🌟 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨 𝐚𝐭 𝐏𝐨𝐩 𝐑𝐨𝐜𝐤 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 by 𝐙𝐞́𝐠𝐮𝐭 (part 2) 🌟

🔸A promise is a promise dear Soulmates 😊. Here is the second part of the interview at RTL2 on 𝑭𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒊𝒔 𝒁𝒆́𝒈𝒖𝒕's broadcast, 𝑷𝒐𝒑 𝑹𝒐𝒄𝒌 𝑺𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏. The boys keeps answering Zégut and fans' questions

I hope the second part will please you as much as the first ^^ 🔸

Photo credit: Jean Baptiste Mondino, unknown, edit by Laetitia

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Bravo Placebo.
💬Brian: I think it's the best acoustic session we've done.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Really ?
💬Brian: Yeah, yeah. There's some magic.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: I think it deserves to be on the B-side of a single.
💬Brian: We already have a studio version of Plasticine. We'll see. We'll arrange for the tapes.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: You've already got the CD that we burned for you.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Just have a question before we take a break: Loretta asks if you're going to play Peeping Tom again at the next shows?
💬Brian: For the moment, we're leaving Peeping Tom aside to make room for the new songs, the ballads from the new album, to have a little bit of time on stage. Maybe that song will come back. It's taking a holiday at the moment.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Ok. Another question for you: are you still planning to remix the Sneakers Pimps' Loretta Young Silks?
💬Brian: Well yeah. We didn't really have time. It was difficult. I'm not sure if it's already out as a single. If it's already out, we missed the opportunity. But they're still good mates of ours and it would have been great. But we thought about remixing Indochine too, but we didn't have the time either.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: So wait... Question about Indochine before taking a break. Everybody wonders, as you're pretty good friends with Nicolas, if there would be a common title: Placebo/Indochine? Is that possible?
💬Brian: I don't know. Maybe we'll do a version of Bonnie and Clyde together.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Ok that would be a good idea. A Gainsbourg's song. A Bonny and Clyde cover, Placebo/Indochine, that would be good.
💬Brian : But there is no project to do that at the moment but you never know, we get along very well.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Ok, a short break and we'll be back (...)

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: I have a question on the chat: as you speak French well, and you have such a charming accent at the same time, could you participate in an album of covers of Gainsbourg or Jacques Brel songs? Would that be in the realm of possibility?
💬Brian: It could be interesting, but for me it's hard to write in French because I don't read enough, I don't speak enough. But my accent is not bad so maybe it could be done. There might be a compilation of English versions of Gainsbourg songs coming out with Les Inrocks soon.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: On which you are participating in a track.
💬Brian: Yeah, we're working on a track at the moment.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Which one?
💬Brian: We're working on Melody Nelson at the moment.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Melody Nelson.
💬Brian: Yeah. Something very sacred I think.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Yeah, yeah it's sacred actually.
💬Brian: But writing, I find it difficult but you never know. I'd like to do that. During the break we were talking about Nina Simone who did a version of Brel's Ne Me Quitte Pas which is incredible with a very very heavy accent but it's really very charming.

Photo credit: Helena Berg

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Note Bowie tried his hand at Amsterdam with an accent...
💬Brian: Yeah he did Heros in German too.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Yeah and Peter Gabriel sang in German too, you know. Since we're talking about influence, you have reference points where you talk about Gainsbourg, Jacques Brel, where you talked about Janis Joplin earlier, what are your reference points? Can we talk about the Doors, the Velvet Underground, The Cure? Listening to your last album, two/three sounds that sound very Cure on Disintegration.
💬Brian: The Cure and The Smiths were the soundtrack to every afternoon when it rained in Luxembourg. The rainy afternoons of my teenage years so it's still there, a little bit in our music. There's Sonic Youth too, PJ Harvey, The Pixies, Jane's addiction.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: And you cover Where is my mind by the Pixies on stage?
💬Brian: Yeah, we've covered it for a few shows.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Ok, and you're gonna do it again?
💬Brian : We don't know, we don't know, we don't really like to do the same covers for people because they "expect" so...

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Ok. What about Steve for example, what are his influences?
💬Brian: What influences baby, Stevie ?
💬Steve: Pretty much the same as Brian actually. Public Ennemy, Sly & the Family Stone. Earth Wind and Fire.
💬Brian: Tom Waits.
💬Steve: Nick Cave, Captain Beefheart.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: And Stefan?
💬Stefan: When I was a kid, for me it was ABBA, all the time, disco too, like Boney M.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Yes, so you covered Boney M, it just came out, so where did the idea come from? Is it you Stefan?
💬Stefan: It came from the three of us, because we all three grew up in the 80s. And in the band, Steve is the Daddy Cool because he has a little girl. But it's a joke.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: But it worked, it's a bonus track on one of the singles that you guys release.
💬Brian : But it will never be released as a single...

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁 : Yeah, believe me I have it. It's coming out everywhere, and believe me, people who listen and who do a bit of radio have already fallen for this track anyway (...)

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: A question Loriane.

𝗟𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻𝗲: Yes, it's about the Desert Sessions by Queen Of The Stone Age. There's a rumour that you might be involved?
💬Brian: We might be involved. The offer is still on the table but we haven't had a chance to go back to the States to do it yet. If we're all together in the States, Queen, Josh and us, it could happen. It's an open invitation. I know he recently worked with Polly Harvey on the sessions. At the moment they've taken a bit of a break. We're still friends so it could happen.

𝗟𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻𝗲: Would you be interested?
💬Brian: Sure. What's interesting is that not everyone who participates has to play their instrument of choice.

Photo credit: Jérôme Brézillon

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: I have a question for the band, which can be taken separately for each of you. When you're in the studio, away from home or when you're touring, do you like computers in general? Do you have a laptop etc?
💬Brian: How techno crazy are we ? Do you take your computer with you ?
💬Steve: I am a technophobe completely. Useless.
💬Brian: Steve is a technophobe. Stef is the most internet savvy of the three of us.
💬Stefan: That's true. But it's not very difficult.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: You Brian ?
💬Brian: I had a computer and it stayed in the box for two years. I just got it out and now I have broadband. I'm just starting to use it. There's a lot of porn...

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: The first time you go on the internet is for your hobbies. Thank you, you're burnt out.
Another song we like on Sleeping With Ghosts is English Summer Rain.
💬Brian: Cool.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Can you explain how it came about?
💬Brian: First time we're going to hear this on the radio. We took a break. We bought some digital and identical studio equipment and started working on it. This is the second song I started working on during that eight month break between touring and studio. I've been listening to a lot of Hip Hop, Dr Dre and DJ Shadow. The demo was created in a DJ Shadow atmosphere.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: And it turned out to be a bit 'Cure' I repeat.
💬Brian : Do you hear some Cure in English Summer Rain?

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Yes, a little bit. On Fascination Street by Disintegration, the bass that... Well, all right (...)

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Questions on the internet: What do you think of Nirvana?
💬Brian: Nirvana? We love it of course, it's a legendary and influential band, incredible. Everybody should love Nirvana.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Yeah, it's a landmark, in music anyway. There's talk of a Bauhaus influence too somewhere, is that...
💬Brian: Bauhaus? Well, I don't have a Bauhaus record, I never had one. I never really listened to Bauhaus or Peter Murphy so it's possible but it's probably an accident.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Right.
💬Brian: But everyone knows the Ziggy Stardust cover and Bela Lugosi's Dead and stuff like that but I never had any of their records at home.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Right. A purely aesthetic question, Brian: "Every album you have your hair shortened, is that a gamble?"
💬Brian: No not really but I think it's important to stay one haircut ahead of your fans.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Yeah, okay. So does that mean that when your fans come to see you at your gigs: short hair?
💬Brian: Well you can always cut your hair but you can't force it to grow, that's the problem. I had short hair on holiday and then I ended up making an album and what can you do but wear a wig.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Yeah no it's fine you look good.
💬Brian : Thanks.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Don't wear a wig (...)

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: So why does it end so abruptly? A bit like I Want You (She's So Heavy) by the Beatles.
💬Brian: That was Jim Abbiss' idea. I have a pretty crude metaphor, but I'm not going to say it on the radio.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Yes, please do, it's after 11pm.
💬Brian: Well it's when you pull your finger out of your ass, it goes a little bit like this.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: That was a nice metaphor. There's another metaphor in French that says: "I'm going to Kärcher your cave".
💬Brian : I didn't know that one...

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Ok. And the genesis of that track we just heard from the album? (Protect Me From What I Want)
💬Brian: It was written at the very end of the Black Market Music session and it was more of an "exorcism" song. Songs that come out, that you almost throw up, without really having to do much work intellectually and writing on them. It's almost stream of consciousness. When you have something inside you that is so unbearable that you have to get it out. We were making music so it was natural for me to get those emotions out in that way. It was a kind of exorcism, a kind of therapy I guess.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: When you start a recording session, well an introduction that will maybe last... How long did it take to record the album?
💬Brian: It took four months over a six month period. Black Market Music took nine months. This time we wanted to do it in a quicker way, just had to make decisions early on that's all.

Photo credit unknown

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Are there days when we don't do much, even when the studio is booked? Are there times when we play covers, covers a bit to get into the...
💬Brian: It's more if there's a Queens of The Stone Age gig the day before. We don't do much the day after. It happened while we were doing the... We went to see the Queens play with Dave Grohl on drums. It was maybe the 20th time we saw them play but it was really something amazing.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: I have a few more questions coming up: "What do you think of U2?"
💬Brian: We always loved U2 and still do. When we toured with U2 it was like being part of the biggest circus in the world. It was a great experience.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: What about the relationship you had with them even though you were the opening act?
💬Brian: Yeah they are very very generous, they are very friendly. We even went on their private jet and stuff, it was nice.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: There's no problem of "I'll turn the sound down for you at the beginning, I'll mess up your sound a little bit"?
💬Brian : I think all the opening acts are always not so loud because the ears of the U2 fans have come...

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: To listen to U2.
💬Brian: Yeah they came for that. But they've been very, very nice.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: A question about the venues: "Do you like the Olympia as a venue?"
💬Brian: We love it. I came out of the Olympia last week crying. It was a very emotional thing for me. It's a fantastic thing.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Another question a bit symbolic: "What do you think of the French public? I know that the French public is always very warm. There was a shot today on the Champs at Virgin, I heard it was quite friendly. How do you perceive the French public?
💬Brian: It's an enormously generous audience, they've accepted us with open arms from the first day of Placebo. Placebo and the French public share a very, very continental romanticism and it's also because we grew up with the French culture that there is a bond.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: So for those who have listened to you and discovered you tonight and those who love you and have known you for a long time, what would you have to say to them? If you had a word to say to them?
💬Brian : We rock!

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: So before we leave, Brian and Stef, you chose a record. This is Steve's choice.
💬Steve: The Kills.
💬Brian: The Kills, it's a new band but we've known Jami, Hotel, that's his name in this band, for a long time. I've known him for 13 years, we went to university together. We toured a lot with his old bands. He really found an artistic partner in Alisson and he has something very incredible. We went to see them in Cologne last week and it was a bit like watching the Velvet Underground or something. It was really something so special and so unique that now we're all about the Kills and he's a very, very good friend of ours. It makes us very, very happy that he makes music like that.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Good music. There's a band that we've been playing for a few days in Pop Rock Station that will be your opening act I think on the UK tour. It is ...
💬Brian: The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Yeah. It's got the nostalgia of rockabilly and at the same time the potency of punk.
💬Brian : That's true, yes.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: This is for the UK tour. Is there a band planned for the French tour?
💬Brian: I think we're playing with Operator who played with us at the Olympia. Yeah it's almost definite, almost.

Photo credit: Oliver Bernardt

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: We'll listen to The Kills and anyway thanks for coming all the way here. It was a real pleasure to have you here. We were supposed to finish at 11pm, it's half an hour later. We had a great time together. I hope everyone shared that at home.
💬Brian: Thank you very much, we really enjoyed it and thank you for the session it was really...

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Well done for the album and for the session on our side too it was really... Hooray for the music.
💬Brian : Yeah. Thank you very much.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Thank you for stopping by.
💬Brian: Thanks Francis.


⭐𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆
🎥 https://bit.ly/3EdeeVw

⭐𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒆𝒅 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒔𝒕 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒂𝒕 𝑷𝒐𝒑 𝑹𝒐𝒄𝒌 𝑺𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒃𝒚 𝒁𝒆́𝒈𝒖𝒕, 𝒔𝒐 𝒍𝒆𝒕'𝒔 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒔𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒚𝒖𝒅𝒊𝒐 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏
📢 https://bit.ly/3H0udrD 🎵💖

Post by Laetitia
Translation and transcription by Laetitia

🌟 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨 𝐚𝐭 𝐏𝐨𝐩 𝐑𝐨𝐜𝐤 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 by 𝐙𝐞́𝐠𝐮𝐭 (part 1) 🌟

"𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕'𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒚 𝒘𝒆 𝒅𝒐 𝒂𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒄 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔, 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒄 𝒈𝒖𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒓 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒂 𝒄𝒂𝒃𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒕 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏. 𝑺𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒘𝒆 𝒊𝒎𝒂𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒗𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒂 𝒎𝒐𝒗𝒊𝒆." (𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘔𝘰𝘭𝘬𝘰)


🔸 Dear all , for the last week of the year, I'd like to share with you an interview, with the best French radio presenter (this is quite subjective of me I must admit 😄 ), mister 𝑭𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒊𝒔 𝒁𝒆́𝒈𝒖𝒕 ! On the March 28, 2003, 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐 made an acoustic concert broadcasted on RTL 2, hosted by the band's dear friend, Francis Zégut, on his program 𝑃𝑜𝑝 𝑅𝑜𝑐𝑘 𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛. It was the first time Zégut interviewed the band.

On that very day, 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐 played a special set where they first interpreted 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑃𝑖𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 and 𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑛𝑒 in acoustic version. On the interview, 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏, 𝑺𝒕𝒆𝒇𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑺𝒕𝒆𝒗𝒆 explained the recording process of 𝑺𝒍𝒆𝒆𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑮𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒕𝒔, the way 𝐽𝑖𝑚 𝐴𝑏𝑦𝑠𝑠 did approach the songs and how the band and him managed to create a symbiosis so that the songs reached a new dimension. Why and how they've chosen this specific title for the album. And you can enjoy 𝑺𝒕𝒆𝒇𝒂𝒏 speaking French as well ! :D

𝐴𝑛 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ ℎ𝑢𝑚𝑜𝑢𝑟, 𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑏𝑒𝑡𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝐹𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑖𝑠 𝑍𝑒́𝑔𝑢𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑏𝑜. 𝐿𝑜𝑜𝑘 𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑗𝑜𝑦𝑓𝑢𝑙 𝑝𝑖𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 ! :D 🔸

Photo credit: RTL2

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Good evening. Placebo, what do you think of the credits?
💬 Brian : It's great, Led Zeppelin and Radiohead together.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Yeah, it was mixed and produced by the producers here.
💬Brian : You could do a bootleg with it.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: You think so?
💬Brian: Why not! It was all the rage last year.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Bootlegs?
💬Brian: Yeah. Take two songs and put them together.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Yeah, make versus a little bit... First question before talking about the album, do you have a lot of bootlegs of your own?
💬Brian: Yeah. There's a lot of bootlegs that you can buy in markets, things like that, in second hand shops. There's nothing you can do about it. But when you see them, you take them to listen to the quality.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Yeah.
💬Brian : But we don't pay them.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Okay. Thanks for being here Stefan. Push the red button.
💬Stefan: Hi. Good evening.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Hi Stefan, and then Steve too.
💬Brian: He always pushes the off button.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: We are together for an hour. You've brought a couple of records with you, one of which we played not too long ago and which was your opening act in England. We're mainly here to talk about Sleeping With Ghosts, which is the new Placebo album. You were in France not too long ago but you'll be back, and we'll talk about that a little later. Off air, this afternoon and after searching the net, because we're always digging around a bit before welcoming people to find out a bit more. This sentence, "Sleeping With Ghosts", caught my attention. So I thought maybe if I typed it into a search engine, it would take me somewhere. In fact I wasn't too far from where it eventually led me. You did a heist on that phrase there.
💬Brian: Yeah, it was a line from a war photography book by an Englishman called Donald McCollin, and I saw it at someone's house.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: In the library of a friend.
💬Brian: In his library. And the sentence stayed with me for years and years and years and I thought maybe one of these four, it's so beautiful that I might steal it.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Okay, so you stole it. Not only the title but you made a song.
💬Brian: We wrote the song first but we didn't know the album was going to be called Sleeping with ghosts. We're always looking for a title that's not the title of a song because it puts a bit of pressure on not just one song but twelve, on the whole album. We couldn't find anything that was as good as Sleeping with ghosts so we stuck with it. But still, the song came first.

Photo credit: Jean Baptiqte Mondino

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Ok. It's a beautiful track and it's a really beautiful song at the same time because there's a little bit of electro that comes into this album that at the same time mixes modernity with a melancholy. It's a really beautiful song...
💬Brian: I thought it was a title that worked for war photography but the title was so deep that it could be applied to almost anything. It was quite ambiguous but something very moving, that's why it stuck with me.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Ok. Let's play The bitter end which is the first single from the album (...)

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Wow, as they say, it kicks ass and with the sound treatment, it does it well anyway. There are a lot of fans who have known you for a long, long time and then there are those who are listening tonight and who have been discovering Placebo for a while with the new single, but are discovering the band. So why do you speak French so well in the first place Brian?
💬Brian: My grandfather was French, the name Molko is French too, but me and Stefan grew up in Luxembourg. You learned German and I grew up with French, with French TV of course and comics and all that.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Alright, literature, comics and so on. The second question to find out a little bit more about you, I'm addressing both Stefan and Steve, at what point do you feel you become a musician and are born to do this in the end?
💬Brian: It was when he was 11 years old, his brother wouldn't lend him his guitar.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Ok. But at no point did he think he was going to do another job? Carpenter, mechanic, etc?
💬Steve : No.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Ok so he's a born musician right.
💬Brian : He must have done a lot of jobs.

Photo credit:  James Sharrock

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Yes, small jobs like we all do. What about Stefan?
💬Stefan: When I was 12, I wrote a song, I took it with me to school and played it to my friends and they said it was a really good song so that's how I found I could write songs.
💬Brian: That was when you were 2 years old?
💬Stefan : 12 years old.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Ok, and did you know you were going to play in a rock band or did you start with classical studies, piano, things like that?
💬Stefan: No, I started with drums and then with bass and then it was the keyboard. I didn't know, I just wanted to make music.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Ok, just to make music. It's noticeable in the band anyway, you're all multi-instrumentalists in the end, that everyone can move from one instrument to another.
💬Brian: It's always been like that, we've always tried to make the sound of five people with three. But we never limited ourselves to one specific role because we thought it was quite boring and because we started out that way, quite arrogant so we thought why limit ourselves to one instrument. I want to play this, this, this. And we've continued to have this philosophy on all the albums we've done. We now have five people on stage but it's still the creative triangle in the studio that we respect and it gives us a lot of freedom because we haven't defined a specific role, we can play what we want to play. It gives us a big sense of freedom, we can experiment with whatever we want.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Do you learn to play music in a self-taught way, that is to say you sit in front of a keyboard, a guitar and try things out or do you take lessons?
💬Brian: Me and Steve. I learned the guitar and I'm still learning to play the piano. Steve, he's learnt the drums. We have a pretty instinctive approach. Stefan has learned music in several schools. He has a more technical approach and there is a balance I think with that.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: We're going to listen to Sleeping With Ghosts which is one of my favourite tracks on the album. If you have any questions for Placebo (...)

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Was it the first time you heard it on the radio Brian?
💬Brian : Yeah, I'm surprised.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Are you surprised at yourself?
💬Brian: Yes, I'm a little bit shocked. It was very very beautiful.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: By the composition ? The production?
💬Brian: The production, yes. It comes out really well.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: After the break, we'll talk about The Bitter End, where it came about, how it came about. And then we'll talk about your first choice.
💬Brian : Ok. (...)

Photo credit:  James Sharrock

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: So let's talk about music and only music. We played The Bitter End. There was a long break between you guys, between the two albums, the end of the tour, the end of the promo, a bit of a recharge, etc. What did you do separately during this break? Did you travel ? Did any of you go fishing?
💬Brian: For me, I found my first real home. I bought it. I came back down to earth in a very domestic way, I became the guy who needed to buy furniture, dishes and cutlery, stuff like that so it was...

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: And where is this house?
💬Brian: In London. It's a flat. I found my first... "my Home".

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: When you walk in, you think: "this is where I'm going to put my bags".
💬Brian : Yeah, so I dealt with that.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Okay. Steve, what did you do on that break?
💬Brian: He got together with his family, spent time with his little girl, told her stories from the tour.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Ok. People don't speak the same language as us, etc. What about Stefan?
💬Stefan: The same for me. Seeing family and friends again. Moving around Spain a bit and writing some music, things like that. Sleep a lot.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Yeah, it's good because on tour you don't sleep much.
💬Brian : No not much. Between the airports and the tour buses... Everything is moving while you're sleeping.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: You've done a lot of things besides that, you've done a bit of mixing in clubs as well.
💬Brian : Yeah I've played the DJ...

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: A collaboration with Trash Palace too.
💬Brian: Yeah. I did two songs for the Trash Palace album. But that wasn't really working. It was just stuffs I did with some friends. It took me an hour to do it. I wouldn't have done it if it was work. It was fun.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Would you allow yourselves to do solo projects, like releasing a Brian Molko album, a Steve album, a Stefan album?
💬Brian: No, we feel really strong together as a strong entity, as a rock entity. But we don't mind, we don't have a problem when one of us goes to work with a mate because we have a lot of trust in each other. So it's not really a problem.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: A real unity between the three of us. Even if there is indeed an extra musician, a bass player who was there this afternoon, but this is really the unity. Let's talk about The Bitter End which is the first single. How was it born? Where was it born? Was it born on the edge of a table? How was it born?
💬Brian: The Bitter End was written and recorded in two days at the very end of the Sleeping with ghosts session, at the end of the mix. We spent a lot of time on it, we were very precious with the mix and all that. We were using a lot of technology. We really wanted to do something very rootsy, something a bit punk, so we were jamming in the studio, while mixing. And then The Bitter End came about in a very spontaneous way.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Okay. It was born again as a three-piece.
💬Brian : Three of us, yes.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Okay. And Sleeping With Ghosts, is that another writing?
💬Brian: Yeah, at least, there were three different versions of Sleeping With Ghosts. We started with a little bit more of a Dj Shadow version, a little bit more hip hop and then we did a more acoustic version and then Jim did something completely... He tore it up, like he did with a lot of our stuff on this album, and he put it back in a very, very surprising way for us. We rolled with it, we did that on several tracks on this album. He kept surprising us with ideas that we never thought of. That's what we were excited about during the session.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: You came up with ideas during the recording and then during the production and recording, something else happened, your songs exploded with the producer.
💬Brian: Yeah, there were even songs that on the album were waltzes, that completely changed, that are not anymore. Yeah, they used to be 3/4 songs, now they're 4/4, 5/4 songs. It's funny.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Will these songs or demos that were practically done be bonus singles?
💬Brian: Yeah, we like to do that, we like to do covers, different versions of all our songs. Because we think if you can do that with a song, then it's a really good song. You can play it any way you want like With or without you by U2. You can go into a hotel, and a musician plays it on the piano. The search for a song like that is also very important because it's a universal song a little bit. That's why we do acoustic versions, not really with an acoustic guitar but rather a cabaret version. Sometimes we imagine ourselves in a movie.

Photo credit:  James Sharrock

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: But you were in the cabaret earlier.
💬Brian : Exactly.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: So your choice... Everyone brought a CD, so there will be Stefan's and Steve's choice a little bit later. Tu as choisi Janis Joplin.
💬Brian: Of course. One of my heroines, a huge influence, the music of my childhood. Yeah, she's a super strong character that inspires me, who broke a lot of taboos and was stronger than a guy, in a 60's guy world.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Yeah, she was the first great female rock singer, with a voice.
💬Brian : A beautiful voice yeah.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: A fatal fate but it still made a lot of things happen.
💬Brian: But I've always been attracted to people like Billie Holiday or Janis Joplin or PJ Harvey or even Björk who have completely unique voices and I don't think there's anyone who... There are people who try to sound like her...

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Yeah, no it won't happen. She had a gift, it fell on her and it's hard to reproduce. (...)

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: It was Janice Joplin, a musical figure... Placebo, Sleeping With Ghosts, it's the new album. This afternoon Steve, Stefan and you, Brian, came to record an acoustic session. So you played three songs: This Picture, Plasticine and Special K. Two of them are on the new album. How did This picture and Plasticine come about?
💬Brian: This Picture started out in a form quite similar to what you're going to hear. We wrote it on tour and it was a very REM song, an atmospheric piano thing, quite abstract. Then in the studio, we covered it in a punk way but the original version was...

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: It was close to this one.
💬Brian: That's it. Plasticine, Stef came into the studio with the music as it is on the album, almost exactly as it is and then we did a little bit of a cabaret version for you today.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Everyone in the band brought their idea, their music, their text eventually... Steve was the same?
💬Brian : Steve started writing songs on guitar.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: So far it's got a sound we know but there's a little bit of electro in it. Can we say that Placebo's sound is heading towards something like Gorillaz for example? Blur?
💬Brian: I think we'll always have to be an organic rock band in some way or another.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: But with the sound, ideas and technology of nowadays.
💬Brian: Yeah I think that's important, you can't be an artistic ostrich and stick your head in the sand and say that technology doesn't exist. And to make a modern sound, you have to use the tools of today. But when we go on stage, we are interested in making rock music.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Yes, we can feel it when you are on stage.
💬Brian : But we listen to a lot of hip hop and a lot of electro but I don't think in the future we're going to be Kraftwerk or anything like that because we're quite obsessed with keeping it very human.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: Bass, guitar and drums for a start.
💬Brian: Initially yeah. But it's not completely super necessary on every song but it's what we do best too. You can't turn your back on who you are.

𝗭𝗲́𝗴𝘂𝘁: It's true that Placebo is great on stage. We're going to listen to your afternoon's set, This Picture, Plasticine and Special K. Thanks a lot for this, because there is the sound, the interpretation in one take, very professional. And your voice too. You were talking about Janis Joplin but you also have a gift that fell to you.
💬Brian: Thank you.


⭐𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆
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⭐𝑳𝒆𝒕'𝒔 𝒆𝒏𝒋𝒐𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒎𝒂𝒛𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝑷𝒊𝒄𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒄 𝒂𝒕 𝑹𝑻𝑳2
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Post by Laetitia
Translation and transcription by Laetitia