Land of Molko and honey

My first exposure to the murky depths of rock 'n' roll happened in the SFX in 1999. A teenaged version of myself talked her way into a Placebo concert and made her naïve way backstage into Brian Molko’s inner sanctum. I was charmed and terrified in equal measure by what I encountered there.

Ten years later, I find myself waiting in the dressing room of the Olympia Theatre for the same man to arrive. I hear his impressively dirty cackle of a laugh dance down the hallway and Mr. Molko appears in the room. His salutation is warm, as he settles into the red velveteen loveseat and lights up a cigarette.
Brian Molko’s reputation precedes him. Much has been written of his androgyny, his sexuality, his drug habits, his sexcapades, his arguments, his ego and, of course, his big mouth. Sitting across from me, with one Dublin show behind him, and one to go, there is little evidence of all that. His make-up is subtle and his costume is a quieter affair than the sartorial splendour of the past. This is a grown-up glamour, no less striking, but much more real. His emerald eyes scan the room, looking above and below for inspiration, but he locks eyes for the killer lines and to share the laughter when it erupts. For one with such a melancholic artistic impulse, he is full of fun, and ready to laugh at any moment.
I tell Brian of my adolescent adventure in which he starred. In response, he flashes back to his own first rock and roll adventure...
“I was eleven years old and my brother took me to see a French band called ‘Telephone’ play outdoors in Belgium," he recalls. “I scaled the barrier and watched the gig with the security guys, and my brother kind of freaked because he thought he was going to get his ass whopped because he lost me. The gig was filmed for Luxembourg national TV and about six months later I saw myself on it. I had completely forgotten about it until recently – we were doing a TV show in France and some poor sod went through every single frame of that concert until they found me at the age of eleven!”
Who could’ve known that this little trouble-maker would go on to sell 10 million albums worldwide to a veritable army of devotees. Placebo's latest and sixth long player, Battle for the Sun, is a triumph – a powerful and celebratory follow-up to the dark and emotionally despairing predecessor Meds. And yet, lyrically the record is as forlorn and melancholy as ever. Why do we take such pleasure in sad songs?
“Well they're just a lot less insipid than happy ones, aren’t they? And insipidity is a quality that doesn’t really sit well with me or with people who are not continuously looking to escape. We find solace in them. Do you remember that old Elton John song ‘Sad Songs (Say So Much)?’ My favourite songs are songs which I call the happy-sad. They make you sad but also make you feel a great sense of joy at actually being able to feel that emotion, and you feel more alive as a consequence.”
Molko has written extensively about disappointments in affairs of the heart, dysfunctional relationships, lost lovers. Does he believe love can survive the rock and roll lifestyle? And conversely, would rock and roll survive without the eternal quest for love?
“Woah. That’s big... I’d probably have to answer 'no' to both of those questions. I think it’s incredibly difficult to be in a relationship when you’re touring all the time. However, I think this ridiculous and romantic quest for love is something that’s a massive driving force for people like me who are so psychologically dubious that we seek attention from total strangers in the form of performance and exhibitionism.”
And yet this quest is rendered a failure so often because of betrayal – or what are perceived as 'sins of the flesh'. Does he think infidelity is less a question of morality and more a question of opportunity?
"Oh it’s definitely a case of opportunity. It’s very difficult to be in a rock and roll band without coming out with some kind of addiction. I know people who are love addicted, sex addicted, addicted to drugs or alcohol. It’s a rocky road, a dangerous path and I think only people with real courage should embark upon it. By the way, I’m fighting off a massive head-cold so I’m a little spaced out at the moment. I’m not stoned – I promise!”
If you’ve lived this life of decadence where you can indulge in anything or anyone that takes your fancy, do you not tire of it eventually?
"Absolutely."
So where do you go then to find wonder?
"Jesus!"
Brian explodes in a burst of mirth that is highly infectious. But he doesn't answer!
So, tell me, where do you turn for excitement? Does the ordinary get elevated to the extraordinary?
“I’m a very ordinary person at the heart of it and probably always have been," he maintains. "I’ve needed a context to be extraordinary, and this context is the band. I don’t seek extraordinariness in every day life. This probably comes with aging a little bit more, but it seems to me that you find real beauty and real depth in things which are really quite mundane and quite simple. A lot of other things are just distractions and frivolous and not necessarily of any real substance. My new set of challenges is trying to be a parent while being away all the time.”
Does he ever think about the conversations he’ll be having when his son is old enough to Google him?
“Yes and I can’t wait. I think it’s going to be great. I’m a really straight-up kind of person so I don’t believe there’s anything you can’t talk about with your children.”
Perhaps, I speculate, we’ll be the first generation of parents to have an open dialogue with our kids about the realities of life.
“I hope so. Which means that we could be responsible for cultural Armageddon and the fabric of society breaking down around us due to the loss of our moral compass.” (laughs)
Those of us who have one to lose?
“Exactly.”
Is there a Placebo song that best captures the spirit of the band?
“I think we’ve changed through our career, so it would have to be from album to album. On the last one ‘Meds’ is definitely the defining track because it’s about a drug-induced psychological breakdown, which is kind of what was going on at the time. Before that, Sleeping With Ghosts was very much concerned with the ghosts of past loves and how one carries them around, so I would say the title track there. On this one it would be ‘Speak in Tongues’ because of the refrain ‘We can build a new tomorrow today’, which is essentially what the album is about: hope for a better tomorrow, for yourself.”
So how did Placebo survive the breakdown Molko suffered during the making of Meds, plus the departure of drummer Steve Hewitt? Was there a stage where he thought there wouldn’t be another album?
“After Meds it was time for everybody to go away and get help and get healthy," he says. "It was very much a make-or-break period personally, and in order for us to survive as human beings, and survive as a band, a great deal of changes needed to be made in our personal and professional lives... and I suppose that decision was the beginning of the next record. That’s the journey that is documented in an arty-farty way on this record. A journey of hope.”