🔍 𝐁ℝ𝕀𝔸ℕ 𝐌𝕆𝕃𝕂𝕆 𝔸𝕊 𝐏𝕊𝕐ℂℍ𝕆𝕊𝕐ℕ𝕋ℍ𝔼𝕋𝕀ℂ 𝐌𝕆𝔻𝔼𝕃 𝕆𝔽 𝐌𝔸ℕ 🔎

"𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐦𝐲 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬. 𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐞, 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐲, 𝐚 𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐬. 𝐈𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐥𝐬𝐨 𝐚 𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟. 𝐖𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐦𝐞." ▪𝘽𝙍𝙄𝘼𝙉 𝙈𝙊𝙇𝙆𝙊▪

Photo credit: Joseph Llanes

🟪 𝑻𝒐𝒅𝒂𝒚'𝒔 𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒅𝒆𝒅𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏'𝒔 𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒓𝒊𝒕, 𝒂𝒔 𝒔𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒃𝒚 𝒂 𝒔𝒕𝒖𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑰𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒕𝒖𝒕𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑷𝒔𝒚𝒄𝒚𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒚𝒏𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒔𝒊𝒔. The text was written in 2011 after the autor read a quote by Brian from the 𝑩𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒍𝒆 𝑭𝒐𝒓 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒖𝒏 era. Battle for The Sun is described by most critics as a brighter and more optimistic album. To which critics Brian and Stefan have added nuance:

"𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘣𝘶𝘮, 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘳, 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘮. 𝘈𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦, 𝘐'𝘮 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘣𝘶𝘮 𝘴𝘰 𝘰𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘤, 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦. 𝘐𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘦, 𝘸𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘧𝘶𝘭, 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘢𝘴 𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘬 𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦."
✔️ 𝙱𝚛𝚒𝚊𝚗 𝙼𝚘𝚕𝚔𝚘 - 𝙴𝚕𝚎𝚐𝚢 - 𝟸00𝟿


"𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘢 𝘣𝘪𝘨𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘮 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘥, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘣𝘰'𝘴 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘤 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘺𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘥𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘧𝘪𝘦𝘭𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘧𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸? 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴.”
✔️ 𝚂𝚝𝚎𝚏𝚊𝚗 𝙾𝚕𝚜𝚍𝚊𝚕 - 𝙲𝚕𝚒𝚌 𝙼𝚞𝚜𝚒𝚌 - 𝙰𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚕 𝟸00𝟿


🟪 Beyond the psychological aspect of the text, it is also the vision of a fan who, like many of us, considers 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐 𝒂𝒔 𝒂𝒏 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 in her life, a model, allowing her to understand and know herself better.

🟪 But before you start reading, a short explanation of what psychosynthesis is about.

Photo credit: Moritz Hagen

◾◾ 𝐴 𝑏𝑒ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑜𝑟 𝑎 𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑠 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦 𝑚𝑎𝑦 𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑓𝑙𝑖𝑐𝑡. 𝑃𝑠𝑦𝑐ℎ𝑜𝑠𝑦𝑛𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑖𝑚𝑠 𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑖𝑠𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑠𝑒 𝑎𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑠, 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑐ℎ ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑒𝑥𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑑𝑜 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑎𝑙𝑤𝑎𝑦𝑠 𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑜𝑛𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑑𝑒𝑒𝑝𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑎𝑠𝑝𝑖𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠. 𝐼𝑡 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑒𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑑𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑝 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑓𝑖𝑒𝑙𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑐𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑝𝑠𝑦𝑐ℎ𝑒.

𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑝𝑦 𝑖𝑠 𝑏𝑎𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑛 𝑖𝑡𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑎𝑙𝑦𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑡𝑠 ( 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑐𝑖𝑝𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠), 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑎𝑙𝑠𝑜 𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑜𝑑𝑦/𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑑 𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑘. 𝐼𝑡 𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑙𝑢𝑑𝑒𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑜𝑑𝑦, 𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑡𝑦. ◾◾

I wish you a very good time in reading it ✨


🔷 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙡𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙢𝙮 𝙢𝙤𝙙𝙚𝙡, 𝘽𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙣 𝙈𝙤𝙡𝙠𝙤. 🔷

🔹 I’m a huge fan of Placebo and I’m a member of the Institute of Psychosynthesis, a branch of Human Psychology, founded by Roberto Assagioli in 1926. I’m studying to be a counselor.

🔹 Since the beginning of their careers I’ve loved the music of the band and thought that somehow 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝒓𝒆𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒔 𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒇 “𝒑𝒔𝒚𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒚𝒏𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒄 𝑴𝒂𝒏”. Very briefly 𝑃𝑠𝑦𝑐ℎ𝑜𝑠𝑦𝑛𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑠 𝑟𝑒𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑑 ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑜𝑢𝑟 ℎ𝑢𝑚𝑎𝑛 𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒, 𝑝ℎ𝑦𝑠𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙, 𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙, 𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑝𝑖𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙. The synthesis occurs around a personal center, the conscious ego, the “I”, so that it is possible a formation or reconstruction of a personality around this center, through the correct use of the will.

𝐼𝑛 𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑠, 𝑎 ℎ𝑢𝑚𝑎𝑛 𝑏𝑒𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑙 𝑜𝑓 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝑜𝑓 ℎ𝑖𝑠/ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ ℎ𝑖𝑠/ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑑𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑜𝑙𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑠 𝑡𝑜𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑠 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑜𝑛 𝑔𝑜𝑎𝑙, 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑎𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑒𝑣𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑎𝑠𝑘 𝑡𝑜 𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑦𝑛𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑠 𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒, 𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑜𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑛 𝑜𝑝𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝑒𝑎𝑐ℎ 𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟.

Photo credit: Franck Juery

🔹 But what is the best way to take the control of the sides if not giving them a voice, listening to them, telling of them, singing of them, expressing them, looking at them as you would be another person, experiencing a kind of empathy for them, finally accepting them and integrating them ?

🔹 Watching the documentary in the new Placebo dvd “𝑾𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒑𝒊𝒆𝒄𝒆𝒔” that intuition about Brian grew even more inside me. When I heard him say the words:

“…𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐈 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐢𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭, 𝐈 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤, 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐬. 𝐈𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐟𝐟 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐦𝐲𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟, 𝐚 𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟-𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐲, 𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐬. 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐢𝐭’𝐬 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐱𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐦, 𝐢𝐭’𝐬 𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬, 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐞. 𝐒𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐈 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐛𝐲 𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐭 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲, 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐦𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐢𝐧 𝐨𝐧 𝐦𝐲𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟, 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐧𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐥-𝐠𝐚𝐳𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐰𝐚𝐲….”

….suddenly I realized I was the same, the reason I love him so much is that we both pursuit to find the truth in ourselves.

So I started to write this article…

🔹 𝐼’𝑚 𝑎𝑙𝑤𝑎𝑦𝑠 𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑝𝑢𝑧𝑧𝑙𝑒𝑑 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝐼 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑟 ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑠𝑎𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑡 𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑏𝑜 𝑎𝑙𝑏𝑢𝑚, 𝑩𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒍𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒖𝒏, 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑎𝑙𝑏𝑢𝑚 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑖𝑡’𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑜𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐.

🔹 This may also be true, but I think Brian and Stefan don’t like to hear the thing. And they surely are right, because saying that the last Placebo album is more beautiful because it is more optimistic is like saying depressed, lonely, sad, abused people can produce only ugly stuff, or even they haven’t the right to share their lives and their feelings because they are pessimistic then ugly. They better remain silent to not bother happy people. There is beauty in everything and I personally think the reason for the last album being better is because Placebo are growing as artists and human beings. And let me say that the literature is filled with pessimistic masterpieces (think of novels and poetries written at the war’s periods) and to be optimistic doesn’t assure an artist to make a beautiful work.

Photo credit: Scarlet Page

🔹 Once, when my daughter was only six, I let her listen to 𝑴𝒆𝒅𝒔. After only a minute she looked at me and said: ”Mum, I’m sorry for you, you are a loser.“ This really left me dazed. She barely knew English so I thought she had learnt that English word “looser” from some Hanna Montana’s stuff she was used to watching.

Saying that sad, depressed, stuck people are losers and that happy, combative, self confident people are winners is not completely wrong, but… 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑑𝑜𝑒𝑠𝑛’𝑡 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛 𝑜𝑛𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑦 ℎ𝑖𝑠/ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑤𝑒𝑎𝑘𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑠 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑘 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑎 𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑒??.

I think it’s part of some culture, which starting from the basic statement that optimism is the foundation for victory, which I agree with, ends with the dangerous statement that everything sad, or depressing, ugly, painful has to be referred to as losers.

𝑫𝒆𝒏𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒖𝒔 𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒂 𝒗𝒊𝒄𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚. 𝑰𝒇 𝒘𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒘𝒊𝒏, 𝒘𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒘𝒊𝒏 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒐𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒔𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒔, 𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒂𝒔 𝒘𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒏𝒆𝒈𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆.

𝑾𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇 𝒂𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆, 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒈𝒏𝒊𝒛𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒘𝒆𝒂𝒌𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔, 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒇𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒔, 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒂 𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒔𝒆𝒓, 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒂 𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒏𝒆𝒓 !

🔹 I can understand that at the beginning of his career Brian’s sides which mostly urged to be expressed were the most suffering, the angriest, the most repressed.

If you grew up as an abused or alienated child you’ll likely feel stuck in a bad mental frame. 𝐼𝑡’𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑐ℎ𝑜𝑜𝑠𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒 𝑝𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑡, 𝑖𝑡’𝑠 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑠 𝑦𝑜𝑢 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑎 𝑝𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐 𝑣𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑙𝑑 𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢. 𝑊𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑖𝑡𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒, ℎ𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟, 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑣𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒. That is, you can turn more optimistic.

All the work Brian does on himself, trying to understand the emotions which are troubling inside of him “𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐧𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐥-𝐠𝐚𝐳𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐰𝐚𝐲” as he says, is likely similar to the work that psychosynthesis suggests.

🔹 By listening to his own feelings, discovering every side of his personality and by giving them a voice, by accepting them with the tenderness of a mother, he managed to have the control of them, to synthesize the opposites in order to walk together towards a common goal, his success, that is the full expression of his potential as artist and as human being.

Brian has managed to deal with the conflict of personalities and the unmet needs he experienced in his youth.

Photo credit: Laetizia Forget

🔹 𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑐ℎ𝑜𝑜𝑠𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒 𝑜𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐, 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑐𝑎𝑛’𝑡 𝑐ℎ𝑜𝑜𝑠𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒 𝑝𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐. 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑠. Brian didn’t choose to be pessimistic to look cooler. Depending on his past experiences, since as he referred he grew up as an alienated child, he was likely to reach the age of twenty feeling a pessimistic, angry and sad young man. This doesn’t mean a depressed person doesn’t have the right to share his pain and his negative vision of life, because 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑔𝑜𝑜𝑑 𝑤𝑎𝑦 𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑙 𝑜𝑛𝑒’𝑠 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑠. Again he doesn’t do that to look cooler, but because he needs to share to be accepted. 𝑶𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒍 𝒉𝒊𝒎𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒅𝒖𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒊𝒔 𝒗𝒊𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆 𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒏𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒐𝒑𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒄 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆. 𝑨𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏, 𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒐𝒆𝒔𝒏’𝒕 𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒐𝒑𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒎 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒐𝒍𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒓 𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒂𝒖𝒅𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆.

Brian never chose to be pessimistic. He just was like that because his heart was hurt and filled with anger. He felt a loser, but never meant to be a loser forever, for in fact all their albums are a search for a way out. And he found it ! So he’s a winner, because he felt a loser but at some point he chose to be a winner.

For that reason I disagree with that clinical psychologist who told him once, as Brian says in the documentary, “𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐈 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐭, 𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐲, 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐲.”

🔹 This sounds quite a weird thing to say from that psychologist because who can be totally happy forever ? 𝑨𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒔𝒕 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔, 𝒉𝒆 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒉𝒊𝒎𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇 𝒂𝒔 𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒊𝒔. He has some needs, like to receive recognition, to be accepted, to be considered as any other human being, to be loved.

🔹 Once he gets respect, appreciation, and he feels reworded and accepted for what he is, once he learns to cope with music industry’s pressures, the press’s attacks, the rock’ n’ roll lifestyle’s false rules, once he gets love from his son, friends and fans, once he gets more freedom through the money honestly gained, once he learnt to cope with his latent sides and the self-sabotage, why shouldn’t he feel happy ?

🔹 As artist he may be unrest as sitting on a volcano, but this is the foundation for creativity and the urge to always set new goals in life, that is great !

So Brian and Stefan, go on ! We love you !
✔️ 𝙸𝚕 𝚋𝚕𝚘𝚐 𝚍𝚒 𝙰𝚕𝚎𝚡𝚒𝚊 𝙼𝚎𝚕𝚒 - 𝙽𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝟸𝟹, 𝟸0𝟷𝟷

Post by Laetitia

🌟 𝘽𝙊𝙎𝘾𝙊 🌟

"𝙁𝙤𝙧 𝙢𝙚, 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙤𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙝𝙖𝙨 𝙖 𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙡 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙚 𝙞𝙣 𝙢𝙮 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝘽𝙤𝙨𝙘𝙤."
(𝘚𝘵𝘦𝘧𝘢𝘯 𝘖𝘭𝘴𝘥𝘢𝘭)

🔸 𝑩𝒐𝒔𝒄𝒐 is the last track of 𝐿𝑜𝑢𝑑 𝐿𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝐿𝑜𝑣𝑒, the 7th album by 𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑏𝑜. It's an almost 7 minute long piano melody composed by 𝑆𝑡𝑒𝑓𝑎𝑛 𝑂𝑙𝑠𝑑𝑎𝑙. It is one of the first song to be written for 𝐿𝑜𝑢𝑑 𝐿𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝐿𝑜𝑣𝑒, with the eponymous track.

The character in the song is calling for redemption because of his bad habits due to alcohol addiction and nasty behaviour towards his loved one. According to 𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛, 𝑩𝒐𝒔𝒄𝒐 is the most personal song he had ever written and his apology is directed " 𝑡𝑜 𝑎 𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑜𝑛 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑚𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑛𝑦𝑚𝑜𝑢𝑠 ". 🔸

Bosco 🎥 https://bit.ly/3o9nkg1 🎵

Photo credit: Jospeh Llanes, Screenshots from the video, edit by Laetitia

⭐ 𝐕𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐎𝐒 ⭐

🔸 The video was directed by 𝐾𝑦𝑙𝑒 𝑆𝑎𝑙𝑎𝑧𝑎𝑟 and and released on March 2014. It tells a very interesting and tragic story: the worst disappointments and desillusions in love.

Alternate video 🎥 https://bit.ly/3wq2qNq 🎵


🔸 The song has been played only once live, during the 𝑀𝑇𝑉 𝑈𝑛𝑝𝑙𝑢𝑔𝑔𝑒𝑑 session. Recorded on 19 August 2015 at The London Studios. 𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛 said about this recording:

"We wanted to do something extraordinary, something that would challenge us. The process has been interesting, because we were creating something while we were performing it. That was something we had never done before. The simultaneity of the performance and the creation process was completely new for us.”

(𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘣𝘰𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥)

Live MTV Unplugged 🎥 https://bit.ly/3BTTxN9 🎵

🔸 There are many quotes from the band about 𝑩𝒐𝒔𝒄𝒐 which give lots of details on what the song is about and how important this particular song is for 𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛, also on the writing process.

𝘽𝙪𝙩 𝙥𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙚, 𝙗𝙚 𝙨𝙪𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙡𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙦𝙪𝙤𝙩𝙚 𝙬𝙝𝙞𝙘𝙝 𝙞𝙨 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝙨𝙪𝙧𝙥𝙧𝙞𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜 ! 🔸

Photo credit: Joseph Llanes

⭐ 𝐁𝐑𝐈𝐀𝐍 ⭐

📢 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒂𝒍𝒔𝒐 𝒂 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒏𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒅 𝑩𝒐𝒔𝒄𝒐. [...] 𝒀𝒐𝒖'𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒎𝒆 𝒊𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒎𝒆 𝒐𝒓 𝒏𝒐𝒕, 𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒕 𝒂 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒎𝒆𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒊𝒄 𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒈 ?

💬 Very melancholic. It's about a relationship that is completely torn apart by addiction. It's not a depressing song. The fact that the narrator asks for forgiveness is very significant, as I said before, it's a desire to find some redemption.
(𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘔𝘰𝘭𝘬𝘰 - 𝘐𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸 𝘵𝘳𝘦̀𝘴 𝘵𝘳𝘦̀𝘴 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘦́𝘦 𝘢𝘵 𝘙𝘛𝘓2 - 2013)


📢 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒕𝒐𝒖𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒔 𝑩𝒐𝒔𝒄𝒐. 𝑾𝒉𝒐 𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒕 𝒅𝒆𝒅𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 ?

💬 This is my apology to a very special person who must remain anonymous but... I am in all honesty, there is no story and no narrator. Therefore, it is still very difficult for me to hear Bosco without tears coming to my eyes.
(𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘔𝘰𝘭𝘬𝘰, 𝘒𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘳)


📢 𝑾𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒓𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍 𝒄𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒐 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒃𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒊𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒆𝒓 ?
💬 Bosco .

📢 𝑨𝒍𝒔𝒐 𝒊𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒘𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒆𝒓 ?
💬 For me, 𝐵𝑜𝑠𝑐𝑜 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑟 𝑑𝑒𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑚𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡. It sounds the least like Placebo. It is a piano song with strings. There's hardly any guitar on it. It's very minimalist. It's very long . I think it's the one song that can transcend our identity and exist in its own context, without the necessary context of the band to give it meaning . Every band tries to write that one classic song and if you're lucky, you get to do it once in your career . Fleetwood Mac have done it many times, but they're geniuses. We may have got close to that classic song with Bosco. It may not be super classic because it's seven minutes long but that felt like the right amount of time to tell the story that needed to be told.
(𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘔𝘰𝘭𝘬𝘰 - 𝘝𝘪𝘳𝘨𝘪𝘯 𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘰 𝘐𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘢, 2013)

📢 𝑩𝒐𝒔𝒄𝒐 " 𝒊𝒔 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒄𝒐𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒎 ...
💬 This is a very sad song , tragic, the devastating effect of addiction on a relationship. This song makes me cry. This is one of the most honest and vulnerable song in our career. We managed to create a song that can exist outside the context of Placebo.
(𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘔𝘰𝘭𝘬𝘰 - 𝘓𝘦 𝘚𝘰𝘪𝘳)

💬 It is probably the most honest I have ever been in a song. It's a process of catharsis and absolutely and very much directed at one person in particular.

You can write as many songs as you want to make amends to people you have hurt in your life but truthfully, the only amends that count is the living amend. It's how you behave in the future.
(𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘔𝘰𝘭𝘬𝘰 - 𝘕𝘦𝘸𝘴.𝘤𝘰𝘮.𝘢𝘶)

💬 "I think every band tries to replicate their own identity in their songs . I would say that Bosco is definitely one of those songs."
(𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘔𝘰𝘭𝘬𝘰 - 𝘒𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘦.𝘢𝘵)

📢 𝑾𝒉𝒐'𝒔 𝑩𝒐𝒔𝒄𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒕𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒅𝒓𝒖𝒏𝒌... ?
💬 (long awkward silence) It's hard, very hard to answer this question. It's such a personal text ... It's full of regrets ... I think it's the most intimate and honest song I have ever written. The song is a way to offer my sincere apologies to someone ... It would be too difficult for me to tell more about it, I'm unable to give more details. I've never been this vulnerable in a song. With hindsight, I believe in the "Nancy Boy" era, in the 90's, I never thought our band would be able to do a song like "Bosco". It's so far from where we started ...
(𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘔𝘰𝘭𝘬𝘰 - 𝘙𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘔𝘢𝘨, 2013)

📢 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒍𝒐𝒕𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒓𝒆𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒂𝒍𝒃𝒖𝒎. 𝑭𝒐𝒓 𝒆𝒙𝒂𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒆, 𝑩𝒐𝒔𝒄𝒐 𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒔 𝒎𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑭𝒍𝒆𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒉 𝒑𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓, 𝑱𝒆𝒓𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝑩𝒐𝒔𝒄𝒉 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒊𝒔 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒉𝒆’𝒔 𝒏𝒊𝒄𝒌𝒏𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒏 𝑺𝒑𝒂𝒊𝒏.
💬 I didn’t know that…

📢 𝑾𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒅𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒏𝒂𝒎𝒆 ‘𝑩𝒐𝒔𝒄𝒐’ 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 ? 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒉𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒅𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒃𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒆𝒔, 𝒔𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒂𝒔 𝑫𝒐𝒏 𝑩𝒐𝒔𝒄𝒐, 𝒂 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌𝒆𝒓 𝒑𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔𝒕, 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒊𝒔 𝒇𝒂𝒎𝒐𝒖𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝑭𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑩𝒆𝒍𝒈𝒊𝒖𝒎…
💬 Yeah, in Spain too. I think it’s also an Italian wine; it means ‘forest’ in Italy. In fact since Stefan started playing the piano on this song, he chose to give this name to the melody; then I wrote the lyrics. We couldn’t find a better title so we thought we should keep it; it’s quite abstract…there’s some sort of mystery in it. It can be interpreted in hundred ways and we love that ambiguity, the mystery that surrounds it. So we kept it.
(𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘔𝘰𝘭𝘬𝘰 - 𝘗𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘍𝘔, 2013)

💬 It's about a tragic relationship , torn by addiction . It also speaks of the search for redemption , and asking for forgiveness .
(𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘔𝘰𝘭𝘬𝘰 - 𝘔𝘦𝘵𝘳𝘰 𝘕𝘦𝘸𝘴)

Photo credit: Joseph Llanes

⭐ 𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐅𝐀𝐍 ⭐

💬 For me, the song that has a special place in my heart is Bosco. I remember the time that we wrote that song and it was in a very early stages of the album. I wrote the music and Brian was: “That is very beautiful. I have to write something that matches that.” So when he came in that day he said “Stef, I written the lyrics and let me know what you think ?” And he sang that song and I felt like my heart has been crushed, In a good way. Bosco is melancholic and beautiful at the same time. I think it’s that fine line about being in a dark place or sort of tackling that dark side of our emotions but doing it in a poetic way. And it’s about accepting those are the kind of feelings we all experience and rather than trying to shut them out by some form of substance or blocking them out with denial, it just tells you to let yourself to live through the process and moment. I think lyrics do that for him (Brian) as well. It’s a way for him to open up.
(𝘚𝘵𝘦𝘧𝘢𝘯 𝘖𝘭𝘴𝘥𝘢𝘭 - 𝘏𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳)


⭐ 𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐕𝐄 ⭐

"𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝑰 𝒔𝒖𝒄𝒌 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒅𝒓𝒚"... Our dear 𝑆𝑡𝑒𝑣𝑒 had to precise this has nothing to do with mosquitoes or vampires ! 😄
💬 “It’s more or less about a failed relationship, maybe. Brian writes the lyrics so he can tell you more in depth but I don’t think it’s about a mosquito.”

Photo credit: Joseph Llanes

⭐ 𝐀 𝐁𝐈𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐇𝐔𝐌𝐎𝐔𝐑 ⭐

🔸 All these quotes are very, very serious but.... have you ever read that funny answer by 𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛 at Linea Rock in 2013 ? When Barbara Caserta asked 𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛 about the song, he replied in an ironic and amused tone:

💬 "We wrote that in an Italian forrest, that's why it's called Bosco.

📢 𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕'𝒔 𝒂 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒈. 𝑭𝒐𝒓 𝑩𝒐𝒔𝒄𝒐, 𝒅𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒘𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 ?
💬 We built campfire, we took magic mushrooms and we put face paint on and we did a sort of shamanic ritual in the Italian forrest and people from the other side, from another universe, sort of came and they took our hands and they placed them on a little miniature piano and we wrote that way"
(𝘓𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘢 𝘙𝘰𝘤𝘬 - 2013)

𝐻𝑢𝑚𝑜𝑢𝑟 ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑝𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑙𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑒𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑑𝑜𝑒𝑠 𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑤𝑒𝑙𝑙 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑓𝑖𝑒𝑙𝑑 𝑡𝑜𝑜 ! 😄 🔸

🔸 The vocals and lyrics provide this track a total sincere and touching dimension, as if it were all a matter of life and death (by which I mean mental). The call for redemption is emphasised by the dominant piano and the strings which add a genuine and honest dramatic inflection. All this adds depth to the theme of alcoholism and the harm it can do to a couple.

We will never know if the person Brian is talking to has forgiven him...

I hope so. 🔸

Post by Laetitia

🌟 𝙂𝙀𝙉𝙀𝙍𝘼𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉 𝙂𝘼𝙋 🌟

"𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐤'𝐧'𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐥 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐮𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐫𝐞𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧. 𝐈𝐭'𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞."
(𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑀𝑜𝑙𝑘𝑜 𝑎𝑡 𝐷𝑜𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝐽𝑒, 2003)

Photo credit: Gill Flett 

🔸Dear Soulmates, today we will focus on a couple of 𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛's quotes regarding generation gap.

A generation gap is the difference of opinion between one generation and another regarding beliefs, politics or values. In current usage, it often refers to a gap between young people and their parents or grandparents.

Rock music has always been perceived as rebellious music, with all the clichés attached to it. "Drug sex and rock'n'roll" is a worldwide sentence we often hear when talking about rock music, may it be 'soft' rock or 'hard' rock. Many rock bands have attracted a lot of interest and attention in their time.It can be also combined with a particular style of clothing or a specific attitude in order to shock.

Photo credit: Gill Flett 

𝐼 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑 𝑡𝑤𝑜 𝑞𝑢𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑠 𝑏𝑦 𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑐ℎ 𝐼'𝑑 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑜𝑝𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑛. 🔸

💬"I think kids are looking for records that are likely to piss off their parents again. John Lydon said that rock music was made to create a generation gap, and we believe that too."


💬"It's been a long time since bands were angry. It's all Oasis's fault; since their success, there's nothing subversive in England, just Coldplay, Stereophonics, Travis, stuff to listen to with your parents."
(𝑏𝑜𝑡ℎ 𝑞𝑢𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑛 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝐷𝑒𝑠 𝐶𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑠 𝑒𝑡 𝐷𝑒𝑠 𝑀𝑎𝑢𝑥 𝑏𝑦 𝑆𝑒𝑏𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑛 𝑀𝑖𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑢𝑑)

Let's listen to 𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑘 𝑆ℎ𝑖𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑠𝑒 with its thunderous and jerky guitars and its unfortunate story.

🎥𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒌 𝑺𝒉𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒂𝒕 𝑳𝒆𝒔 𝑬𝒖𝒓𝒐𝒄𝒌𝒆́𝒆̀𝒏𝒏𝒆𝒔 𝒅𝒆 𝑩𝒆𝒍𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒕 (1999)
🎵https://bit.ly/2WZxEh2 🎵

Post by Laetitia

♦️𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐀𝐑𝐘: 𝐋𝐎𝐔𝐃 𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄♦️

"𝙒𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙠 𝙬𝙚'𝙫𝙚 𝙢𝙖𝙙𝙚 𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙢𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝙝𝙤𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙩, 𝙙𝙞𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙩, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙫𝙪𝙡𝙣𝙚𝙧𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙚 𝙖𝙡𝙗𝙪𝙢 𝙩𝙤 𝙙𝙖𝙩𝙚."
(Brian Molko, Yahoo Music, September 16th 2013)

Photo credit: album cover, Joseph Llanes (4), edit by Silke

Today is the 🔺𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐀𝐑𝐘🔺 of Placebo's seventh studio album “𝐋𝐎𝐔𝐃 𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄”, it was released eight years ago on September 13th 2013. The limited edition includes a DVD with eight live versions of the songs.

The work on “Loud like love” kinda started by accident. The band were in the studio to record singles, but they were having such a good time and liked the producer, so they thought they just should keep going. Actually some of the songs on the album were originally written by Brian for a possible solo album, but he contributed them to the new Placebo album.
“Loud like love” was recorded at RAK Studios in London and produced by Adam Noble. It reached no. 13 in the UK Albums Chart.
Three singles were released from the album: “Too many friends”, “Loud like love” and “A million little pieces”.

The release of the record was promoted with a live stream. “Loud like love TV“ was a world premiere, because it was the first time ever that a band has produced, curated and streamed a global live TV show. The event was broadcasted from YouTube Space London on 16th September 2013 and surprised the fans with new and exclusive content, interviews, an extensive question and answer session with all band members and interesting facts about the collaborators behind the album.

🎥 𝗟𝗢𝗨𝗗 𝗟𝗜𝗞𝗘 𝗟𝗢𝗩𝗘 𝗧𝗩
https://bit.ly/2UJ2Ks1

Screenshot from Loud like love TV

The album consists of ten songs, about half of them were originally written for a solo project that Brian wanted to do at that time.
”The record is called 'Loud like love' but it doesn’t have ten love songs on it: this is Placebo World so of course we’re going to explore the more dark recesses of emotion – obsession, jealousy, alienation, heartbreak, abandon – and even the absence of love and the effect that has on a human being”, he explained the album in an interview with The Music in September 2013.
In another interview Brian said that he sees “Loud like love” as a collection of ten short stories with a unifying theme that approaches the subject from ten different angles (Hunger, August 2013). Brian and Stefan both stated several times that they were very proud of the album and that they think it is their most honest and vulnerable release to date.

💿 𝗕𝗔𝗧𝗧𝗟𝗘 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗨𝗡 – 𝗙𝗨𝗟𝗟 𝗔𝗟𝗕𝗨𝗠

01. Loud like love https://bit.ly/2ycaPcY 🎵
02. Scene of the crime https://bit.ly/3abYLa1 🎵
03. Too many friends https://bit.ly/3cecJc2 🎵
04. Hold on to me https://bit.ly/3b3Ei7v 🎵
05. Rob the bank https://bit.ly/2JYGOjB 🎵
06. A million little pieces https://bit.ly/2XzBlHZ 🎵
07. Exit wounds https://bit.ly/2JZQSsH 🎵
08. Purify https://bit.ly/34tLvLO 🎵
09. Begin the end https://bit.ly/33FFaN1 🎵
10. Bosco https://bit.ly/2V4ucxW 🎵

The Chinese version of the album swaps out “Rob the bank“ with “Pity party (of one)“
– Pity party (of one) https://bit.ly/3b5fZpY 🎵

Photo credit: Heiko Laschitzki

📌 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗔𝗡 𝗢𝗡 “𝗟𝗢𝗨𝗗 𝗟𝗜𝗞𝗘 𝗟𝗢𝗩𝗘“ 📌
 📢 "'Loud like love' is very eclectic and textured and layered. I think it's more varied and more adventurous. We took a lot more risks with this record. In terms of the emotions in the lyrics I think it's our most honest and vulnerable album to date.''
(Bangkok Post, August 18th 2013)

📢 “The album explores how love can be violent, brutal and disorientating, and how the absence of it can lead people to behave in quite extreme ways. It also deals with jealousy, obsession, heartbreak and how addiction can tear relationships apart. So, it’s an album about people and the way that they interact with each other – or fail to.“
(Hunger, August 8th 2013)

📢 ”It is love, but this being Placebo World, it’s not gonna be a collection of love songs in Michael Bublé-style. My experience with love, over the past 20 years, is what I’ve pulled on to write these novellas or small fictions. It hasn’t always been about the initial rush of infatuation and that feeling of elation and euphoria that comes with falling in love. Of course, I’ve experienced that and it’s been quite mind-blowing, but sometimes you could fall in love with somebody who doesn’t know you exist or doesn’t see you that way, or doesn’t even find you attractive, and that can be quite heartbreaking. You can force somebody to leave – inadvertently – out of selfishness or behaviour. Often, the absence of love is quite loud... as in the echo or the reverb of an empty cave, the sound of silence, or the sound of your own breathing. So the album kind of deals with the transgressive love in the second track [“Scene of the Crime”], and “Too Many Friends” is about feeling disconnected and not finding the satisfaction, the fulfilment that you need from genuine human contact, through a plethora of virtual friendships. “Rob the Bank” is not about financial crisis: It’s about obsession and jealousy, very carnal, primal obsession and jealousy.”

(Pure Volume, September 12th 2013)

📢 "We think we've made our most honest, direct, and vulnerable album to date. It's a byproduct of becoming very comfortable with who we are. I think we spent a lot of the past 20 years experimenting and trying to stretch our sound in lots of different directions. Each album has a different tone to it. This album brings all of that together. It showcases what we do best, which is emotional music that's very human and fragile. It's not necessarily about bombast, although there are powerful moments. But it's very much about tenderness."
(Yahoo Music, September 16th 2013)

📢 ”When you think of the first song “Loud like love” being perhaps the first initial euphoric rushes of infatuation, and innocent discovery and youthful abandon, to “Scene of the Crime” being the first moment of transgression, to all the way through to the second-to-last song, which is “Begin The End,” which is the point in a relationship when you realize that you’re still in it, but you’ve passed the tipping point, that you know it’s over even though it’s not physically over yet. And then to “Bosco” which is kind of an apology and a search for redemption. I find that really interesting too, that it could be 10 songs about ten different relationships — and also the whole album could be seen as one, at different stages.”
(Vanyaland, October 18th 2013)

📢 ”I’m really, really proud of how bare this record in terms of what it’s expressing emotionally. We really let the listener into who we are, what our soul looks like, through these songs. We’re not hiding behind anything anymore.”
(Vanyaland, October 18th 2013)

📢 ”Everything on the record I think is very, very much inspired by real events and real emotions. The characters in these songs are created by us to convey an emotion. This album might be considered as a collection of short stories with a common theme, explored in its deepest and darkest recesses, but also celebrated. We didn’t want to do something bleak or gloomy and completely hopeless, but unfortunately, without talking about broken hearts or how people manipulate or abuse each other in relationships, you’re not really giving a full picture, I think.”
(RSI Rete Tre, 26 October 2013)

Photo credit: Heiko Laschitzki,

📌 𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗙𝗔𝗡 𝗢𝗡 “𝗟𝗢𝗨𝗗 𝗟𝗜𝗞𝗘 𝗟𝗢𝗩𝗘” 📌
📢 “It’s all killer, no filler. It’s really hard to describe a record but I think it still sounds like Placebo. It’s maybe heavier and more layered – more pop in places, darker in places, lighter in places. Personally, it’s the album I feel like Placebo should have made and it feels like the most complete body of work to me. So, it’s very hard to describe but it’s an exciting record.“
(Hunger, August 8th 2013)

📢 ”There are a lot of emotions and colour in this record. It’s both emotional and exciting at the same time.”
(The Straits Times, August 20th 2013)

📢 ”The only way I can react to this record is by a general feeling since I can’t analyse it. I felt that this is the record that I’ve always heard in my head for what a Placebo record should sound like. This is the most successful transfer of idea to record so for me I truly feel it’s our best record.”

(Stefan, Bandwagon, August 2013)

📢 ”Equally, the title track ‘Loud like love’, was written at the same time as ‘Bosco’, and they became sort of the bookends for the album. ‘Loud like love’ talks about the origins of love. I think that’s a very interesting concept because it’s an emotion we can’t touch but it’s so real and different for everyone. I relate to certain songs because of my own relationships and problems that I’ve had but I also see certain songs and I go “Jesus! Brian, have you been to that place? That’s a f*ckng dark place.” And he’s like “yeah haven’t you?” No, not that dark.”
(Hanger, September 4th 2013)

Post by Silke

🔹𝐌𝐄𝐋𝐎𝐃𝐘 𝐌𝐀𝐊𝐄𝐑 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗔𝗡: 𝐈'𝐌 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐈 𝐄𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐌🔹

Today I want to share an ♦️𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖♦️ with Brian from the “Black market music” era. He talked to Melody Maker about the songs on the new album, being a pervert, the dark and violent side of love, his biggest fear and many more. Enjoy reading!

Photo credit: Kevin Westenberg

🔹𝐌𝐄𝐋𝐎𝐃𝐘 𝐌𝐀𝐊𝐄𝐑 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖: 𝐈'𝐌 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐈 𝐄𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐌🔹

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.“

Photo credit: Kevin Westenberg

"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.“

"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 it that nasty, let's make it that unlistenable““.

Photo credit: Kevin Westenberg

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!“

Photo credit: Kevin Westenberg

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.“

"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"“.

Photo credit: Kevin Westenberg

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.“
(Melody Maker, "I'm the anti Eminem", October 2000)

Post by Silke

𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗩𝗜𝗘𝗪 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗔𝗡 𝗠𝗢𝗟𝗞𝗢 – 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗡𝗬, 𝟮𝟬𝟬𝟵

Today I want to share an ♦️𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗩𝗜𝗘𝗪♦️ with Brian from the “Battle for the sun” era. It was published in The Skinny in November 2009. Enjoy reading!

Photo credir: Hennessy Artistry

𝗚𝗜𝗩𝗘𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗟𝗢𝗡𝗚𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗧𝗬 𝗢𝗙 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗕𝗔𝗡𝗗 (𝟭𝟱 𝗬𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗦 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗖𝗢𝗨𝗡𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚), 𝗛𝗢𝗪 𝗗𝗢 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗙𝗜𝗡𝗗 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗠𝗢𝗧𝗜𝗩𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗧𝗢 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗨𝗘 – 𝗚𝗘𝗡𝗘𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗙𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗛 𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗔𝗦 𝗬𝗘𝗧 𝗥𝗘𝗠𝗔𝗜𝗡𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗧𝗥𝗨𝗘 𝗧𝗢 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗖𝗘𝗕𝗢 𝗔𝗘𝗦𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗧𝗜𝗖?
📢 “Well, that's the challenging equilibrium you try and strike every time you make a new record: trying to push the boundaries and limits of your sound without repeating yourself. You have to try to do something new, exciting and fresh with the band's sound and play with the band's conceived identity, but at the same time not disregarding what makes you uniquely 'you'.”

𝗗𝗢𝗘𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗚𝗘𝗧 𝗧𝗥𝗜𝗖𝗞𝗜𝗘𝗥 𝗔𝗦 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗚𝗢 𝗔𝗟𝗢𝗡𝗚?
📢 “I think so! The greater the body of work, the more difficult it becomes to write a fresh song; it becomes a lot more challenging. As far as longevity is concerned, I think if you look at the careers of the likes of The Cure or Depeche Mode - I use those examples because they both released albums this year, 30 years into their career - well they've made music, since day one, purely on their own terms, unaffected, unconcerned by trends, movements and fashion in music. They followed their own path and stuck to their guns, and I think that's why they're still making records which are still worthwhile listening. We're 15 years in, and that's where I'd like to be in another 15. It's not like we have any other options; we're basically unemployable, you know, so this is it.”

𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗖𝗘𝗕𝗢'𝗦 𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗞 𝗛𝗔𝗦 𝗚𝗘𝗡𝗘𝗥𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗬 𝗔𝗗𝗗𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗦𝗘𝗗 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗚𝗥𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗔𝗦 𝗢𝗙 𝗟𝗢𝗩𝗘, 𝗟𝗢𝗦𝗦, 𝗦𝗔𝗖𝗥𝗜𝗙𝗜𝗖𝗘, 𝗛𝗘𝗗𝗢𝗡𝗜𝗦𝗠 𝗘𝗧𝗖. 𝗔𝗥𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗦𝗣𝗘𝗖𝗧𝗜𝗩𝗘𝗦 𝗢𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗦𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗠𝗘𝗦 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗚𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗔𝗦 𝗬𝗢𝗭 𝗚𝗘𝗧 𝗢𝗟𝗗𝗘𝗥?
📢 “I started looking back on my career around the time of Meds [fifth studio album, released in 2006]. As a lyricist I thought I was using a great deal of gimmicks. For example, the whole chemistry/medicine cabinet routine that is Commercial for Levi or a song title that screams 'Look at Me!' that is Nancy Boy! I made a decision that I wanted to stop using gimmicks and address the bigger questions in more everyday language where possible, and try and simplify it, I suppose. Say more by saying less, that's kinda the trip I'm on right now.”

Photo credit: Scarlet Page

𝗜𝗦 𝗡𝗢𝗧 𝗔𝗧𝗧𝗘𝗠𝗣𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗧𝗢 𝗗𝗘𝗙𝗜𝗡𝗘 '𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗛𝗨𝗠𝗔𝗡 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗗𝗜𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡' 𝗔 𝗥𝗜𝗦𝗞𝗬 𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗣𝗥𝗜𝗦𝗘?
📢 “Everybody who writes wants to write stuff that's timeless and doesn't date, really. I think you have to be very careful if you want to do that. You have to tap into the spirit of the age but at the same time write something that transcends it. I don't think that using incredibly culturally specific language enables you to do that. So, I'm trying to transcend that and write something that can stand up to the music that I grew up listening to. Take Leonard Cohen, for example. There's a universality in his music and a simplicity which makes it appreciable and meaningful in any decade, any century really. I think that's what I'm trying to do, hopefully in some way making a difference.”

𝗪𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘'𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗔𝗣𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗔𝗖𝗛 𝗚𝗢𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗧𝗢 𝗧𝗔𝗞𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗡𝗘𝗫𝗧?
📢 “Right now I'm just wondering how the hell am I going to survive the next two years of this touring schedule and pull out of this in one piece.”

𝗢𝗡 𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗢𝗨𝗦 𝗩𝗜𝗦𝗜𝗧𝗦 𝗧𝗢 𝗦𝗖𝗢𝗧𝗟𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗬𝗢𝗨'𝗩𝗘 𝗕𝗘𝗠𝗢𝗔𝗡𝗘𝗗 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗧𝗘 𝗢𝗙 𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗬 𝗜𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗟𝗗 𝗔𝗙𝗙𝗔𝗜𝗥𝗦, 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗪𝗘𝗥𝗘 𝗢𝗡𝗘 𝗢𝗙 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗠𝗔𝗡𝗬 𝗢𝗨𝗧𝗦𝗣𝗢𝗞𝗘𝗡 𝗖𝗥𝗜𝗧𝗜𝗖𝗦 𝗢𝗙 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗢𝗨𝗦 𝗨𝗦 𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗡𝗖𝗬. 𝗛𝗢𝗪 𝗗𝗢 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗙𝗘𝗘𝗟 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗚𝗦 𝗛𝗔𝗩𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗚𝗘𝗗, 𝗜𝗙 𝗔𝗧 𝗔𝗟𝗟?
📢 “It's good to have an intelligent person running one of the most powerful countries and someone who generally cares. I'm less sympathetic towards the economic problems that exist right now than some people might be, because I have never been able to understand the whole culture of living beyond your means. I mean, I've been unemployed for a long time, I've been homeless, I've slept in train stations and I didn't spend money that didn't belong to me. So I find it difficult to be incredibly sympathetic with the culture of avarice that has got us into this position.
The other thing that annoys me about this whole focus on our economic woes is that nobody is talking about the environment anymore, and if anything is going to get us in the ass, it's going to be that. The hole in the ozone layer is still there, 20 years after they discovered it, and it's getting bigger and bigger, yet this isn't news. I want to be involved in the world. I think it comes from being a parent; you want to try and contribute to make a place for your children to grow up in that's hopefully a little bit better than where you were. Unfortunately, it seems that we are heading straight towards some form of environmental armaggeddon, and perhaps we deserve to go the same way as the dinosaurs for our treatment of the planet.”
(The Skinny, November 24th 2009)

Post by Silke

🔶🔸𝐋𝐄 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐈𝐄𝐍 𝐓𝐕: 𝐁𝐑𝐈𝐀𝐍 𝐌𝐎𝐋𝐊𝐎'𝐒 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖 🔸🔶

On November 28th, 2016, just before Placebo shows in France as part of 20 Years of Placebo Tour, Brian Molko did an 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖 on 𝑳𝒆 𝑷𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒊𝒆𝒏 𝑻𝑽. You can watch a shortened version of it in a beautiful video while I’d like to share a full text which was published on their website. Brian discussed some milestones of Placebo’s career, remembered their first concert in France and shared his thoughts about the terrorist attack at Bataclan in 2015.

✨𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐌𝐨𝐥𝐤𝐨: "𝐖𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐝 𝐁𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐞", 𝐋𝐞 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐞𝐧 𝐓𝐕, 𝟐𝟖.𝟏𝟏.𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟔
https://bit.ly/3pK1fnA

Photo credit: screenshot of the video interview by Le Parisien, 2016

🔶𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐄𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄𝐁𝐎 𝐄𝐅𝐅𝐄𝐂𝐓🔶
𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒔𝒉 𝒃𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒃𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 20 𝒚𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒔, 𝒕𝒘𝒐 𝒅𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓, 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝑴𝒐𝒍𝒌𝒐, 𝒔𝒖𝒎𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒛𝒆𝒔.
“Happy birthday Placebo! To celebrate their 20th anniversary, the British rock trio released "A Place for Us to Dream", a pantagruelic compilation of 2:15 and 36 tracks, with duets (David Bowie, Michael Stipe, etc.), covers, B-sides, new versions and a new one, “Jesus' Son”. “To show all the colors of Placebo, light and shade, the risks we took,” comments singer and guitarist Brian Molko in French. Like a retrospective in a museum." Their anniversary tour stops tonight in Nantes and tomorrow at Paris-Bercy (now AccorHotels Arena). To satisfy their fans, who have been consulted on the Internet, Placebo replay old nuggets like "Nancy Boy", "Pure Morning" and "Protège-moi", French version of "Protect Me". “We also turned 36 Degrees into a ballad,” says Molko. Bands play the same song for decades, but we're not like that. We get bored very quickly."

🔸𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟓-𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟐. 𝐈𝐧 𝐁𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐞'𝐬 𝐨𝐫𝐛𝐢𝐭
“We had the same agent as David Bowie. And one evening, on his Outside tour, singer Morrissey left, without warning anyone, to his mother's house. An opening act had to be found urgently. Our agent played our demos to Bowie, and he liked them. A few days later, we were in Italy in front of 8,000 spectators. We toured his albums Outside, Earthling and Heaven. I spent seven years in his orbit, and it was absolutely amazing. I learned a lot from him. During the tours, every evening, I would go down to the backstage, I smoked a joint and I observed him. What a lesson, what an opportunity! And in 1998, the surprise of my life! On vacation, my brother wakes me up. He hands me the phone: it's Bowie. Oh okay (laughs). He tells me that he would like to sing our song Without You I'm Nothing as a duet, which he loves. I'm half asleep, I don't immediately realize the enormity... "

Photo credit: Maud Maillard

🔸𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟔. "𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐇𝐨𝐦𝐞", 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐞
“I was young, I had a lot of fun. But we worked like crazy. There were three of us, I was trying to write something abrasive and melodic, powerful, and popular. I had only one ambition, it was not to do an office job. I would have been happy to be in a band with average success. But fate changed everything because we had success from the first album. And we said to ourselves that we had to do everything to make it last. We wrote hundreds of songs that we threw in the trash before thinking: This song deserves to be listened to by people."

🔸𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟔-𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟕. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐅𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞
“I remember with emotion our first concert in France, in 1996, at Route du Rock, Saint-Malo festival. It was so lovely. The reception from the French audience was immediately warm. They opened their arms to us."

🔸𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟕. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐨 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐝𝐞
“At the time of Sleeping With Ghosts tour and Meds album, there were troubles in the band. It was quite a traumatic time. We no longer spoke to each other, we protected each other in our corner. I've invested my whole professional life into this band, I wasn't going to let a character as old-fashioned as Mr. Hewitt ruin it for me. He hadn't always been like that, but success, money, drugs were there, as always..."

Photo credit: Marco Vittur

🔸𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟓. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐧 𝐝𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐚
“I spent a sleepless night, I was absolutely upset, I was looking for my friends from our record company who were in the venue, but also the Eagles of Death Metal, whom I know well. I spent the night on the phone trying to reach them (he sighs). I really like Bataclan, we played there a lot when we started. There is something magical about this venue. I would love to be back, it is necessary. If anyone hears me..."
(𝐿𝑒 𝑃𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑒𝑛 𝑇𝑉, 𝑁𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 28, 2016)

📍To add something special to my post, I found a short video from 𝐑𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐞 𝐝𝐮 𝐑𝐨𝐜𝐤 𝐅𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐥 that took place in Saint Malo on August 14th, 1997 and, as Brian said, was 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐’𝒔 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒔𝒕 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝑭𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆.

✨𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨 – 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 & 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞, 𝐒𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐭 𝐌𝐚𝐥𝐨 𝐅𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐥, 𝟏𝟒.𝟎𝟖.𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟕
https://bit.ly/39IREru

📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐌𝐨𝐥𝐤𝐨: “I always felt that our band would attract a little bit crazy and wild fans, and it really looks like becoming a truth. […] The most passionate fans can see that our technique changed a lot since Steve Hewitt joined the band. There’s much more admiration, much more love and respect from European audience, and our creative process liberated a lot.”

Post by Olga

𝗫-𝗥𝗮𝘆 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄: "𝗠𝗼𝗹𝗸𝗼 𝗼𝗻 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲, 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗵, 𝘀𝗺𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲-𝘂𝗽", 𝗔𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗹 𝟮𝟬𝟬𝟯

The 2003 interview with Brian that I share with you today is a mix of him talking about Placebo's music and answering some very private questions. There is only one thing he refused to reveal anything about – do you want to know what it is?

Apart from what Brian wants to keep a secret you will learn more about his family, his drug use and his sex life. And of course the interview includes a lot of info about the band's then new album “Sleeping with ghosts”. I hope you'll enjoy reading.

Photo credit: Franck Courtès

𝗛𝗢𝗪 𝗜𝗦 “𝗦𝗟𝗘𝗘𝗣𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗚𝗛𝗢𝗦𝗧𝗦” 𝗗𝗜𝗙𝗙𝗘𝗥𝗘𝗧 𝗧𝗢 “𝗕𝗟𝗔𝗖𝗞 𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗞𝗘𝗧 𝗠𝗨𝗦𝗜𝗖”?
📢 “This album is a return to what we do best really, it’s dealing with relationships again. It’s got so much to do with the fact that we had an eight month period off beforehand to think for the first time and be human beings, to reacquaint ourselves with humanity outside of the rock’n’roll bubble. It was very natural that those were the kind of songs that were coming out.
With 'Black Market Music', we’d just done the 'Without you I’m nothing' tour with just each other and CNN for company, and we ended up in the studio very pissed off, railing against the injustices in the world. That’s why 'Black Market Music' is more angular and angry and political. 'Sleeping with Ghosts' shares similar themes to 'Without you I’m nothing' but I think it’s broader. 'Without you I’m nothing' was a very bleak album because of thee lifestyle choices we were making at the time, and the bad drugs, and I think this one is tempered with a little bit of hope.”

𝗪𝗛𝗬 𝗗𝗜𝗗 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗗𝗘𝗖𝗜𝗗𝗘 𝗧𝗢 𝗛𝗔𝗩𝗘 𝗔 𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗣𝗟𝗘𝗧𝗘 𝗕𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗞 𝗙𝗥𝗢𝗠 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗠𝗨𝗦𝗜𝗖 𝗜𝗡𝗗𝗨𝗦𝗧𝗥𝗬 𝗕𝗘𝗙𝗢𝗥𝗘 𝗥𝗘𝗖𝗢𝗥𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗜𝗧?
'📢 After the BMM tour we were spent – physically, obviously, cos we’d been on the road for so long, and emotionally, we were very very messed up. And we’d run out of realistic life experiences to write about. Nobody really cares about the colour of your tour bus and the fact you can’t shit on your tour bus, or how many notches on bedpost you have at the end of the tour. We realised we needed a break for the first time in seven years. We needed to reacquaint ourselves with genuine everyday human contact and exchange. I moved house as soon as I came off the tour, my first proper home, so I came back down with a big bang of domesticity. I wasn’t Brian Molko the rock star anymore, I was just Brian Molko who needed to furnish his apartment. It’s in Old Street, round there. So we decided to take six months off, then six months became eight months. It was a good chance to think about what had happened to us, well, me anyway, over the past ten years. They say your life changes every seven years, Saturn returns and all that and it’s interesting to note it’s seven years since Steve came into the band, and I turned 30 as soon as the album was finished. And I had this eight month period to look back through everything I’d been through emotionally and I started to deal with it for the first time. I started to think very much about the relationships I’ve had over the past ten years and whether they’d changed me and the effect that they’d had on me. So 'Sleeping with ghosts' became an album about exorcising the demons of your past relationships. And in that way, it became a very therapeutic and cathartic thing for me.”

𝗜𝗙 𝗬𝗢𝗨'𝗥𝗘 𝗟𝗢𝗢𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗧𝗢 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗙𝗨𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗘, 𝗪𝗛𝗬 𝗜𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗔𝗟𝗕𝗨𝗠 𝗖𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗘𝗗 '𝗦𝗟𝗘𝗘𝗣𝗨𝗡𝗚 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗚𝗛𝗢𝗦𝗧𝗦, 𝗪𝗛𝗜𝗖𝗛 𝗦𝗘𝗘𝗠𝗦 𝗧𝗢 𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗧 𝗔𝗧 𝗔𝗡 𝗜𝗡𝗘𝗦𝗖𝗔𝗣𝗔𝗕𝗟𝗘 𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗞 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗣𝗔𝗦𝗧?
📢 “By the time I reached 30 I realised there is no tragedy without joy in the first place. I became quite obsessed by the idea that you carry the ghosts of your relationships past with you for the rest of your life and people come back to haunt you, and that this is often triggered by external stimuli – smells, a song on the radio, an article of clothing, a book, whatever. I wondered what effect your memory still had on you to this day, regardless of the amount of time from the end of the relationship and where you are now and how you’ve moved on. Along the way, I managed to exorcise a few personal demons. Songwriting does allow me to lead a more balanced existence than I would without it. I feel blessed to have that outlet. To be able to express yourself to the world. To use your art as a form of catharsis or therapy. I think without it I’d be much, much more messed up than I am anyway.

𝗜𝗦 𝗜𝗧 𝗜𝗠𝗣𝗢𝗥𝗧𝗔𝗡𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗦𝗘𝗟𝗟 𝗔 𝗠𝗜𝗟𝗟𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗢𝗙 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗔𝗟𝗕𝗨𝗠, 𝗟𝗜𝗞𝗘 '𝗕𝗟𝗔𝗖𝗞 𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗞𝗘𝗧 𝗠𝗨𝗦𝗜𝗖' 𝗗𝗜𝗗?
📢 “In a way, yeah, cos as an artist you always want to feel like you’re improving. If it did a lot worse I’d be disappointed and I’d have to ask myself a lot of questions. But at the same time, I don’t want it to sell as many records as Coldplay, or The Strokes, cos then I’d feel even more pressure than I do already. I think we’d say to ourselves, well, where do we go from here? I am a little bit worried about reaching the top simply for that reason. We don’t have to become U2 just yet. There’s plenty of years ahead for us to do that.”

Photo credit: Fuse

𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗗𝗢 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗙𝗘𝗘𝗟 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗣𝗢𝗦𝗜𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗜𝗦 𝗜𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗠𝗨𝗦𝗜𝗖 𝗦𝗖𝗘𝗡𝗘 𝗡𝗢𝗪, 𝗔𝗙𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗕𝗘𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗢𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗖𝗘𝗡𝗘 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗘𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧 𝗬𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗦?
📢 “We still feel like outsiders and we’ve always felt like outsiders. We’ve always felt like Radiohead in the way that we’ve created our own context, our own little planet where we have our own rules, we’re not affected by musical trends and just keep making music our way. However, I am not naïve and I’ve become very much aware of the fact that it’s the 21st Century: you have to prove your relevance again. You have to prove to the fans that you’re not ready for your pipe and slippers just yet, that you’re not passe.”

𝗬𝗢𝗨'𝗩𝗘 𝗔𝗟𝗪𝗔𝗬𝗦 𝗛𝗔𝗗 𝗔 𝗥𝗘𝗣𝗨𝗧𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗔𝗦 𝗔 𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗬 𝗕𝗔𝗗 𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗩𝗜𝗘𝗪𝗘𝗘. 𝗪𝗛𝗬 𝗜𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧?
📢 It was who I was at the time. I had a great deal of arrogance and a great deal of bravado, but I think the bravado was brought on by a huge insecurity. I did get a reputation for being a beast as well. I was called a ‘drug crazed sex dwarf’ at one point. In every exaggeration there’s always a grain of truth, I guess.”

𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗔𝗡𝗢𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥 𝗤𝗨𝗢𝗧𝗘 𝗪𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗪𝗘𝗥𝗘 𝗖𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗘𝗗 '𝗗𝗘𝗟𝗨𝗦𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗔𝗟 𝗧𝗢 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗣𝗣𝗢𝗜𝗡𝗧 𝗢𝗙 𝗣𝗔𝗥𝗔𝗡𝗢𝗨𝗔'?
📢 (laughs) “Yeah, I think that’s great. Then again, talking about bravado, socially, the bravado that I exuded had a lot to do with my intake at the time, and that was a way of me dealing with mammoth insecurity.”

𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗗 𝗢𝗙 '𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗔𝗞𝗘' 𝗔𝗥𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗧𝗔𝗟𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧?
📢 “Everything, Around 'Without you I’m nothing' there was a really bad period where the drugs changed and it wasn’t very clever.”

𝗪𝗘'𝗥𝗘 𝗧𝗔𝗟𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗢𝗜𝗡, 𝗬𝗘𝗦?
📢 “Yeah.”

𝗔𝗦 𝗔𝗡 𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗟𝗟𝗜𝗚𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗠𝗔𝗡, 𝗛𝗢𝗪 𝗢𝗡 𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗧𝗛 𝗗𝗜𝗗 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥 𝗚𝗘𝗧 𝗜𝗡𝗩𝗢𝗟𝗩𝗘𝗗 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧?
📢 “Because I’m an old romantic, really, with an excessive personality. It was always going to happen. I managed to pull myself out of it before anything got very serious.”

𝗛𝗢𝗪 𝗗𝗜𝗙𝗙𝗜𝗖𝗨𝗟𝗧 𝗪𝗔𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧?
📢 “When you have a band threatening to kill you … Well, when you’re placed in a position where you go: career, friendship, music, art or heroin, you make the choice pretty damn quickly. I didn’t get into it deep enough to develop a nasty habit, but physically, giving up is days of discomfort and being really down, but you start to rise out of it.”

𝗛𝗢𝗪 𝗟𝗢𝗡𝗚 𝗜𝗦 𝗜𝗧 𝗦𝗜𝗡𝗖𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨'𝗩𝗘 𝗧𝗔𝗞𝗘𝗡 𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗢𝗜𝗡?
📢 “God, ’98. I don’t really do drugs anymore. After heroin, I had a real problem with cocaine as well. I remember talking to my manager and saying, “this is all getting to be too much effort, I don’t know if I can deal with it, I just want to get back to where I was before”, which was just a drinker and a smoker. It agrees with me; the rest of it doesn’t really at all. And that’s all I am now, a drinker and smoker. It’s good. A stoned band is a happy band!”

𝗗𝗜𝗗 𝗜𝗧 𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥 𝗚𝗘𝗧 𝗦𝗢 𝗕𝗔𝗗 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗛𝗔𝗗 𝗧𝗢 𝗖𝗛𝗘𝗖𝗞 𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗢 𝗦𝗢𝗠𝗘𝗪𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘 𝗟𝗜𝗞𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗣𝗥𝗜𝗢𝗥𝗬?
📢 “It never got that bad. I’ve always had a really strong survival instinct, which has prevented me from jumping in at the deep end and staying there for too long when it comes to things like that. I’m very proud of the fact that this album has no drug references.”

Photo credit: Perou

𝗜 𝗡𝗢𝗧𝗜𝗖𝗘𝗗 𝗢𝗡 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗪𝗘𝗕𝗦𝗜𝗧𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗔𝗥𝗘 𝗡𝗢𝗪 𝗗𝗘𝗦𝗖𝗥𝗜𝗕𝗘𝗗 𝗔𝗦 '𝗔𝗡 𝗘𝗫 𝗚𝗜𝗥𝗟𝗕𝗢𝗬 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗨𝗡𝗗𝗥𝗨𝗠' 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗬𝗢𝗨'𝗩𝗘 𝗔𝗟𝗦𝗢 𝗛𝗔𝗗 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗛𝗔𝗜𝗥 𝗖𝗨𝗧 𝗦𝗛𝗢𝗥𝗧. 𝗪𝗛𝗬 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗚𝗘?
📢 “I still wear make up a lot! I’m actually wearing more, it’s just more expensive and better applied! The hair, well it took me 25 minutes in the morning to get to a point where it was suitable for Brian Molko to walk the streets with. After BMM, it was cut all your hair off, it’s low maintenance, you’re taking a break and anyway, you don’t want to be recognised walking around London, I want to be able to pass a bit incognito. This is your sabbatical from the rock bubble. And I felt like being a boy again for a little while. I’ve been this boygirl for so long that I just thought it would be interesting and different to just be a bloke again and wear jeans and a sweater and just wander around and be a regular Joe. I wanted to be able to take the Tube and for people to go ‘nah, can’t be’”.

𝗔𝗥𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗚𝗢𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗕𝗔𝗟𝗗?
📢 “I don’t know. I haven’t really lost any hair. I’ve been like this for the past seven, eight years. If it was to happen I’d just do the honorable thing like Michael Stipe and just get over it. I just hope I have a nice shaped head. There will be no transplants and no combovers, that’s for sure. If it happens, there’s nothing you can really do. I’m quite philosophical about it. They say it’s a sign of virility anyway!”

𝗛𝗢𝗪 𝗖𝗟𝗢𝗦𝗘 𝗔𝗥𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗧𝗢 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗙𝗔𝗠𝗜𝗟𝗬?
📢 “My father and I don’t communicate anymore. We’re just not good for each other so we’re not in each other’s lives. I love my mum. But she’s deeply religious, she’s a Born Again Christian which is what I was raised in. I left the church at around the age of 13, 14 as I started to discover my sexuality, which was definitely at odds with the church. My mum lives in Dundee. With my mum, our conversation is limited because I essentially do something that is not the way of the Lord. She’s just had to get used to it. I think the make-up is the thing that annoys my mum the most. Thankfully she’s hard of hearing, so she hasn’t really got the records fully. I have an older brother who I’m really close with, and that’s it.”

𝗗𝗢𝗘𝗦 𝗜𝗧 𝗠𝗔𝗞𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗦𝗔𝗗 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗗𝗢𝗡'𝗧 𝗛𝗔𝗩𝗘 𝗔𝗡𝗬 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗧𝗔𝗖𝗧 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗙𝗔𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥? 𝗗𝗢 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗞 𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘 𝗖𝗢𝗨𝗟𝗗 𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥 𝗕𝗘 𝗔 𝗥𝗘𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗖𝗜𝗟𝗜𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗢𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗔𝗥𝗗𝗦?
📢 “With this kind of relationship, there usually is one somewhere along the line, but there’s no direct reconciliation planned at present by any means. Sure, it saddens me; cos of that, I’ve always had problems around the time of birthdays and Christmases and things like that. But I’ve learned to deal with it. I’ve always been the kind of person to look towards the future. Perhaps cos I’ve made so many mistakes in the past, I want to run away from them really quickly.”

𝗬𝗢𝗨'𝗥𝗘 𝗡𝗢𝗧 𝗔 𝗕𝗘𝗟𝗜𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥 𝗜𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗔𝗣𝗬 𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗡?
📢 “I’ve considered it many times. I’ve been very close to going to see people; I’ve cancelled appointments on the day for many different reasons. But to be honest, I’m lucky to have the music, that’s totally where I get it out. I’m quite happy with the amount of neuroses I’ve got now. They keep me ticking over. If I got rid of them all, who knows, I might become Sting for God’s sake, and I can’t imagine anything worse on this planet!”

𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗜𝗦 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗙𝗜𝗥𝗦𝗧 𝗖𝗛𝗜𝗟𝗗𝗛𝗢𝗢𝗗 𝗠𝗘𝗠𝗢𝗥𝗬?
📢 “I was in Africa where we were living at the time. I was about two years old and I remember being in my cot, and it seemed to me to be like a prison cell already. I remember staring through the bars watching our maid sweep the floor.”

Photo credit: Tracey Griffin

𝗗𝗢 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗕𝗘𝗟𝗜𝗘𝗩𝗘 𝗜𝗡 𝗟𝗜𝗙𝗘 𝗔𝗙𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗗𝗘𝗔𝗧𝗛?
📢 “Organised religion has always seemed a bit of a cop-out to me, cos you’re accepting a list of rules without finding your own morality and your own principles – which takes more effort, but is infinitely more rewarding. The idea of life after death, which I grew up with all around me, is that it almost seems like an excuse for not living your life today. Life is so precious that it can’t be a rehearsal for some idyllic existence in the clouds. If you realise there could be nothing at the end of it all, it doesn’t mean you have to have a massive existential quandary about it, it just makes every second that you live all the more precious, and everything you do and every effect you have on other people much more important. When we go, we go. I’d like to believe in reincarnation. It would be nice, but I’m not too sure.”

𝗛𝗔𝗩𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥 𝗦𝗘𝗘𝗡 𝗔 𝗗𝗘𝗔𝗗 𝗕𝗢𝗗𝗬?
📢 “Yes, when I was a kid, in a car wreck on the way to school one morning. I was shocked at how ghost white this body way. And it was very soon after the accident. It’s an image that’s never left me.”

𝗛𝗔𝗩𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥 𝗨𝗦𝗘𝗗 𝗩𝗜𝗢𝗟𝗘𝗡𝗖𝗘 𝗔𝗚𝗔𝗜𝗡𝗦𝗧 𝗔𝗡𝗬𝗕𝗢𝗗𝗬?
📢 “As a kid, everybody slaps their peers around, but I was always very small so I was usually on the receiving end of bullying. I think that had a lot to do with the fact that at home, I didn’t really have the family unit that made it good for me to interact socially with my peers.”

𝗛𝗔𝗩𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗕𝗘𝗘𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗩𝗜𝗖𝗧𝗜𝗠 𝗢𝗙 𝗩𝗜𝗢𝗟𝗘𝗡𝗖𝗘 𝗜𝗡 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗔𝗗𝗨𝗟𝗧 𝗬𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗦?
📢 “Oh shit yeah, I’ve been threatened with violence for wearing make-up. I’ve had a lot of aggression from a lot of people but I take it with a pinch of salt. It’s okay. Thankfully, my band are bigger than me! Don’t mess with my drummer from Manchester, that’s for sure! Haha.”

𝗗𝗢 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗞 𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘'𝗦 𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥 𝗔 𝗖𝗔𝗦𝗘 𝗪𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘 𝗩𝗜𝗢𝗟𝗘𝗡𝗖𝗘 𝗖𝗔𝗡 𝗦𝗢𝗟𝗩𝗘 𝗔𝗡𝗬𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗚?
📢 “Big abstract question! Probably.”

𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗜𝗡 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗫𝗧 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗜𝗠𝗣𝗘𝗡𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗪𝗔𝗥?
📢 “I was on the march (the anti-war protest on February 15). This is a war that America decided to have even before September 11, and whatever justification that anyone can find for this, you can’t get away from the fact that they’ve been waiting for an excuse. When September 11 happened, the Americans were ready to attack straight away, but it was like, let’s hold on, as the media aren’t gonna take this very well – let’s get Afghanistan first, we were going to invade them anyway. It’s a case of America trying to force its way of life on the rest of the world and I think, simply on a philosophical level, if this is what the genocide of children is about then you have to make a stand about it. And if we weren’t going to war over the exportation of the American way of life, we should be marching against it anyway, against globalisation and America’s policing of the world when it sees fit – when it has financial or political interests, or when it has both in this case. You have to march, cos so many people are buying this bullshit. I do believe in peaceful protest and civil disobedience when it comes to this.”

𝗪𝗛𝗘𝗡 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗪𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘 𝗪𝗘𝗥𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗣𝗜𝗘𝗦𝗧?
📢 There was a period in 1999 where I was gloriously happy, but I was delusional! (laughs) I was head over heels in love and I thought that this was it and that I was sorted and that a whole bag of worries had just left me, like Pilgrim’s Progress, losing the burden of the sins on his back. I felt deliriously happy. But in the immortal words of Ian McCulloch, nothing lasts forever.”

Photo credit:  Spiros Politis

𝗔𝗥𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗜𝗡 𝗔 𝗥𝗘𝗟𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗦𝗛𝗜𝗣 𝗔𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗠𝗢𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧?
📢 “Next question.”

𝗪𝗛𝗢 𝗪𝗔𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗙𝗜𝗥𝗦𝗧 𝗪𝗢𝗠𝗔𝗡 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥 𝗟𝗢𝗩𝗘𝗗?
📢 “The woman I lost my virginity to. I was 14, she was 16. We lost our virginity together. She was a beautiful French girl called Carole. She was my first proper girlfriend.”

𝗪𝗛𝗢 𝗪𝗔𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗙𝗜𝗥𝗦𝗧 𝗠𝗔𝗡 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗙𝗘𝗟𝗟 𝗜𝗡 𝗟𝗢𝗩𝗘 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛?
📢 “I was 17. It’s when I moved to London, and fell in love with a third year drama student. I think he relished the idea of breaking me in probably more than was actually in love with me! I’ve had sporadic relationships with men since. I think we’ll probably all evolve to a point where we’re all bisexual. It may become the cultural norm. But in order for that to happen the church has to stop having such a massive influence on everyday culture. When that starts to happen, it’s very possible that culturally and sexually we’ll take on the natural state, which I think is closer to bisexuality than anything else. I remember a fantastic quote of Derek Jarman’s which was “the world has to realise that heterosexuality is not the norm, it’s just common”. That says it all for me.”

𝗛𝗔𝗩𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗛𝗔𝗗 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗛𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗧 𝗕𝗥𝗢𝗞𝗘𝗡?
📢 “Many times. I’ve been a heartbreaker too. Which I find funny cos I’m the guy who couldn’t get laid at college. Which is why, when people treat you like some kind of sex symbol, I find it quite embarrassing. I’ve been a bad boy, and I’ve hurt people along the way. It’s impossible to exist and to take risks in life without hurting people along the way. There’s nothing worse than not attempting something cos you’re worried about a negative outcome. That’s self-censorship on a life level.”

𝗗𝗢 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗞 𝗬𝗢𝗨'𝗩𝗘 𝗗𝗘𝗦𝗘𝗥𝗩𝗘𝗗 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗥𝗘𝗣𝗨𝗧𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗢𝗙 𝗕𝗘𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗦𝗘𝗫𝗨𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗬 𝗟𝗔𝗦𝗖𝗜𝗩𝗜𝗢𝗨𝗦 𝗜𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗣𝗔𝗦𝗧?
📢 “I’m happy with the idea of the myth but you have to understand that a myth is a myth. A lot of music culture is about the propagation of those myths: I mean, I’d hate to be Sting or Gareth Gates or Fran Healy. It’s just all a bit too nice. Certainly for many years I was a tart, but similarly with drugs there’s a point where you can’t do that forever, that becomes very boring as well. If you have any depth to you as a human being you’re going to start looking for something else.”

𝗬𝗢𝗨'𝗩𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗘𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗗 𝗕𝗘𝗙𝗢𝗥𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗡?
📢 “Yes, shock horror, Brian Molko is a love cheat!”

𝗛𝗔𝗩𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥 𝗕𝗘𝗘𝗡 𝗧𝗢𝗧𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗬 𝗙𝗔𝗜𝗧𝗛𝗙𝗨𝗟 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗠𝗢𝗡𝗢𝗚𝗔𝗠𝗢𝗨𝗦?
📢 “Yes. But not recently! (laughs) I often wonder if monogamy or marriage is one of these social constructs that has been put in place in order to control the general public. It’s a kickback to the Old Testament. It’s very uncommon for animals to mate for life. And there was a study done on pigeons and they found that 13% of pigeons are inherently homosexual. Gay pigeons, let’s go! (laughs) I’m convinced my dog was gay when I was growing up, too.”

𝗜𝗙 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗠𝗘𝗧 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗡𝗚𝗥𝗘 𝗦𝗘𝗟𝗙 𝗡𝗢𝗪, 𝗪𝗢𝗨𝗟𝗗 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗕𝗘 𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗨𝗗 𝗢𝗙 𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗬𝗢𝗨'𝗗 𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗡𝗘𝗗 𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗢?
📢 “Yes, I'm improving as a human being. I have more respect for people, I'm learning to become less egocentric and arrogant and I'm learning to listen to people a lot more, which I think is really important. If I went back and saw myself at the age of 22, 23, I think I'd be shocked, and I'd realise why I got such a bad reputation and why I had a reputation for being a drunk and other things.
If I was able to go back to myself at that age, I think I'd say to myself "drink more water and don't worry about it, it's going to get better". And I think it does. For me, my twenties were definitely a second adolescence which I feel I'm coming out of right now, cos I've just turned 30. It was a chaotic, schizophrenic and excessive time and I experienced a lot and learned a great deal from it. I would have a real problem as a human being if I hadn't. I do think it gets better. I wouldn't necessarily do my twenties again, cos it was a very difficult time. But the demons don't shout as loud anymore. It's okay being me right now.”
(X-Ray "Molko on life, death, smack and make-up", April 2003)

Post by Silke