Here is a collection of statements from Placebo's beginnings in 1995 up to the latest interview in 2021. Enjoy reading!.
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| Photo credits at the end of the text |
๐ข "The thing is it's your dream and you are aware of the fact that your dream could fuck up and that's scary, But you have to keep going otherwise you wouldn't be able to live with yourself. If you try your dream out and it doesn't work out and you become a casualty then at least you can say you tried. It's a risk. But in order to do it properly and put your whole heart into it you have to burn your bridges behind you."
(NME, November 1995)
๐ข “My style is a blurring of boundaries rather than straightforward glamour. It's about making things more ambiguous and more mysterious, using shades of grey rather than black and white. Especially when it comes to emotions.”
(NME, 1996)
๐ข “What interests me in playing live is the vulnerability. The passion and emotion, exploring them in as naked a way as possible because you can feel more if you're not hiding behind things.”
(NME, 1996)
๐ข "People want me to be very f**ked up, but they’re too late. I already am."
(Kerrang, January 1997)
๐ข "My problem is, for somebody so small my mouth is way too big. I've always said too much and it's often got me into trouble."
(Kerrang, May 3rd 1997)
๐ข "I don't know if monogamy is possible. It's a concept that I've really struggled with in the past. I think it's possible, if you're lucky enought to be completely blown over by somebody and want to immerse yourself in them. That's happened to me; quite a few years ago, but I would like it to happen again.“
(Kerrang, May 1997)
๐ข "I feel uncomfortable about being public property."
(Melody Maker, August 16th 1997)
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| Photo credit: Scarlet Page |
๐ข "I really want this band to be more than just a footnote in the history of rock. I want us to be significant, and hopefully to have brought something to music that helps the development of it."
(NME, June 27th 1998)
๐ข “I want to be a better person. I want to be a stronger person. I want to be someone who hurts less.”
(NME, August 8th 1998)
๐ข "I've always written songs from both a heterosexual and a homosexual standpoint. I write about them because it's part of me, and it's a part of the band. It's out there. Rock'n'roll can be a very, very laddish and straight medium, and it's just part of who we are. I don't see why it shouldn't be expressed."
(NME, January 16th 1999)
๐ข ”I like the fact that people either think I'm incredibly gorgeous or flippin ugly.”
(Melody Maker, January 2nd 1999)
๐ข "Indifference is the killer. If you inspire extreme emotions in people then that's really positive. If people despise you, you've found a raw nerve and your rubbing salt in the wounds."
(Hit Music, April 29th 1999)
๐ข "You've got to stay one haircut ahead of your clones."
(Hit Music, April 29th 1999)
๐ข "In fact I'm stronger than I've ever been. And now it's all about karma for me - it really is. You can't upset the karmic balance; otherwise things start to go haywire. And it's a philosophy that we apply to our everyday lives and our attitudes as musicians and artists.
(Pulse, April 2000)
๐ข "Love, drugs and religion - these are the things that people have a tendency to lose themselves inside, a tendency to become addicted to. Being a lapsed born-again Christian gives me an interesting perspective on that."
(Sunday Times, July 16th 2000)
๐๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ด๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฑ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ?
๐ข “No! I'd be a nightmare!“
(Boyz, September 2000)
๐ข “I don’t believe in God, I’m not a religious person. The spiritual side that exists in everything we do is the humanity, the honesty, the passion, and our own personal truth. There’s a humanist kind of approach to things. When writing the lyrics, my approach to the characters of each song is sympathetic, and that’s what makes it human. That’s the only attitude I believe in.”
(The US Vault Online, 2001)
๐ข “My father was a workaholic banker that made my family very wealthy and privileged. I was labelled as a lazy rich kid because I was on the dole, but once I left to London, I was cut off. I didn’t have anything handed to me after that.“
(Alternative Press, 2001)
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| Photo credit: Stefan Malzkorn |
๐ข “The interesting thing is that realizing I was attracted to men increased my attraction to women, because I felt like when you're having sex with somebody of your own gender, you're exploring the similarities. When you're having sex with someone with the opposite gender, you're exploring the differences.“
(LA Weekly, May 2001)
๐ข ”I have been in successful fulfilling relationships. But I've also been in many unhealthy ones. And that's an exciting mixture of ten chaotic years. What I've learned from it is that nothing lasts forever and it isn't always your fault.”
(DNAsix, March 2003)
๐ข ”It takes more energy to act like an asshole than to act like a gentleman.”
(DNAsix, March 2003)
๐ข ”I've been in some bad situations is my life. I reckon my guardian angel has been very busy with protecting me these last 10 years.. I'm giving him a well deserved break now.”
(DNAsix, March 2003)
๐ข ”If there’s anything I’d say to myself at 22 it would be one, drink more water, and two, hang on in there because it does get better.”
(Rock Sound, April 2003)
๐ข ”I'm still a freak. Only I've accepted it now.”
(Samsonic, December 2003)
”Love hurts sometimes. Nothing is ever simple when it comes to human relationships. No one is perfect, everybody makes mistakes and struggles with their own selfishness and their own ego. It's very difficult sometimes to live with someone, to share your life with someone, but it's also an amazing thing that gives you so much more, fills your life up with so much joy. But there is a balance to everything that you have to keep. And there is a double side to everything cause you know, the closer you are to someone, the more you have the capacity to hurt them.”
(Rockwave Festival, June 22nd 2004)
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| Photo credit: Alex Vanhee |
๐ข “I just figured that if the media is going to manipulate you, then the intelligent thing to do is to manipulate it back. A lot of those quotes where practised, to be honest, I had them ready… Could you tell?”
(Classic Rock, January 2005)
๐ข ”I'm a very private person off stage because I don't want to be the gossip of the moment. But I show myself as a very open person through my songs.”
(Scars, 2006)
๐ข ”Well, I've always thought that love is quite a narcistic thing. You like to see yourself reflected in your lover.”
(Humo, March 2006)
๐ข ”I have a four-month-old son - not planned, but more than welcome. I know for certain: my son is the best thing that's ever happened to me. I myself have a very difficult relationship with my father, and I've certainly never dreamed of fatherhood. But it happened to me and I've never felt to happy. And never so scared either.”
(Humo, March 2006)
๐ข ”I think people expect Placebo to be a rock band, and we understand that. We're ok with that. We know that's who we are; we're comfortable with that. However, the definition of what a rock band is very, very fluid. As far as we're concerned, it's very, very open.”
(Suicide Girls, September 11th 2007)
๐ข ”Your field of vision grows as you grow older and when you become aware of the fact that you are not the centre of the universe and aware that every action you have has an effect on your fellow man.”
(Female First, December 1st 2008)
๐ข “I have to look after me and be good to myself. To be precise, that means for me: I have to stop pushing constantly the self-destruction-button. I have to find something …. (he pauses and tries to find words). It is just love, I think. To carry love in yourself. To try to better understand your inner self, to protect yourself better and to look after yourself. There are many things in me, that I don’t understand, that are too much for me. Basically that means to me, I have finally to meet my life, instead of running away.“
(Teleschau, 2009)
๐ข ”I need the public's feedback, its recognition. Here I am in doubt, the confusion, it kills me. I need to be on stage, financially, of course, but psychologically above all. This exhibitionism is as necessary for me as drinking and eating. Without the stage I could not be happy, accomplished.”
(Les Inrockuptibles, May 26th 2009)
๐ข ”Let me make this very clear. We don’t do drugs anymore. It’s very important for us as a band to be drug-free and we believe that we can be better musicians, better personalities, better people if we’re drug-free. I’ve been to rehab twice. It was very difficult for me and I’ve learnt how to deal with life without drugs.”
(Juice, March 2010)
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| Photo credit unknown |
๐ข ”I don't listen to our music once it's been released and, unless we're putting a live DVD together, I try to avoid it ... You watch it for all the wrong reasons and you see all the wrong things. You see all the imperfections and it makes you very self-conscious. It's like when you hear your voice on a tape recorder - it's exactly the same thing.”
(Today Online, March 2010)
๐ข ”We’re artists and we hold up a mirror to the world, we hold up a mirror to society and it’s not always pretty. But beauty does not necessarily equal truth so it doesn’t have to be pretty in order to be truthful.”
(Junk Online, March 2010)
๐ข “I was definitely crumbling under the pressure of continuously performing for people and giving and giving and giving. There comes a point where you just feel so empty that you can’t give any more.”
(The Music Network, November 10th 2011)
๐ข ”I hope that the day that we stop – if we ever do, and I hope that it’s not very soon – that at that point we sound completely fucking different to how we sounded before. Otherwise, I will be horribly disappointed. I’d quite like to be big enough to keep trying to redefine it every time.”
(The Fly, July 26th 2013)
๐ข ”I don't own a TV. I don't listen to the radio and I don't read music magazines, so I have no idea what's hip!”
(The Nation, August 23rd 2013)
๐ข I’m interested in Buddhism because it is a philosophy of life rather than a religion. In Buddhism, there’s no god and that is a big part of the attraction for me. Right thoughts, right action. No god, no attachments—no worries.”
(BK, August 22nd 2013)
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| Photo credit: Harley Weir |
๐ข "I'm still getting to know myself, I'm still getting to like myself. It's been a long journey for me to get to this point and a great deal of character development was lost or stunted because I completely embraced the rock 'n' roll lifestyle. That stops you from growing, really. I feel like I'm a 42-year-old man who's about 16 years younger and still getting to know myself. Ten or 15 years ago I thought the sun shone out of my ass. I was filled with bravado and supremely confident, which are qualities I do not carry around today."
(Herald Scotland, 26th February 2015)
๐ข "For me, writing's a journey of self discovery and a way to find out what's going inside of me emotionally. It's also a cathartic experience, a form of self-help or of therapy. I get to know myself better through doing it, and that's a good thing."
(Herald Scotland, 26th February 2015)
๐ข “I'm very much one for trying to live in the day and live in the moment and be aware of the moment. So I'm aware of my finite time on this earth, but through mindfulness and the power of now I kind of try to stay within the day."
(Rolling Stone Australia, November 2016)
๐ข “It is easier to have a conversation with someone through technology than face to face, because it does not carry any vulnerability. And vulnerability implies a very important part of what it means to be a human being. So if we continue to exist without vulnerability, without truth, without physical contact, without physical exchange in the real world, I believe we will become more disconnected and solitary beings within society. Since the multinationals are telling the world that they create a better place to connect people and we believe their lies … It’s really rubbish.“
(MondoSonoro in Mallorca, 2017)
๐ข “We were just kids who just wanted to make music. But we couldn’t do it without going onstage in a dress, without talking about our sexuality. It was very, very important for us to not be ashamed. And inadvertently, hopefully, we perhaps created something within people who listened to us where they felt that the necessity for shame was decreased.”
(The Guardian, November 12th 2021)
๐ข “I think my reaction to most things is just disappointment.”
(The Guardian, November 12th 2021)
๐ข “If the tech billionaires get their way, we’re just going to colonise other planets and repeat our mistakes there. The thing about running away is that you’ll always take yourself with you.”
(The Guardian, November 12th 2021)
Photo credits: Joseph Llanes, Benni Valsson, Alex Vanhee, Francis Tsang, Laetitia Forget, Stefan Malzkorn, Scarlet Page (3), Spiros Politis, Stefan De Batselier, Gill Flett, Placeboworld, Mads Perch (2), David Titlow, Kevin Westenberg, Olaf Heine, Harley Weir, unknown (5) / edit by Silke
Post by Silke
