Androgyny In The U.K.

WE VE GONE from being one of the most miserable bands in the world to one of the happiest, states Brian Molko, enigmatic frontperson with Placebo, as he relaxes in his dressing-room shortly before the band s triumphant appearance at Whelan s. We all love each other, which is a lot better than the situation of a few months ago, when we weren t even on speaking terms.
American-born and Luxembourg-educated Molko is referring to the swift departure of the band s original drummer Robert Shultzberg and his equally rapid replacement by former Breed sticksman Stephen Hewitt. There is clearly no love lost between them, and Molko hints at personal rivalry which eventually came to a head: Robert felt he had to assert his personality within the band and it came out in the way he played, which wasn t exactly what we wanted. Since Steve s been here, there s much more of a consistent groove to it it s become much less frantic and far less urgent.
Personnel ructions apart, Molko has plenty other reasons to be cheerful right now. Formed less than two years ago with his Swedish school-pal Stefan Olsdal, Placebo have quickly graduated from being clumsy art rockers to the great white hope of indie rock. The UK inkies, in particular, have conferred on them a typically elevated and exaggerated status a band to take us towards the millennium, they chorused, and a welcome antidote to the laddish retro of Britpop, or words to that effect. A slew of critically acclaimed singles Bruise Pristine , Teenage Angst , 36 Degrees , and the breakthrough, Nancy Boy consolidated Placebo s credibility and ultimate popularity. Their blend of accessible rock rhythms, imagery-heavy lyrics and Molko s helium-like singing proved a refreshing change from the jaded terrace anthems of latter-day UK guitar pop.
Even so, the sheer velocity of their ascent seems to have taken the band by surprise.
We were pretty surprised that Nancy Boy made it to number four in the UK charts, offers Molko. I mean, how did a song so rude and salacious make it into the charts?
The term Nancy Boy was, he says, one of those politically incorrect, almost quaint expressions that had long since fallen out of favour the sort of thing Captain Manwaring would have uttered to the hapless and delicate platoon member Frank Spencer.
It s like hip-hop bands using the word nigger , Molko explains. It s a power thing, when you appropriate vocabulary for yourself.
Lyrically, Nancy Boy is a celebration of the breakdown of sexual boundaries, he elaborates. It confuses the meatheads too, which is even better! They come along to the gig and think I m a cute little girl and they probably think I d like to fuck her . Then, half way through, they realise I m a guy and they re shocked and embarrassed. But they re forced to ask themselves a few questions about why they found me attractive in the first place. It puts them in touch with their feminine side which is a good thing. The often shout faggot up at me, but I m smarter than that, and I m usually a better heckler than anyone in the audience.
drug intake
Placebo have attracted some high-profile fans too David Bowie invited them on tour twice and this January they played at his 50th birthday bash at Madison Square Gardens.
Funnily enough, it s done us more good in the UK than in America, Molko offers. Our record company in America are so bad that they didn t capitalise on it at all. In fact they re not going to be our record company for much longer the cunts. As an experience, though, it was fantastic. I got to meet more of my heroes than I ever dreamed of. People like Sonic Youth I told them how much they changed my life. Stephen got to meet Prince and David Bowie introduced me to Lou Reed, who gave me a hug. And Frank Black walked off with my phone number.
Despite the imprimatur of such luminaries, Placebo are wary of the fickle nature of the press and the perils of being flavours of the month.
You never know when it s going to turn against you, he concedes. I already know who hates us. He s a cunt actually I ll tell you his name later. But we might as well use them for as long as they like us. In the meantime we ll take the band to much more loyal territories places where they re less fickle and not so fashion conscious about music so it won t matter when they gang up on us it ll be too late.
The bulk of Placebo s press to date has concentrated, to an almost irritating degree, on their allegedly gargantuan drug intake. Yet, here in Whelan s, both Molko and drummer Hewitt look the picture of health and clear-headedness. The backstage catering too, belies their hedonistic image. A healthy spread that would do Paul and Linda McCartney proud dominates the table with salads, wholemeal bread and mineral water in abundance.
The only drugs Molko has taken lately would appear to be antibiotics for a dose of flu, which briefly threatens tonight s show. This morning I felt like I had a cat clawing at my throat, he declares. It s partly my own fault, I m such a ridiculous nicotine addict, I just can t stop smoking.
But yeah, the whole drugs thing has been exaggerated. It s been taking on board far too much. We re trying to play it down a bit.
But they have gone into some considerable detail about their favourite stimulants, have they not?
Let s put it this way, he grins. The Beatles were so high they let Ringo sing on a couple of tracks to quote one of my favourite comedians, Bill Hicks. Rock n roll would never have existed without sex, without drugs from Little Richard onwards. If we re coming from any tradition it s from that. Hopefully, we re a band that parents hate. But it s more rock n roll, sex and drugs. The music comes first and what we do is so sexually charged that it probably comes second. The third, em, kind of helps you get there, or get enough confidence to do it. Anyway, these days we re more sponsored by Jack Daniels than anything else.
The album was recorded largely in Dublin s Westland Studios in the spring of 96 with producer Brad Wood, a founder member of Tortoise who d also previously worked with Liz Phair and The Jesus Lizard. Why Dublin?
We wanted to go somewhere out of London to do it, Molko explains. We originally wanted to go to Amsterdam but the record company vetoed that decision for obvious reasons so we picked Dublin instead, which was great.
Were they tempted to incorporate any Irish influences into their tapestry traditional instrumentation, perhaps?
Not in the slightest, Molko retorts, almost indignantly at this admittedly ill-advised question. Fuck all that stuff. The atmosphere of Dublin was more of an influence on us than the musical tradition. Musical heritage is something that doesn t interest us at all. Placebo doesn t have a national identity which means we re not constrained by borders or by patriotism of any kind. There was no British person in the band before Steve joined so we re not a British band. I m American and Stefan is Swedish so we re not even European. It gives us a freedom which other bands don t have.
So what are the core influences within the band?
Sonic Youth, The Pixies and PJ Harvey would be big influences. There are elements of a short-lived queercore scene which didn t fulfil its full potential. We have an aggression, an agenda that was similar to the Manics at the beginning of their career. At the moment we re pulling people in with the harder-edged stuff but the softer, more cerebral side to the music is there to be discovered and it s for us to prove it in the songwriting. We re already demoing for the next record and it s a lot more interesting.
The possibilities seem endless right now, Molko concludes. We want to be a successful and significant band on a global level. We re hoping to collaborate with someone who is a lot more famous than us and a lot older but that s up in the air right now and I can t confirm who it is. n