The song is also a criticism of modern society. Brian explained that he began to ponder the countless ways in which our privacy has been eroded since the introduction of worldwide CCTV cameras and the rise of the internet and the cellphone: “It has turned practically every user into a paparazzo and spectators in their own lives” (NME, November 18th 2021). Also, we are often unaware of the fact that with all those cameras we can be watched mostly all of the time.
As we know Brian is also very critical with social media, especially when it comes to sharing personal information: “If you want to talk about your most private moments on posts on social media or if you just want to post your dinner or whatever it's just your prerogative. You can if you want but just because you do, don't expect me to, you know, why should I make the same deal with the devil that you made? [...] I don't expose my private life and just because other people find it completely natural to do that, I don't see why quiet people like me should feel pressured to do the same" (Maniacs, March 25th 2022)”.
In another interview Brian revealed that “Surrounded by Spies” is “a true story told through a lens of paranoia, complete disgust for modern society’s values, and the deification of surveillance capitalism”. The character in the song is at the end of their tether, hopeless and afraid.
The lyrics may seem confusing but that probably derives from the fact that they were written by using the “cut-up technique”. This is a writing method made popular by American writer William S. Burroughs (1914-1997). It involves the cutting up of written text and proceeding to rearrange them in order to compose new ones. It's interesting that Placebo's mentor David Bowie also used this technique in some of his songs.
According to Stefan there's a mysterious vibe to “Surrounded by Spies”, almost like a spy movie soundtrack. “I feel like I was able to build a sound that is a mix of tension and chaos, while interweaving high-speed beats that sound like drum'n'bass”, he stated in a chat with Billboard Japan. In his opinion the character in the song feels the pressure of modern age and what it can do to them, how it can slowly turn the world very dark. And that at times it can feel like there’s no escape. Stefan: ”Maybe we don't see so clearly where we are going until it's too late, right?”
“Surrounded by Spies” was released as single on November 9th 2021, it can also be found on Placebo latest album “Never let me go” (March 2022). The track was recorded at RAK Studios in London and produced by Adam Noble. Engineering and programming were done by Noble and Bill Lloyd.
The song is part of the current tour. The shared live version was recorded at Arsenal Fest in Kragujevac, Serbia, on July 1st 2022.
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| Photo credit: Jokko & Rob Walbers |
๐ข ”'Surrounded by Spies' is an interesting song for me because I, it all kind of started when I used to realise that my neighbours were spying on me. And then it's just kind of then I just ended up thinking about surveillance and privacy and where we're at in terms of privacy today. I realise that our privacy is being eroded in so many ways that we don't even realise and that we are also active participants in the erosion of our privacy by offering up all of this, all of this information to companies and eventually to fraudsters or to whoever in the world wants to have it. Extremely personal information that can be used to manipulate us, that can be used to defraud us, that can be used to influence us in God knows how many ways and how we've allowed ourselves to be seduced by the pot of gold, you know, which is this ever youthful, ever optimistic, ever enthusiastic, colourful thing, which is social media. This vacuous thing and what we've offered up in order to have this at our beck and call at any moment. So these days, when people complain about their relationship to social media, I'm kind of like, what, you're upset because you can't show your nipples on Instagram. If you want to expose yourself on social media, if you want to talk about your most private moments on posts in social media, do you get validation from that or if you find therapeutic relief from that, or if you just want a post your dinner or whatever it's just your prerogative. You can if you want but just because you do, don't expect me to, you know, why should I make the same deal with the devil that you made? Why can't I make my own? Why do I have to do it on your terms, just because this is the kind of exposure that you've decided that you're personally willing to put out into the world? There's a kind of tacit pressure that for people who are quiet like me and private like me, that we should be exposing ourselves more because you're a performer. But you know, I don't. I don't have a Faustian pact with the media, I don't actively go out there and look for column inches whenever something important happens in my life, you know, I don't do a spread in Hello or I don't post pictures of my family on social media. I don't expose my private life and just because other people find it completely natural to do that, I don't see why quiet people like me should feel pressured to do the same.”
(Maniacs, March 25th 2022)
๐ข “We sleepwalk through the city, unaware of the fact that you can be followed from your doorstep to your destination. I thought to myself, ‘If good neighbours of mine can do this, then what else is going on?’ It’s just a microscopic version of what’s happening everywhere.”
(Rolling Stone UK, February 1st 2022)
๐ข “It's a true story told through a lens of paranoia, complete disgust for modern society’s values, and the deification of surveillance capitalism. The narrator is at the end of their tether, hopeless and afraid, completely at odds with our newfound progress and the god of money.”
(American Songwriter, November 2021)
๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฏ๐จ "๐๐ถ๐ณ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฃ๐บ ๐๐ฑ๐ช๐ฆ๐ด" ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ช๐ฏ๐ด๐ฑ๐ช๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฃ๐บ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ๐ด?
๐ข “I've moved since then, but my old neighbours thought it was okay to spy on me because I was famous... That triggered something in my head about global surveillance, about cameras filming us. The question I ask in this album is: what is the human price to pay for all this progress? But I don't have the answer.”
(Le Parisien, March 25th 2022)
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| Photo credit: alexkatsarou |
๐ข ”Maybe we don't see so clearly where we are going until it's too late, right? And that's a little bit what we want to explore in the song 'Surrounded by Spies' as you said, which is a little bit of chaos and a little bit of losing control but still, I think what we have to do as musicians and as people, is try to surf what's going on without going crazy (laughs) and have a little bit of vigilance so that we don't get sucked into technology or what's going on and keep a little bit of humanity.”
(Alfa 91,3 FM – Mexico, February 19th 2022)
๐๐ข๐ท๐ฆ๐ฏ’๐ต ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ข๐ญ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ๐บ ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ข๐บ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ข๐ญ๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต ๐ท๐ฐ๐บ๐ฆ๐ถ๐ณ๐ด ๐ช๐ฏ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฏ๐จ๐ด? ๐๐ต ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฏ๐จ '๐๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐๐ฐ๐ฎ' ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ญ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ฎ '๐๐ญ๐ข๐ค๐ฌ ๐ฎ๐ข๐ณ๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ต ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ด๐ช๐ค'. ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ, ๐ข ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ด๐ฑ๐ช๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฃ๐บ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฏ, ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ต๐ช๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ต’๐ด ๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐บ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐บ๐ด๐ต๐ฆ๐ฎ. ๐๐ฐ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ข๐จ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต?
๐ข “You see, I haven’t seen it from that angle, that’s interesting. This track is kind of claustrophobic because, you know, it’s hard to avoid unkind eyes nowadays. It’s kind of crapped off on us. The character of 'Surrounded by Spies' feels that pressure of modern age, what it can do to you, how it can slowly turn your world very dark. And it can start to feel at times that there’s no escape. There’s some kind of darkness in this song. We wanted music to be very expressive, evil… We’re trying to find the hope, trying to find the cracklings of light in our songs but I think that 'Surrounded by Spies' is probably one of the darker moments. When it comes to Placebo lyrics, generally, on all the albums there were elements of personal, emotional honesty. I think that we’ve realized that it’s what makes the song universal - if you make it personal, sing of what you’ve experienced on this planet, whatever the feeling may be. We always discovered the darkest sides of human psyche and human’s emotions which are not easy to talk about, to acknowledge that we have sometimes. So I think this track is continuing in that way.“
(Radio 357, November 9th 2021)
๐๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ด๐ช๐ฏ๐จ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ด, ๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ฏ’๐ต ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฌ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต '๐๐ถ๐ณ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฃ๐บ ๐๐ฑ๐ช๐ฆ๐ด' ๐ช๐ด ๐ฌ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ข๐ฏ '๐ข๐ฏ๐ต๐ช-๐ด๐ช๐ฏ๐จ๐ญ๐ฆ'?
๐ข “I think life would be too safe without taking risks. We’ve got very eclectic taste fan base, they don’t like one type of music. 'Surrounded by Spies' is very different to our first song, 'Beautiful James'. But it’s still us. It was good to do things slightly different, not to make two same songs, to let the fans taste yourself what’s to come. But as I said, it’s all still Placebo.“
(Radio 357, November 13th 2021)
๐ข “There's a mysterious vibe to this song, almost like a spy movie soundtrack. I feel like I was able to build a sound that is a mix of tension and chaos, while interweaving high-speed beats that sound like drum'n'bass. But the piano tone that resonates at the end makes the song land on something beautiful.”
(Billboard Japan, April 2022)
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| Photo credit: Vangelis Patsialos |
๐ ๐๐ฌ๐ฅ๐๐๐ฆ
I saw you jump from a burning building
Saw you jump from a burning building
I've seen your moves, like Elvis set on fire
Seen your moves, like Elvis set on fire
This search for meaning is killing me
This search for meaning is killing me
This search for meaning is killing me
This search for meaning
Ping pong ball at the back of my throat
Ping pong ball at the back of my throat
And I won't be spoken to like that
And I won't be spoken to like that
Suspicious bag on the platform
Suspicious bag on the platform
Suspicious bag on the platform
Suspicious bag on the platform
Ex-drummer's nose stuck in the past
Ex-drummer's nose stuck in the past
Found dead behind the wheel of a car
Found dead behind the wheel of a car
World leader going under the knife
World leader going under the knife
Stage four, stage two, stage three
Stage four, stage two, stage three
We go to Sweden in the back of a cab
We go to Sweden in the back of a cab
And every picture house is empty
And every picture house is empty
I gave my heart, now I want it back
Gave my heart, now I want it back
I gave my heart, now I want it back
I gave my heart, now I want it back
I am surrounded by spies
I am surrounded by spies
I am surrounded by spies
I am surrounded by spies
Dead fly on the national anthem
Dead fly on the national anthem
Dead fly on the national anthem
Dead fly on the national anthem
I see faces on the bathroom floor
I see faces on the bathroom floor
I see faces on the bathroom floor
Come on over and I'll show you more
Where are you now when I need you the most? (Shut up)
Where are you now when I need you the most? (Shut up)
Where are you now when I need you the most? (Shut up)
Where are you now when I need you the most? (Shut up)
I am surrounded by spies
I am surrounded by spies
I am surrounded by spies
I am surrounded by spies
I am surrounded by spies
I am surrounded by spies
I am surrounded by spies
I am surrounded by spies
I am surrounded by spies
I am surrounded by spies
I am surrounded by spies
I am surrounded by spies
Spies
Spies
Spies
