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An interview with Brian Molko, lead singer of Placebo, about art, reality, and the humanity of rock. |
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Interview by Chris Kelly |
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Standing onstage at New York's Irving Plaza, Brian Molko is glam incarnate. His visage emerges from the darkness in a mask of pale makeup and he is clad entirely in white. Suddenly, he is backlit by an array of lights, mostly red, which also illumintes the cloud of smoke enveloping the club. At the end of the verse, Molko steps back to take a drag on his cigarette, leaving bassist Stefan Olsdal and drummer Steve Hewitt to take control of the music. |
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The night is Placebo's first of two, and the set list comprises various selections from their three records; their eponymous debut, Without You I'm Nothing, and the recent Black Market Music. To satisfy the true fans - which, in this case, constitute the entire audience - several B-sides are included on the set list, including "Leni", featuring Molko seated listlessly at the keyboard with a glass of liquor, and "Little Mo," a song about Elvis' demise on the toilet. |
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Those that have followed the band will know that lately, their aggressive sound has been renewed after an unwanted dip into the delicate pain of Without You I'm Nothing. According to Molko, however, the change was never intended to be permanent: |
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"We have to make music that is true to us and expresses where our heads are at during a certain time," he said, during a recent telephone interview. "The first album was born out of tension and got rid of a lot of teenage frustration; the second album dealt with the impossibility of relationships and the breakdown of relationships. They're like snapshots of where our souls were at the time. It's never as calculated as one would seem to imagine." |
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And on Black Market Music, guitar-charged songs like "Haemoglobin" and "Black-Eyed" were a result of the band's greater envolvment in production and mixing. Said Molko, "It's always the sound we've essentially wanted to put onto tape." |
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The reactions have been unanimously positive and strong: Music, which was released in Europe several months prior to the American release date, has already sold over one million records. |
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"As when recording the previous records, we locked ourselves in our subterranian studio in Central London, where we threw a lot of shit at the wall and saw what stuck. "The majority of it's born out of playing with each other." He adds, with a laugh "Playing music with each other, that is." |
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Come home to Brian |
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