SOULMATES Chile

We are trying to freak out as many goths as we can“ -that actually could work, since Placebo included unfamiliar brass instruments (?) in their new record. But what to do, when the gothic-girlies fall in love with the new young californian drummer? Lets ask uncle molko and uncle olsdal –and gain laughter.

There was a time when you could meet placebo behind the stage in their own neon-flashy Limbo. Brian Molko sits on a sofa, medicated, with smudged eyeliner around his glowing eyes. He just learned that David Bowie invited Placebo to his 50. Birthday and called him “the daughter, i never had”. Stefan Olsdal, the quiet tall northern Fir Tree is leaning in a corner and pours canned beer into his head. Beside him, the exhausted Drummer Steve Hewitt, lights cigarette after cigarette. He looks like a musketeer with his tiny beard and the shoulder-lenght hair.

Placebo just catapultet themselves in the stratosphere of rock. The rocket “without you im nothing” was launched. They seemed to be the only Medication against the “Students-Rock” of Blur and the “Working-Class-Rock” of Oasis- the only british alternative to Britpop. Hungry and angry like Punk, suffering like the ealy Smashing Pumpkins with the sexual charisma that originated from Glamrock. The Band of the hour. A molecule made of 3 different atoms.

Thats more than 10 years ago. Today you meet placebo in the conference room of the Hilton Hotel in Berlin, where they introduce their sixth album. At first glance, not much has changed. “Battle for the Sun” is what you would call a typical Placebo-album: Straight Rock with some electronic edges, underlined with a few violins. They still sing about Love, Pain und Drugs that help to make everything more bearabal. Molko, 36 years old- Time has been kind to him, wears his hair long again.

At second glance you notice that Placebo parted ways with their majorlabel to take their fate into their own hands again. Later on they will talk about long, exhausting an frustrating touring which probably lead to another big change. Next to Molko and Olsdal sits a blond, heavily tatooed 22 year old new drummer: Steve Forrest.

For 11 years the molecule Placebo was solid. But it split open and Steve Hewitt broke off. The official statement says what these statements always say: "Being in a band is very much like being in a marriage, and in couples - in this case a triple - people can grow apart over the years. There simply comes a point when you realize that you want different things from your relationship and that you can no longer live under the same roof."

In Fact, Placebo even sold their shared “Music-Headquarter” in South France. A Mansion in the hills of Cannes. A “russian Oligarch” bought it and tore it down. -“that asshole”

Molko agrees to specify the reasons for the discord with Hewitt “My relation with stefan was clouded. Our Relation in general was disturbed. What doesnt work between two people affects the whole group. So i tried to reconnect with stefan. To get back to the time where we used to write songs together in that shitty tiny room i got when i was unemployed.

In the 11 years with Placebo we lived our second puberty. We went through ups and downs of Rock’n Roll lifestyle toghether.”

Nowadays Stefan and i give a shit about that lifestyle. We want to make better music. Steve on the other side, wanted to stay 19 years old.

But if thats true, why choosing such a young drummer who acknowledged Placebo in 2006 by playing in their supporting band Evaline? A guy who has it all ahead of him?

Molko giggles, it seems he is looking forward for this.

“ Oh yes, he has it all ahead of him. And we will stand at the sideline and laugh our asses off when he steps into the traps.”

Forrest seems quite mature for his age “I think, because they went throug a lot of shit and made a lot of mistakes, they could take care of me. I would like to remember the whole adventure that lies in front of me.”

“Right” Molko says and laughs: “Uncle Brian and Uncle Stefan will have an eye on you. Personally i cant remember half the songs we played live. Thats sad. I decided to remember more stuff like that in the future”

Thats why Molko doesnt feel like beeing in a new band. Its quite the opposite. Its like i got my old band back. Its not about having a new drummer, but having a new human beeing. We were a band that couldn write songs together anymore. It felt like choking. Now its like somebody opend a window, you can breath again.”

Forrest’s fresh influence is noticeabal in the titeltrack Battle for the Sun, where he underlines the sagging melodies with his playfull drumfills. Nonetheless, the 2 Uncles were responsable for the songwriting. And what about the artistic progress? Molko ponders: “The Violins- but we already had them on Meds..we wanted to do something we’ve never done before. So we included some brass instruments-to freak the goths out. The goal was to sound more compact, no space-fillers. We couldn’t really avoid that on Meds”

Olsdal says:” Usually when we go to the studio we have like 9 songs written. This time we had 20 Songs which we reduced to 18 and then to 13.”

Molko adds: “If i had it my way we would have done a double album, but i always want to make a “Triple-album” but Stef said no,no, thats a bad idea, come back down to earth.

This time it really would have been enough for a Double album, but to be honest, i’ve never listend to a great double album like “Mellon Collie and the infinite Sadness” (Smashing Pumpkins) in one piece.

In general Placebo strive for a Radiohead-Attitude. “Recently i met Ed O’Brien (Guitarist Radiohead) in a restaurant and congratulated him on their latest album”,Molko remembers “I said: Everytime when i listen to “in rainbows”i need to play it from the beginning again. There are no fillers in it” and Ed said: “Thats exactly what we intended to achive”

Placebo mention Radiohead as an important source of inspiration. Not so much for the style but for their attitude. “They follow their hearts and you can hear that. Thats what we want to do... like the thing with the brass instruments. We asked ourselves: Okay, how much Earth, Wind & Fire –like do we want to sound?. We found the answer in Queens of the Stone Age’s“Rated R”. The album is filled with brass instruments but they’re buried under the guitars. The Output is an amazing wide sound.”

David Bottrill who also worked with Tool, helped them in Toronto to achieve their goal. The Band wanted to work with a north-american Producer -just for the hell of it.. and because its the market, where they couldnt really set foot in yet. A good start was “Project Revolution 2007” Placebo were touring with Bands like Linkin Park and My chemical romance and had the chance to reach for a new audience: The Emo-Kids and yes, Goths. But its possible that, with the new optimistic, brass -charged album, they scare them away again.

Its not easy to reinvent yourself after such a long time. Helpful was the split up with the record company: “we had a record deal with EMI or rather Virgin. I call it “the golden age” Back then, the Spice Girls had their Break through. I love the Spice Girls, because of their success we could get paid: the records, the videos, everything. But during the last 5 years with EMI i got the feeling, they had no idea what to do with us. Its like they were thinking: ok, they reached their zenith-thats it, thats all we get from them. This people have no passion, they’re just calculating.” At the end, Sleeping with ghosts was released again,combined with a bonus cd with coverversions like “Running up that hill” by Kate Bush or “Daddy cool” by Boney M. Recently Placebo covered the 80’s pop Song “Wouldn’t it be good “ by Nik Kershaw.

There are not a lot of bands who could do coversongs without getting the stamp that says “Artistic Bankruptcy”.

But Placebo are, although maybe they lost their hedonistic profile and exploited their creative capability, a magnificent liveband: Open-minded and willing to try out new angles.

Placebo will tour as a sextet including the instrumentalist Fiona Brice.

“Im excited to hear how the old songs will sound with the violins” Molko says. “And its great for the chemistry to have a woman in the band” “But Fiona kind of also belongs to the Guys” Olsdal adds. Molko ponders: “She spent a lot of time with guys that were much more evil than we are” He stops talking, lowers his voice like he’s speaking a TV-Commercial: “Times will change, but we will always stay true to ourselves. Placebo: Your supplier for sweet melancholy since 1996”

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