♦️🔹 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗔𝗡 𝗠𝗢𝗟𝗞𝗢 𝗮𝘁 𝗢𝗨̈𝗜𝗙𝗠 (𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟮) 🔹♦️

🔷 𝐷𝑒𝑎𝑟 𝑆𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑠, 𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑙𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑜 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑂𝑈̈𝐼𝐹𝑀 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑛 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛. 𝐼𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑏𝑟𝑜𝑎𝑑𝑐𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑛 𝐴𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑙𝑒 22, 2022. 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑎𝑢𝑑𝑖𝑜 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑒𝑥𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑒. 𝐼 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑡 𝑠𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑓𝑢𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑒𝑛𝑗𝑜𝑦 𝑖𝑡 💚

Photo credit: Jon Stone

🎸 🎸 🎸 🎸 🎸

🔸 𝐄𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧 "𝐋𝐨𝐮𝐝 𝐋𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞" 𝐚𝐧𝐝 "𝐍𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐋𝐞𝐭 𝐌𝐞 𝐆𝐨", 𝐚 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐰𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐬... 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐨 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐨, 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐚𝐥𝐛𝐮𝐦?
📢 I mean, we've been doing it all our adult lives. When we started, Stef was 20 and I was 22. I was already making music before that, on my own. So we've spent almost our whole lives, writing songs for Placebo. We don't really know what else to do. So, yeah, eight years went by between the two albums, but we toured for "Loud Like Love" for two years, then we released our retrospective compilation, we toured with that as well, and it took us a little while to write the new album as well. And then "Bang", pandemic. So everything was postponed for at least two years. It's not like we're coming out of retirement, it's not a comeback. It's just a new album and it's the circumstances that made it that way.


🔸 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐚𝐥𝐛𝐮𝐦 𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝 "𝐍𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐋𝐞𝐭 𝐌𝐞 𝐆𝐨". 𝐈𝐬 𝐢𝐭 𝐚𝐝𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐫?
📢 "Never Let Me Go", I think it's a very Placebo title. "Without You I'm Nothing", "A Place For Us To Dream", "Never Let Me Go", it's a very human title and it's inspired by one of my favourite books by Kazuo Ishiguro, it's a book about clones. It's really a book I recommend. That's the inspiration for the title.


🔸 "𝐍𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐋𝐞𝐭 𝐌𝐞 𝐆𝐨" 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐥𝐛𝐮𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫, 𝐢𝐭'𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐚𝐲. 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞, 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐢𝐭 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡 𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐫 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐨 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭?
📢 Yes, it was convenient but we were also looking for the difference, we were looking for a different process. We found ourselves in our studio, which we built ourselves, the two of us, thinking: "What are we going to do ?" It was a bit like when we started. We didn't have a record deal and we were recording demos on tape in the living room. The only difference is that we have a studio now. So we thought we had almost infinite possibilities here, we could really enjoy ourselves. We just did a tour, we played our hits, we made everyone happy. So let's enjoy ourselves this time. That's the attitude we approached the album with. I think it's important, if you can't make music that you are excited about yourself, how do you want other people to be excited about it? If you don't have an emotional connection, if what you say is not important to you, how can you expect it to be important to others ?


🔸 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐚𝐥𝐛𝐮𝐦 𝐢𝐬 𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐯𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐬𝐭𝐲𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐨𝐨𝐝𝐬... 𝐈𝐬𝐧'𝐭 𝐢𝐭 𝐭𝐨𝐨 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐝𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐢𝐧 𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐬?
📢 We really got tired of musical democracy in a band. We've always operated as a democratic state up to now. There was always a battle between us and the drummer. We were fed up with it, so we decided to become intended dictators and it became much easier for us. When it comes to artistic choices, Stef and I almost always agree. So there's a ease. We were really on the same path most of the time. We wanted to take back ownership of our band. and take all the decisions ourselves.

Photo credit: Corinne Cumming

🔸 𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐝, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐚 𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐛𝐲 𝐝𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬. 𝐂𝐚𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐡𝐲 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬?
📢 I was afraid of being bored after twenty-seven years of creation if we stayed with our classic methodology. I was afraid it would become repetitive for me, I was afraid I would get bored. So I basically decided to do everything backwards. The last creative decision you make when you've made an album is to choose the cover. So I started with the cover. I showed up at the studio with this picture and said to Stefan:

- 𝐷𝑜 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑝𝑖𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 ?

- 𝑌𝑒𝑎ℎ, 𝑖𝑡'𝑠 𝑐𝑜𝑜𝑙.

- 𝑊𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑏𝑒 𝑎 𝑔𝑜𝑜𝑑 𝑐𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟 ?

- 𝑌𝑒𝑎ℎ, 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑏𝑎𝑑.

- 𝑂𝑘𝑎𝑦, 𝑠𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡'𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟.

And then I had a list of song titles. Instead of a book full of lyrics, I wrote lists and lists of titles and showed them to Stef. Normally you write the song first and then you decide on the title afterwards. So we started with the titles this time. It was really to break the comfort.

When I worked with David Bowie, his mantra was always:

- 𝐷𝑜 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑙 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢'𝑟𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑛𝑜𝑤 ?

- 𝑊𝑒𝑙𝑙 𝑦𝑒𝑎ℎ 𝐷𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑑.

- 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑦𝑜𝑢'𝑟𝑒 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑑𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑦.

For David, he always had to feel a little bit uncomfortable, there had to be danger, he had to break things. And that's how he was able to reinvent himself so many times. It takes courage to do that. That's one of the huge things he taught me as a human being. So I wanted to create an environment where there was no comfort, where there was risk and danger all the time. When you create that kind of environment to work in, there are lots of accidents and mistakes, things that you would never have thought of yourself. You create the possibility to surprise yourself, and for me that was important.


🔸 𝐀𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐬 𝐮𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐚𝐥𝐛𝐮𝐦, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 "𝐁𝐞𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐉𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬", 𝐰𝐡𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤?
📢 It was obvious, it wasn't really a decision. The singles kind of choose themselves. We knew as soon as we recorded it that it would be the first single.


🔸 𝐈𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐠, 𝐰𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐥𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝟗𝟎𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐠 "𝐍𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐲 𝐁𝐨𝐲". 𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝?
📢 Honestly, I never thought about it because I tend not to compare what is new with what is old. I don't really like looking backThis song reminds me more of Van Halen's "Jump". When I was young in the 80s, Van Halen was a rock band that was very well known in the US, but not really known in the rest of the world. When they came back with the album '1984', all the Van Halen fans were incredibly angry because their guitar hero was playing synth. But it was that one song that turned Van Halen from American rock stars into global superstars. And while we were mixing that song, I was thinking that maybe it could be our 'Jump'. I hadn't heard 'Jump' since the 80s. So I went home, downloaded it, listened to it and realised that the synth sound is the same, it was crazy.

Photo credit: Erik Weiss

🔸 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐲, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐲𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐧 "𝐍𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐋𝐞𝐭 𝐌𝐞 𝐆𝐨", 𝐚𝐥𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐮𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬...
📢 There's a lot more mystery to us with synths than there is with guitars, because we've been using them for 25/27 years, putting guitars first, so there's a lot less mystery. We want to learn, to fool around, to find new things, new instruments, to use them in the wrong way to create surprising sounds. It's exciting for us because we don't have the knowledge, so we're still discovering. We're a little bit like teenagers in the studio with these keyboards and synths. We don't know how they work, but that's not a problem. You plug them in and then you fool around and maybe there'll be an accident of tremendous beauty, and that's happened several times on this album.


🔸 𝐀𝐧 𝐚𝐥𝐛𝐮𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐚 𝐥𝐨𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐤-𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐝?
📢 You have to have the courage to break with what made you most famous. Like David Bowie always did. Just before it gets repetitive, "Boom ! That's it !", you do something new.

And that's also what kills art. It's that repetition, working with a formula. Yeah... And, I get bored easily too, and that's what drives me to find different methodologies. I've really taken it to the extreme with this album, and I think you can hear it.


🔸 𝐈𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐥𝐛𝐮𝐦, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐢𝐧 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐦𝐲 𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐢𝐭'𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤 "𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐠𝐚𝐥" 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧... 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐠𝐨?
📢 The Prodigal is the only song I wrote before I started working on this album. I was asked to write a theme for a movie, and the movie was never made. I don't know what happened, but the film doesn't exist. The plot of the film was about a rock band and one of the members died on stage. So I decided to write an optimistic, Buddhist song about death. But musically when I wrote it, it was almost a photocopy of 'Where Is My Mind' by the Pixies. When we got into the studio, we wanted to work on that song, but we really wanted to change the sound completely and it was our producer who suggested: "Why don't we do something more like The Beatles' Eleanor Rigby ?" I have two favourite bands, The Beatles and Sonic Youth. So I was very excited about the idea. That's why we ended up in this sonic landscape with all these strings and that's what became The Prodigal.


🔸 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 "𝐍𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐋𝐞𝐭 𝐌𝐞 𝐆𝐨", 𝐟𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐥𝐛𝐮𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐭𝐡 𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐝. 𝐃𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐜 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤?
📢 I'm not sure... After the 60s, music didn't change the world, and in the 70s, neither. I'm not convinced of that. It's a cathartic thing for me. It's a kind of therapy, basically. I externalise the things that consume me, that make me feel bad, that make my life emotionally difficult. I'm not someone who writes songs every day, I write songs in a state of urgency. And it's absolutely necessary that I get them out of myself otherwise they'll consume me, they'll eat me up completely. And I think it's beautiful to be able to communicate with people, to communicate these ideas that are important to me.
✔️ 𝙱𝚛𝚒𝚊𝚗 𝙼𝚘𝚕𝚔𝚘 - 𝙾𝚄̈𝙸𝙵𝙼 - 𝙰𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚕𝚎 𝟸𝟸, 𝟸0𝟸𝟸

𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆
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