quite some time. I did a translation of Protect Me From What I Want that he was happy with, and he asked me to join him in the studio in London. There was just Brian, the mixer and me, it all came together very naturally. We reworked the phrases that he didn't like, that didn't sound right, and we discussed the song quite a bit. He told me that at the beginning it was like an acid trip for him...

🔸 𝙃𝙤𝙬 𝙙𝙞𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙧𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙜𝙤 ?
💬 It really impressed me to see him in the studio. I had seen him on stage, I had listened to the records, but I think it was the first time I had seen someone so precise in the studio. It was done in two or three hours. He had pointed out the problems of content and form. He knows straight away what he wants or doesn't want. He's very simple.

🔸 𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙙𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙠 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙤𝙣𝙜 𝙞𝙨 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 ?
💬 For me, it's about a lot of things, about human relationships. [...] For me, it's a reflection on the couple. Someone who asks a higher authority to protect him from what he wants - it can be to fuck it up, to leave him, to cheat on the other, to destroy the story.
✔️ 𝚅𝚒𝚛𝚐𝚒𝚗𝚒𝚎 𝚍𝚎𝚜𝚙𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚜 - 𝙻𝚎𝚜 𝙸𝚗𝚛𝚘𝚌𝚔𝚞𝚙𝚝𝚒𝚋𝚕𝚎𝚜, 𝚑𝚘𝚛𝚜 𝚜𝚎́𝚛𝚒𝚎 𝙿𝙻𝙰𝙲𝙴𝙱𝙾 - 𝟸00𝟺


🔷 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗔𝗡 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗩𝗜𝗥𝗚𝗜𝗡𝗜𝗘 𝗗𝗘𝗦𝗣𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗦 🔷
💬 She's a very trashy artist and that's often what the media highlights, but we sometimes forget that she's also an excellent writer. For us, Virginie was the perfect person. She had never done this before and it was a challenge for her. But when you go into the studio, you might as well do it with someone you get along with. Despite her militant lesbian punk image, she's an extremely composed person. But of course, for us, it's also exciting to work with an artist who is the one who makes the scene, who pushes the media to the limit, who creates controversy.
✔️ 𝙱𝚛𝚒𝚊𝚗 𝙼𝚘𝚕𝚔𝚘 - 𝚁𝚘𝚌𝚔 𝚜𝚞𝚛 𝚘𝚛𝚍𝚘𝚗𝚗𝚊𝚌𝚎 𝚋𝚢 𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚎𝚛𝚛𝚢 𝙳𝚎𝚜𝚊𝚞𝚕𝚎𝚜

Photo credit: Screenshots from video, edit by Laetitia

🔷 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗔𝗡 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗚𝗔𝗦𝗣𝗔𝗥 𝗡𝗢𝗘 🔷
💬 I had never met him, but friends of mine know him. When you work with someone like that, you know that the result will not be conventional. We wanted to do something that questioned the format of the video a bit, regardless of whether it was going to be shown on TV or not. It's exciting to work with people who are trying to go further, to explore the limits of media. Gaspar doesn't try to shock for free, he believes in what he is doing, but he is certainly controversial. Such a courageous personality with a punk attitude, you can't put him in a cage, limit him, make him do a classic video. He wasn't interested in doing a classic video anyway. He didn't even want us to appear in the video, which is fine with us. [...] Gaspar knows how to edit uncomfortable things, he's even an expert! We wanted to do something without compromise, something that doesn't conform to the rules. And if we don't get on TV with the clip for Protège-Moi, who cares ?
✔️ 𝙱𝚛𝚒𝚊𝚗 𝙼𝚘𝚕𝚔𝚘 - 𝙻𝚎𝚜 𝙸𝚗𝚛𝚘𝚌𝚔𝚞𝚙𝚝𝚒𝚋𝚕𝚎𝚜, 𝚑𝚘𝚛𝚜 𝚜𝚎́𝚛𝚒𝚎 𝙿𝙻𝙰𝙲𝙴𝙱𝙾 - 𝟸00𝟺


💬 The most challenging thing we’ve done recently was for a French only release for a song called ‘Protect Me’ which was directed by a filmmaker called Gaspard Noe. He made a film called ‘Irreversible’, which was quite scandalous. And we can’t show it, because it is hard core porn…. But we love it. There’s nothing wrong with a bit of hardcore.
✔️ 𝙱𝚛𝚒𝚊𝚗 𝙼𝚘𝚕𝚔𝚘 - 𝚇𝚏𝚖 𝙾𝚗𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎 - 𝟸00𝟺


🔸 As for the official video, they chose the live in Paris from the DVD Soulmates Never Die
🔹 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗲̀𝗴𝗲-𝗠𝗼𝗶 (𝗼𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗼)
https://bit.ly/38tv9sD 🎶


🔷 𝗥𝗘𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗦𝗘𝗦 🔷

🔸 𝐶𝐷 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑙𝑒
1- Protège-Moi
2- This Picture
🔗 https://bit.ly/3NQOYui


🔸 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐷𝑉𝐷 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝐺𝑎𝑠𝑝𝑎𝑟 𝑁𝑜𝑒́ 𝑣𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑜 𝑜𝑛𝑙𝑦 𝑎𝑣𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐹𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐ℎ 𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑧𝑖𝑛𝑒 "𝐿𝑒𝑠 𝐼𝑛𝑟𝑜𝑐𝑘𝑢𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒𝑠" (2004)
1- Protège-Moi (Le Clip)
2- Bulletproof Cupid (Live)
3- Protège-Moi (M83 Remix)
🔗 https://bit.ly/3r11VI4

Translation by Laetitia
Post by Laetitia