Ruislip & Eastcote & Northwood Gazette
PLACEBO EFFECT
BRIAN MOLKO AND BANDMATE STEFAN OLSDAL TELL MARION McMULLEN THEY’RE GRATEFUL TO FIND THEIR FANS LOYAL
AFTER releasing seven albums and collaborating with heroes like David Bowie and Michael Stipe, Placebo made their mark as a live act.
But that all stopped for Brian Molko and Stefan Olsdal when Covid closed venues across the country and the period of enforced time off had a big impact on both the music and the duo themselves.
Brian says: “I think that we’re extremely fortunate because after 27... 28 years, we still have fans and we still have an audience, and for me that was one of the things that I got so insecure about during lockdown because, for the first time in my life, the possibility of there not being an audience there, and even the possibility of us not playing concerts again seemed real.
“That was something that I always depended on, as no matter how messed up your life gets, or how many disasters happen in a row, there’ll always be an audience for you to go and do a show. But that was taken away during lockdown.
“All of a sudden I started asking myself questions that I’ve never asked myself before in my career, like, ‘do I have a future?’”
The Placebo frontman, who turns 50 in December, says: “We’re still around. So many bands that started at the same time as us, they aren’t still around as they quit or the audience went away. So we’re in an extremely privileged position.
“I’m not about to pretend that just because we’ve achieved some kind of longevity that we are superior artistically. Michael Bublé’s achieved longevity and so has Barry Manilow, so I never know if what I do is of artistic value because I question it continuously.”
Placebo broke through in the mid-90s and have gone on to sell more than 13 million albums over the years. Back in April they released their first album in nearly a decade, Never Let Me Go.
It was the band’s eighth studio album and first as a duo, following the departure of drummer Steve Forrest in 2015.
The release followed their last outing, Loud Like Love, Never Let Me Go, and became their highest-charting album, debuting at number three in the UK music charts and number one in many countries worldwide. They now have a full touring schedule booked that will see them back on UK stages later in November.
“I desperately want to go out and do what I’m best at, but also, because we’ve had such a break, I’m nervous about it,” admits
Brian. “I don’t think I would have been nervous if we hadn’t have had this enforced two-year break but, because we had this pause and we lost momentum, it’s become less automatic.
“I didn’t think about shows before. Now I think about every aspect of it. I agonised and agonised for months over my pedal board, for example.
“So I’m excited, but I think it’s going to be a major culture shock even though we’ve got 25 years of playing live behind us.
“It’s like slipping into an old shoe that doesn’t feel the same or that you didn’t expect it to feel like, but you will get used to it again.”
Bandmate Stefan is looking forward to the live dates. “The record’s out and it’s time to go again so I’m starting to get excited,” he says. “I feel that we had the time to make the record that we really wanted to make this time around, considering it’s been eight years plus since the last record.
“So coming out of this whole strange period was a bit of a shock to the system, but now it feels like we have some beautiful songs that we can take on the road. That’s what I’m starting to feel now. So I’m in a good place.”
Anyone listening to the album and its lyrics would agree it feels like a perfect record to be released after all that the world had been through in the last couple of years, but Brian insists the bulk of it was written before everything really went south.
“How does this record kind of reflect what’s happening in the world today?” he asks. “Well, I think the insecurity, the paranoia, all kinds of the tragedy, the inequality, you know, that we started to see everywhere.
“Lyrically, it was important for me not to make a record about the plague. I think it would just have dated everything phenomenally from the start.
“Sometimes it’s just about making records and it’s just whatever you do, so don’t try and be fashionable, because by the time you’ve finished your record, fashion will have changed and you’ll be unfashionable.”
Brian points out: “You’ll have a longer career if you just stick to what you do. That’s how most of us have managed to achieve longevity – from Depeche Mode to The Cure to us. It’s kind of sticking to a singular vision.”
Placebo’s UK dates starts on November 18. Go to placeboworld.co.uk for details
Lyrically, it was important for me not to make a record about the plague
Brian Molko