♦️𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗜𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗦𝗔𝗥𝗬: 𝗕𝗟𝗔𝗖𝗞 𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗞𝗘𝗧 𝗠𝗨𝗦𝗜𝗖♦️

🎶“𝗕𝗟𝗔𝗖𝗞 𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗞𝗘𝗧 𝗠𝗨𝗦𝗜𝗖“🎶 is Placebo's third studio album and was released on October 9th 2000, so today we celebrate its ♦️𝟮𝟮𝗻𝗱 𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗜𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗦𝗔𝗥𝗬♦️ today.

Brian described it as their most political record and as “the final part of our trilogy“ (see quotes below). In an interview with Kerrang he stated that "this album rocks harder then the first two albums put together (July 15th 2000). “Black market music” deals with violence quite a lot and is a quite dark record lyrically. “It's still about falling in love, it's still about the impossibility of love in some places, there's quite a lot of religious imagery and a smattering of politics", Brian explained it to a journalist of Sunday Times.

Photo credit: Cover of the album and covers of the singles / edit by Silke

📀 𝗕𝗟𝗔𝗖𝗞 𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗞𝗘𝗧 𝗠𝗨𝗦𝗜𝗖 (𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹 𝗮𝗹𝗯𝘂𝗺)
🎵 http://bit.ly/309mIuf 🎵

The long-player was recorded at Olympic Studios, Townhouse Studios and Moody Studios, all three located in London. It was produced by Paul Corkett who had already worked on the band's previous record “Without you I'm nothing” as additional engineer. “Black market music” peaked no. 6 in the UK Albums Chart.

The guiding thread that runs through the album is that what people most get addicted to in life are love and drugs. “People have the same reactions to both. That theme runs though our work. This idea of addiction, whether it be to people, emotions, substances or situations“ (Brian, Melody Maker, October 20th 2000).

Two guest vocalists feature on the album: Severe Loren sings the backing vocals on “Taste in men” and “Special K”, “Spite and Malice” is a duet of Brian and Justin Warfield of She Wants Reenge who sings the rap part of the song.
“Slave to the wage” samples “Texas never whispers” by US indie rock band Pavement. While “Commercial for Levi” is dedicated to sound engineer Levi Tecofski who once saved Brian's life when he pulled him back from the street before he could get hit by a car. The rest of the album is dedicated to the memory of music publicist Scott Piering.
The last song on “Black market music” is a hidden track called “Black market blood”. All songs were produced by Paul Corkett except for “Taste in men”, which was produced by Dare Mason.

It's interesting that Brian gave all the songs of the album a second title when he started to write down the tracklisting. They didn't make it on the record but Brian used them to sum up in one phrase what the songs represented to him. "Narcoleptic" for example was "Love and drugs are one big pillow".

Four singles were released from the album, all of them reached top positions in the international charts. The lead single was “Taste in men“, a song that's "quite unrepresentative of the rest of the album and it creates an interest because people wonder what the hell the records gonna be like", as Brian stated. It was followed by “Slave to the wage“, “Special K“ and “Black-eyed“.

Photo credit:  Kevin Westenberg

🔺🔹𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 ”𝐁𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐊 𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐊𝐄𝐓 𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐂”🔹🔻

You expect many things from Brian Molko, the androgynous alien sex fiend who fronts Placebo. Arrogance and sleaze. Paranoia and perversion. Mouthy soundbites and tales of hedonism strewn with the "blood and spunk" of his conquests. What you aren't quite prepared for, however, is his laugh. Half gleeful cackle and half evil snigger, it sounds like Carry On's Sid James reincarnated as a mischievous gothic imp. It sounds like a man having fun.
Lost in a big black sofa, in an East London recording studio, The Notorious Walking Tantrum
Known As Brian Molko actually turns out to be engaging, intelligent company. Point out an instance of perverse nonsense in the lyrics on Placebo's new album, "Black Market Music", and, rather than spit molten venom, he smiles knowingly, raises an eyebrow, and talks about "adding to the rock myth". And then he laughs. The gleeful, contagious laugh of a man who thoroughly enjoys winding people up for a living and doesn't take himself too seriously at all.

𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗣𝗬 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗡𝗘𝗪 𝗥𝗘𝗖𝗢𝗥𝗗?
🎤 I'm very happy, it's the most accomplished record that we've done so far. It feels like a much more complex and sophisticated album musically and it's like a distillation of everything we've attempted to do in the past. As a band, we were conscious that we really wanted to make a bigger-sounding rock record and maybe have a few less slow tracks on it. More upbeat and more accessible.

𝗬𝗢𝗨'𝗩𝗘 𝗧𝗔𝗟𝗞𝗘𝗗 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗔𝗖𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗪𝗛𝗢 𝗙𝗘𝗔𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗘𝗦 𝗢𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗜𝗡𝗚𝗟𝗘 "𝗧𝗔𝗦𝗧𝗘 𝗜𝗡 𝗠𝗘𝗡". 𝗗𝗢 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗖𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗧𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗔𝗖𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗦 𝗡𝗢𝗪, 𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗡 𝗔𝗨𝗧𝗢𝗕𝗜𝗢𝗚𝗥𝗔𝗣𝗛𝗬?
🎤 Well, my lyrics are definitely getting less and less autobiographical, less like a diary and more like stories. But at the same time, I identify with all of the characters within the stories. It's just that the narrator's voice isn't always mine. I try to make the characters sympathetic and put in as much of me as possible in order to make them personal. I'm interested more in writing stories now about strange people with intense emotions.

𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗔𝗖𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗦 𝗔𝗥𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗗𝗥𝗔𝗪𝗡 𝗧𝗢?
🎤 "Peeping Tom" is interesting. That's about voyeurism. Again, I try to place the listener inside the emotions of the voyeur himself and try to portray this character in a sympathetic manner. To show the love that he has for the person he spies on. The fact that this person is the only ray of light that exists in the voyeur's life. "Peeping Tom" is like "Burger Queen" pushed one step further. And it's quite beautiful and it's packed full of pathos and it's quite touching. It's trying to show the sympathetic side of the pervert. Because I don't believe everything is black and white when it comes to human emotion.

𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗛𝗔𝗩𝗘 𝗔 𝗥𝗘𝗣𝗨𝗧𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗕𝗘𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗔 𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗧.
🎤 A pervert perhaps, but like the Momus record, a tender pervert. Hahahahaha! In every reputation, there's a grain of truth, but often it's a case of your reputation preceding you, and the whole thing is blown out of proportion. Which is funny. It's all part of the rock myth, so it's OK.

"𝗧𝗔𝗦𝗧𝗘 𝗜𝗡 𝗠𝗘𝗡" 𝗔𝗡𝗗 "𝗣𝗘𝗘𝗣𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗧𝗢𝗠" 𝗕𝗢𝗧𝗛 𝗙𝗘𝗔𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗘 𝗢𝗡𝗘 𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗦𝗢𝗡 𝗢𝗕𝗦𝗘𝗦𝗦𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗢𝗩𝗘𝗥 𝗔𝗡𝗢𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥.
🎤 Yeah, I think on the album as well, "Special K" compares the rush of falling in love with the rush of coming up on drugs. There's a theme that runs through the album and that's that what people get addicted to most in life is love and drugs. And that they are often the same. People have the same reactions to both. That theme runs though our work. This idea of addiction, whether it be to people, emotions, substances or situations

𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗧𝗦 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗗𝗔𝗥𝗞𝗘𝗥, 𝗩𝗜𝗢𝗟𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗦𝗜𝗗𝗘 𝗢𝗙 𝗟𝗢𝗩𝗘?
🎤 Well, take a song like "Haemoglobin". That's our version of [legendary chanteuse] Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit", but where Billie's walking around observing fruit [dead slaves] hanging from the trees, we've actually placed you inside the man's head. It starts off with him hanging from a tree - he's in a state of resignation. In the second verse, he gets cut down and that resignation turns into confusion. And by the third verse, that confusion has turned into anger and a lust for revenge. It's a simple moral thing, prejudice breeds prejudice and violence breeds violence. We started this band in our early 20s and now we're getting towards our 30s and you look at the world around you a bit more. And it touches you, what people are prepared to do to each other for religion, for land. Violence still exists. There's a war every day, people getting murdered every day. If you watch the news, you get affected by that.

𝗜𝗦𝗡'𝗧 𝗜𝗧 𝗔 𝗕𝗢𝗟𝗗, 𝗔𝗟𝗠𝗢𝗦𝗧 𝗜𝗠𝗣𝗢𝗦𝗦𝗜𝗕𝗟𝗘, 𝗠𝗢𝗩𝗘 𝗧𝗢 𝗧𝗥𝗬 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗨𝗡𝗗𝗘𝗥𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗪𝗔𝗦 𝗘𝗡𝗗𝗨𝗥𝗘𝗗 𝗕𝗬 𝗔 𝗕𝗟𝗔𝗖𝗞 𝗦𝗟𝗔𝗩𝗘 𝗙𝗥𝗢𝗠 𝗔 𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗣𝗟𝗘𝗧𝗘𝗟𝗬 𝗗𝗜𝗙𝗙𝗘𝗥𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗦𝗢𝗖𝗜𝗘𝗧𝗬 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗘𝗥𝗔?
🎤 Sure. That's true. But I was trying to make a bit more of a universal point. The things that happened in the American South, from slavery onwards, we're still feeling the repercussions of them today. The L.A. riots. There was something recently in America that made the Rodney King incident seem like "The Simpsons". So, it's just placing it in a historical context to make people think about whether or not it's still around today. And it is.

Photo credit: Kevin Westenberg (2), Robin, Rock Sound / edit by Silke

"𝗦𝗣𝗜𝗧𝗘 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗠𝗔𝗟𝗜𝗖𝗘" 𝗪𝗔𝗦 𝗜𝗡𝗦𝗣𝗜𝗥𝗘𝗗 𝗕𝗬 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗠𝗔𝗬 𝗗𝗔𝗬 𝗥𝗜𝗢𝗧𝗦. 𝗪𝗘𝗥𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗦𝗬𝗠𝗣𝗔𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗧𝗜𝗖 𝗧𝗢 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗧𝗘𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗦?
🎤 Absolutely. Churchill's mohican was one of the funniest things we've seen in a long time. Opening up the paper and seeing such an inventive disrespect for tradition and for the establishment was quite inspiring. I started running around and shouting, "Dope, guns, and fucking in the streets" and that made its way on to the record. I actually put the picture of Churchill's mohican in front of me when I was doing some of the recording of the lyrics.

𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗧𝗘𝗔𝗠 𝗨𝗣 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗥𝗔𝗣𝗣𝗘𝗥 𝗝𝗨𝗦𝗧𝗜𝗡 𝗪𝗔𝗥𝗙𝗜𝗘𝗟𝗗 𝗙𝗢𝗥 "𝗦𝗣𝗜𝗧𝗘 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗠𝗔𝗟𝗜𝗖𝗘". 𝗔 𝗡𝗢𝗗 𝗧𝗢 𝗞𝗢𝗥𝗡/𝗟𝗜𝗠𝗣 𝗕𝗜𝗭𝗞𝗜𝗧'𝗦 "𝗔𝗟𝗟 𝗜𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗙𝗔𝗠𝗜𝗟𝗬"?
🎤 We're not very fond of that and we were aware of that when we were doing "Spite and Malice". I guess in the back of our minds we wanted to do something that was quite anti that. I find that kind of music extremely negative, homophobic and chauvinistic. We've dealt with difficult emotional issues and intense emotions, but there's always been a strain of positively and optimism within that. Which those bands lack, really. And also our music has a variation, whereas Korn, Limp Bizkit and Kid Rock are extremely repetitive. I find it gets a bit boring after two songs.

𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘 𝗔𝗥𝗘 𝗦𝗢𝗠𝗘 𝗠𝗢𝗥𝗘 𝗜𝗡𝗗𝗨𝗦𝗧𝗥𝗜𝗔𝗟 𝗠𝗢𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗦 𝗢𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗔𝗟𝗕𝗨𝗠. 𝗪𝗔𝗦 𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗜𝗟𝗬𝗡 𝗠𝗔𝗡𝗦𝗢𝗡 𝗔𝗡 𝗜𝗡𝗙𝗟𝗨𝗘𝗡𝗖𝗘?
🎤 Not really. More of a drinking partner, hahahahaha, than an influence, hahahahaha! And I haven't seen him in a while. A song called "Wish" off the "Broken EP" by NIN was a bit of an influence. We listened to that while we were doing "Taste in Men", going, "Let's make itthat nasty, let's make it that unlistenable".

𝗪𝗢𝗨𝗟𝗗 𝗜𝗧 𝗕𝗘 𝗙𝗔𝗜𝗥 𝗧𝗢 𝗦𝗔𝗬 𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘'𝗦 𝗔 𝗟𝗢𝗧 𝗢𝗙 𝗗𝗘𝗔𝗧𝗛 𝗢𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗥𝗘𝗖𝗢𝗥𝗗?
🎤 Probably, yeah. "Haemoglobin" deals with death and lynching. "Salve to the Wage" is a song about not working yourself into an early grave. The day I recorded the vocals to that track was the day that I found out that Scott Piering, the legendary plugger and our friend, had died and I was thinking about him that morning. There was a cloud that was hanging over us that day.
I strangely felt his presence.

"𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗠𝗘𝗥𝗖𝗜𝗔𝗟 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗟𝗘𝗩𝗜" 𝗔𝗦 𝗪𝗘𝗟𝗟.
🎤 Yeah, yeah. That's a song about grabbing your mate by the scruff of the neck and telling him that he's walking down a rocky road to ruin. It's basically, "You're my mate and I love you, but if you don't watch out you're going to fuck up pretty bad." It's autobiographical in the sense that there have been certain points in my life where the band or other friends have had to do that to me. Which was very beneficial. I love that song because musically it's like a really sweet lullaby and lyrically it's quite a filthy number. It puts a smile on your face.

𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗣𝗢𝗜𝗡𝗧 𝗪𝗘𝗥𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗔𝗧 𝗪𝗛𝗘𝗡 𝗦𝗢𝗠𝗘𝗢𝗡𝗘 𝗦𝗔𝗜𝗗 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗧𝗢 𝗬𝗢𝗨?
🎤 Times on the second album. It was a place when I was emotionally... personally I had quite a lot of... sometimes you search for solace in the wrong places. It was a schizophrenic time and a time of identity crisis for me. That was a tough one. But I feel better now, thank you.

𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗪𝗔𝗦 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗖𝗥𝗜𝗦𝗜𝗦?
🎤 Like, just not recognizing yourself in interviews. The extreme side of your personality which I chose to sort of display was snowballing and getting a life of its own. It was like looking in a mirror and not recognizing myself, looking in magazines and not recognizing myself.

𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗦𝗔𝗬 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗪𝗘𝗥𝗘 𝗟𝗢𝗢𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗦𝗢𝗟𝗔𝗖𝗘 𝗜𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗪𝗥𝗢𝗡𝗚 𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗖𝗘𝗦, 𝗕𝗨𝗧 𝗜𝗦𝗡'𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘 𝗔 𝗥𝗘𝗙𝗘𝗥𝗘𝗡𝗖𝗘 𝗜𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗦𝗢𝗡𝗚 𝗧𝗢 𝗕𝗘𝗦𝗧𝗜𝗔𝗟𝗜𝗧𝗬?
🎤 [Pause] Hahahahahahahaha! Yeah, sure, certainly there is. Yeah, yeah. That's just, that's a bit of artistic licence, you know? Hahahahahahaha! It's just a... yeah, yeah, how filthy can you get? Hahahahahahahaha! But for the record, I've never indulged in it myself. I've seen a couple of movies.

𝗬𝗢𝗨'𝗥𝗘 𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗬𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗨𝗣 𝗧𝗢 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗜𝗠𝗔𝗚𝗘, 𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗡?
🎤 Yeah, there's definetely a certain amount of irony in "Commercial for Levi", especially if it's directed towards me. I'm smiling wryly at people's opinions of me and what they imagine my lifestyle is like or what I must get up to.

𝗜𝗧'𝗦 𝗢𝗕𝗩𝗜𝗢𝗨𝗦𝗟𝗬 𝟮𝟰-𝗛𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗕𝗘𝗦𝗧𝗜𝗔𝗟𝗜𝗧𝗬.
🎤 Yeah. And bingeing. Yeah. Hahahahaha!

𝗜𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘 𝗔 𝗦𝗜𝗠𝗜𝗟𝗔𝗥 𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗠𝗘 𝗥𝗨𝗡𝗡𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗧𝗛𝗥𝗢𝗨𝗚𝗛 "𝗡𝗔𝗥𝗖𝗢𝗟𝗘𝗣𝗧𝗜𝗖"?
🎤 When I first wrote down the tracklisting of the album, I wrote underneath each track a second title. They didn't make their way on to the album, but they were a summing up in one phrase of what those songs represent to me. And the one I wrote for "Narcoleptic" was "Love And Drugs Are One Big Pillow". Again, like "Special K", it explores the link between drugs and love. "SpecialK" is uppers and the rush of falling in love. "Narcoleptic" is more like downers and more like relationships, relationships that reach that point of familiarity breeding contempt.

𝗪𝗢𝗨𝗟𝗗 𝗜𝗧 𝗕𝗘 𝗥𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧 𝗧𝗢 𝗔𝗦𝗦𝗨𝗠𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗠𝗨𝗦𝗧 𝗛𝗔𝗩𝗘 𝗙𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗘𝗡 𝗜𝗡 𝗟𝗢𝗩𝗘 𝗜𝗡 𝗢𝗥𝗗𝗘𝗥 𝗧𝗢 𝗠𝗔𝗞𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗥𝗘𝗖𝗢𝗥𝗗?
🎤 Fallen in love, fallen out of love, fallen in love, fallen out of love,
Hahahahaha. Etc. Ad infinitum. Or ad nauseam. Whichever you prefer.

Photo credit unknown

"𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗠𝗘𝗥𝗖𝗜𝗔𝗟 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗟𝗘𝗩𝗜": 𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗜𝗙 𝗟𝗘𝗩𝗜'𝗦 𝗦𝗨𝗘?
🎤 Levi's our sound man. There was this one time in Milan when I got a bit too drunk at dinner and left the restaurant which was right opposite the venue and there were some fans waiting outside, and I climbed on top of this Fiat Uno, and started screaming "Nancy Boy", doing a performance for the fans. And Levi dragged me off the Fiat Uno, as the owner was approaching and waving the keys. I thought I was going to cross this road in between the two parked tour buses and took off, and Levi just grabbed me as a car zoomed by. So it's quite possible that he did save my life. If I was a Samurai, I would have to follow him around for the rest of my life and take care of him until I saved his life. But my little payback for that is to put his name in a song.

𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗘𝗗 𝗕𝗘𝗙𝗢𝗥𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗬𝗢𝗨'𝗥𝗘 𝗔𝗣𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗔𝗖𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝟯𝟬𝗦. 𝗜𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗦𝗢𝗠𝗘𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗪𝗛𝗜𝗖𝗛 𝗖𝗥𝗘𝗘𝗣𝗦 𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗢 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗠𝗜𝗡𝗗?
🎤 I've always been conscious of mortality. Who isn't? It can happen any time. I don't really like flying and if I refused to fly, I wouldn't have a career, so every time I get on a plane I think about death. Fucking stewardess on Air Portugal said to me, "Would you like Time magazine, sir?, and on the cover was the Concorde crash! I went, "Are you nuts? Get that thing away from me!" And she took it back and just started laughing. So every time I get on an airplane, I feel like it's a confrontation with mortality. But we enjoy ourselves and enjoy life and have a lust for life and certainly we're having a good time being in Placebo at the moment. Maybe being conscious of your mortality makes you live your life to the full a bit more. On a daily basis.

𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 "𝗕𝗟𝗨𝗘 𝗔𝗠𝗘𝗥𝗜𝗖𝗔𝗡" - 𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧'𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧?
🎤 It's a kind of self-disgust. Three and a half minutes of pure self-disgust, American style. The person in the song is at such a low point in his life emotionally that he's started to hit out at everything that is a part of him. He's attacking his parents, his culture, his culture's history, self-help, psychiatry. It was written when I wasn't in a particularly good mood.

𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗜𝗡𝗦𝗣𝗜𝗥𝗘𝗗 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧?
🎤 The strangest things can inspire lyrics. I was watching a documentary on TV about novelists trying to get their first novel published and how difficult it was and I often sit and play acoustic guitar when I watch TV. And I thought of "I wrote this novel just for you/It sounds pretentious but it's true". There's a little, I would say self-deprecation in that lyric but I often try and get to a place before my detractors. Hence the "I'm so pretentious, yes it's true" line that comes at the end of the song. It's just saying, "I know exactly what you think about me".

𝗜𝗦𝗡'𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘 𝗔 𝗥𝗘𝗙𝗘𝗥𝗘𝗡𝗖𝗘 𝗧𝗢 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗠𝗢𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥 𝗜𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘?
🎤 Yeah. I wanted to say hi to my mum. I'm the anti-Eminem! Hahahahahaha!
That's really genuine, you know. Hi, Mom. It's so American. And, you know, I still love my mother. And it just fitted. When it came out, I thought it would be really nice to make her quite happy. Because I'm sure most of the subject matter of our songs doesn't make her very happy. So, at one point, maybe for one verse at least, she might think, "Oh, that's nice. My son still loves me."

𝗛𝗔𝗦 𝗦𝗛𝗘 𝗛𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗗 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗢𝗡𝗚?
🎤 Not yet, she hasn't, no. So journalists get to hear it before parents. Hahahahahahaha!

𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗪𝗢𝗨𝗟𝗗 𝗕𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗕𝗜𝗚𝗚𝗘𝗦𝗧 𝗙𝗘𝗔𝗥 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗙𝗨𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗘 𝗢𝗙 𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗖𝗘𝗕𝗢?
🎤 Plane crash. For us to lose our spark and to lose our spontaneity. But I think a lot of it comes from the fact that we're still incredibly good mates. And that will help to sustain that. I think what we enjoy most is playing music with each other. It's the most satisfying thing.

𝗖𝗢𝗨𝗟𝗗 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗕𝗘 𝗟𝗜𝗞𝗘 𝗥𝗢𝗕𝗘𝗥𝗧 𝗦𝗠𝗜𝗧𝗛, 𝗦𝗧𝗜𝗟𝗟 𝗞𝗡𝗢𝗖𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗚𝗢𝗧𝗛 𝗣𝗢𝗣 𝗜𝗡 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝟰𝟬𝗦?
🎤 I don't know. I hope we'd be more like Bowie, more like several processes of reinvention along the way. Keep a healthy desire for change in our music and a healthy contempt for formula. And to not self-censor yourself, in the way you say, "This is not a Placebo sound." We don't really have that kind of attitude. We're very open. If it comes out of us, then it's Placebo.

Banish all thoughts of a twisted, one-dimensional, ultra-paranoid Brian Molko from your mind, dear reader. Mr Placebo 2000 is an emotionally stable, creatively virile individual and his new album is a worthy reflection. No wonder he's laughing like a man possessed.
(Melody Maker, October 20th 2000)


📌 𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗙𝗔𝗡 𝗢𝗡 “𝗕𝗟𝗔𝗖𝗞 𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗞𝗘𝗧 𝗠𝗨𝗦𝗜𝗖“ 📌
📢 "The new album is the one we are most proud of. It is also the first one where we sort of take a production credit. We did the production with a guy called Paul Corkett who did the engineering in the second album. We just had a really good time recording it as well, we sort of laughed our way through this one. I think if there was one thing we wanted to do with it, it was to have more fast tracks and slow tracks, but nothing suffered from having a divided energy."
(Top 40, October 2000)

📢 “I think its an angrier record. I think is more coherent. I think it rocks more. I think we had all of that in the back of our minds when we wrote this album.“
(Hip Online, February 1st, 2001)

📢 "With the first album, it felt under-produced. The second album felt as though it was overproduced. Also our relationship with our producer on the second album wasn't great, so we just wanted to get away from this producer with a big "P". We just got on very well with Paul as a person. He is very humble and a very experienced person and could capture a bigger rock sound. We also moved on as songwriters and players. It felt right from the word go. It took a lot longer than the second album it's a bit like a baby. Fertilization in October and nine months later, three proud fathers."
(Top 40, October 2000)

Photo credit: Cover of the album, Stefan Malzkorn (2), Scarlet Page (2), Liam Duke, Mark C. O'Flaherty, Robin Francois, Morten Holm / edit by Silke

📌 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗔𝗡 𝗢𝗡 “𝗕𝗟𝗔𝗖𝗞 𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗞𝗘𝗧 𝗠𝗨𝗦𝗜𝗖“ 📌
📢 "'Black market music' is a reference to something that's sordid and seedy and kept under the counter, basically something illegal that you shouldn't really have. That's where the idea came from, but we were in Japan the other day hanging out with Taylor Hawkins from the Foo Fighters and we told him the name of the album and he was like 'Oh yeah after that music store in LA' - and then it actually occurred to me that it was also the name of the place where we'd bought some of our most expensive guitars in America. We'd never put two and tow together until Taylor had pointed it out to us - so there we were trying to think of a really philosophical answer, but now we can just say it's named after a music store."
(Rock Sound, October 2000)

📢 "'Black market music' gives an "illegal" connotation, the idea of a forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge."
(Lib, 2000)

📢 "To be honest, it's been an incredibly joyful experience. We laughed all the way through the last nine months. It feels a bit like the end of a trilogy. Everything we've attempted before we've finally realised and purified to make this glorious album."
(Select, September 20th 2000)

📢 "It's aggressive. It's angry. It's our big rock album, the one we've always wanted to make."
(Sunday Mail, October 1st 2001)

📢 "We approached with a creative openness and a spirit of camaraderie - we wanted to make a timeless rock album, so we explored every idea that we wanted to. We threw as much shit against the wall as possible and saw what stuck, and that made the beautiful painting that is ‘Black market music‘."
(Pulse, April 2000)

📢 "It's anger and energy. It's the final part of our trilogy.“
(Kerrang, July 22nd 2000)

📢 "It's difficult not to write something that's auto-biographical but when one grows as an author the writing changes. This record for example, it's less made of introspective looks and more of the reaction to the world and to what hurts you and makes you angry. It's more political."
(DNMais, October 14th 2000)

📢 “It revisits the no-holds-barred punk pop element of the first album, and the more melancholic side of 'Without you I'm nothing'.“
(Boyz, September 2000)

📢 ”It was the most pleasurable recording experience we've ever had, because there was a real spirit of communication, exchange of ideas. For the last two albums we've had female engineers, and it's always been good to have a woman in the room to balance out the testosterone. For the first time, we were able to put the sounds from our heads on tape, and I think we made a really cohesive album. Even though it's quite varied, it has a strong identity. It's aggressive and angry.”
(LA Weekly, May 2001)

📢 “There's a theme that runs through the album and that's that what people get addicted to most in life is love and drugs. And that they are often the same. People have the same reactions to both. That theme runs though our work. This idea of addiction, whether it be to people, emotions, substances or situations.“
(Melody Maker, October 20th 2000)

📢 “‘Black market music’ was a record we were proud of at the time but it definitely sounded self-produced – it has that one-dimensional, blanket sound.”
(Rock Sound, April 2003)

📢 “Looking back on it I think it was a mistake to produce it ourselves. It just sounds one dimensional. Expecially compared to 'Without you I'm nothing'.“
(DNAsix, March 2003)

Post by Silke