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PLACEBO WORDZ Placebo Songs commented by Brian, Steve and Stefan
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Stefan Olsdal, Steve Forrest, ilikemusic.com, May 2009 PLACEBO  Placebo Chat To I Like Music Formed in London in 1994, Placebo have now finished the recording of their sixth album Battle For The Sun. The band currently consists of Brian Molko, Stefan Olsdal and Steve Forrest. With a back catalogue consisting of five studio albums, six EPs and twenty-seven singles they have gathered a strong fan base worldwide. I Like Music caught up with Stefan Olsdal and new addition to the band Steve Forrest to chat about their sixth album, the difficulties they faced before Steve joined the band and the effect that digital media has had on both Placebo and the music industry as a whole. "I Like Music because… it allows you to be everything you're not supposed to be." STEVE FORREST, PLACEBO "I Like Music because… it makes my life worth living." STEFAN OLSDAL, PLACEBO ILM: Where does Battle For The Sun sit in the Placebo journey so far? Stefan: The record was completely self funded. Our contract ran out with EMI with Meds, the last record. We also recorded it in North America, the first time we've been outside of Europe to record a record. All these factors contributed to a sense of 'anything is possible' I think. We tend to make albums in a reaction to our previous record. So Meds, is not a bad album you know, but it's quite dark. It's very much about self medication really. It was the beginning of a band that was starting to have a disease. It was a band that was not healthy. Throughout the Meds recording sessions and the Meds tour it was the end of Placebo mark two. ILM: When did you become aware of that? Stefan: Brian and I came together at the end of the Meds tour and said "Listen. This band is not in a place to achieve better things, to become a better band." So yeah, choices and decisions have been made over the last couple of years and I think Battle For the Sun is like a new born band in a way. The record has more light, more hope and more optimism. Placebo have gone through real changes in the last couple of years. The most obvious is Steve Forrest our newest member! He's like a little brother you know! ILM: So Battle For The Sun marks the beginning of a new chapter? Stefan: Yes. The future seems a lot brighter now than it used to. I don't wake up in a panic anymore. I wake up quite happy to come to work and see my boys, whereas before it was a traumatic experience. ILM: Have those changes affected the Placebo process of making music? Stefan: Absolutley. I think we hit on a creative relationship. It was a situation where we would walk into the rehearsal room and there would be no tension. Brian and I had been used to walking into a studio full of tension for such a long time. There was a sense of freedom. ILM: Battle For The Sun uses both strings and horns. How will these elements transfer across to your live show? What can we expect if we come to see Placebo this summer? Stefan: When the band started in 1996, there was three. Now there are six on stage. So we've basically doubled in size! When we're in the studio recording we don't think about how we will transfer to live. We're recording songs. We don't limit ourselves, you know? We first started using strings on Meds. We did decide to continue that with Battle For The Sun, plus the addition of horns. We tend to complicate our lives with every record! This has led us to having six people on stage. It's pretty much a new Placebo line up. A drummer, a new guitarist, a violinist, then the string parts. What you hear on the record is pretty much how it sounds live. There are no hidden strings or anything! I mean, if I can say it, it's possibly more epic live! Steve: No one is pushing buttons behind the curtain. It's energetic and really powerful. That's how we wrote the songs. ILM: As well as your own tour dates, you have a lot of festival dates lined up, including Reading and Leeds. What do you look forward to about playing a festival set? Stefan: The thing you have to remember about festivals is that bands do not have control! So basically you're going out on stage without any soundcheck and then providing a soundtrack to a drunken picnic! People are there to have a good time. It's a weekend, you know, there are distractions. You can go and buy a tie-dye t-shirt, go on a ferris wheel, hahah, but it's brilliant. You have to go without an attitude. You go out there and hopefully attract a couple of new fans. Band's tend to just play as many singles as possible to get peoples attention, most people are just pissed! Steve: It's a great way to get to know some really wonderful people as well, other bands and other musicians that you respect. Sometimes you end up on the same bill. So throughout the summer it's like this little village that travels around with each other. A musical summer camp! ILM: Sounds awesome. What would be your advice to anyone wishing to follow in your footsteps? Stefan: Being uncool is the coolest thing you can be. Steve: Don't think it sounds so easy either... Stefan: If you follow a trend, the trend will be over once your album comes out. Basically, the way we make records is that we don't think about who we are making the record for. We're making the record for ourselves. If you make it personal then there will be an emotional honesty. I think people are very quick to pick up on someone lying. The process of making music is very personal. Over the last six albums that we have made, it's really been about expressing what has been inside our lives. I think that's the best advice to any budding musician out there. Your truth is as good as anyone elses. ILM: The video for For What It Worth is fantastic... Stefan: You've seen it? It's only been out six hours! Yes! It's a performance video. We wanted to showcase the new band. We also worked with a Director that we've done quite a few videos with. Howard Greenhalgh. He did Special K, The Bitter End and Nancy Boy. So he knows our twisted sense of humour and the peverse side of what we do. Plus he has quite a healthy connection to the dark side....hahaha ILM: What music have you been listening to recently? Stefan: I was checking out Franz Ferdinand's latest album last night and I was pleasantly suprised. Usually I tend to shy away from all the stuff that is really popular. I put it on and I was like "Wow, it's exciting!" I raised my eyebrows! There's a lot of keyboards going on there! Steve: I've been getting into a lot of old records that I haven't listened to for years, like my old Death Cab For Cutie records and Explosions In The Sky, one of my favourite bands of all time, the old Mogwai records and even coming back to, a bit cheeky, but the early nineties Green Day shit. Thanks to Spotify! Or Jimmy Eat World, Clarity. I think that's a really, really sweet album. Stefan: Oh my god, Clarity! Yeah... Steve: Take the boy out of California and all that...haha! I've been getting in touch with all that stuff. Plus Animal Collective's album. Have you heard it! God, it's stupidly good! Stefan: It's out there... Steve: Well duh! Yeah, but it's the most accessible record of....well...ages...! ILM: How about gigs? Out of all the live shows you've seen, which will you never forget? Steve: Sigur Ros. Hollywood Bowl. It was amazing. I cried. F**king amazing. Stefan: When we first got together we went to see Explosions In The Sky at The Astoria in London, which is dying a death, which I'm really not happy about. But we saw that. It was just an electronic symphony. Steve: It was really gorgeous. Stefan: The dynamics they produced were pretty awe inspiring. Steve: Yeah, the next day when we came into the studio, we had so many ideas! It was like, "Let's try this and this and this!" Stefan: We saw Bjork together as well. With Antony Hegarty. Steve: That was awesome as well. Plus TV on the radio. Stefan: The thing about that show at Hammersmith Apollo was that it stank of human because people couldn't smoke. It tends to mask the smell. I was like "Steve, is that you?" ILM: But it was just everybody.... Steve: Yeah, hahahah! We were smelling everyone else. ILM: You mention how the Astoria dying out saddnens you and also how a music service like Spotify has led you to so much music. There's a real ongoing debate between the online music industry, the affect it has had on record labels and artists. It's a real love / hate relationship. What are your opinions on the current state of the music industry? Stefan: Here's my thing about Spotify. The guys that founded Pirate Bay were jailed, for aiding copywrited material to be shared. So there has been a new law passed. Finally. It has taken the record industry f**king ages, ten years, to find a way to clamp down on these sites. Steve: But the damage has been done... Stefan: Spotify is a good alternative for people to listen to the music and hopefully pay £10 a month to listen un-interrupted, to stop people from downloading illegally. I have to look at these things positively. We're putting out records still, but in truth, I am not holding my breath on the records to keep a roof over my head. It's one of those things where we have to work around the technology. A lot of teenagers these days don't care about the physical object. That's fact. There is still something inside of me that gets angry because people seem to think that musicians work for free. You know, that going into a studio, hiring a producer, hiring an engineer and recording these songs is free. It's not. It's going to come to a point where concerts are going to become more expensive. And that's only because musicians can't make any money any other way. ILM: So you see what happened to the guys from Pirate Bay as a positive thing? Stefan: Oh yes, I commend the fact that the people on Pirate Bay were put to jail. Sweeds like me. But hey. It's about time. The internet is like the Wild West. It's really hard to put rules on there and control it. I'm repeating myself here, but I just want people to know that musicians don't work for free. A butcher, for example, gets paid. ILM: Just because there are varying degrees of public awareness that go alongside certain career paths, doesn't mean you are not entitled for payment for work... Steve: Absolutley. It's a job just like any other. We work hard. Money and time are important to us. Stefan: It's very very difficult for new bands to actually make a living. The whole record industry is suffering. They sign artists, and they sign to the extent where the artist is basically giving away their house, their kids, they have to give away everything for a label to sign them, which is also suffocating. ILM: Putting boundaries on a creative process..... Steve: Yeah, so the world's next Radiohead gets shut down just before their prime because the record labels don't push them or have the funding... Stefan: You know, in the mid nineties record companies floated on the stock market. That's when we stopped being run by music lovers and started being run by accountants and lawyers. Back in the 70's or 80's Kate Bush was signed without a record and she was developed and nurtured. Look what an amazing career she has had, you know? That doesn't happen anymore. Capitalism is, obviously, the result of personal freedom. If you work hard and fight hard you can make it. You know, born poor and die a king. And that's fine. But in some aspects, especially when it comes to our industry, it's becoming more of a business and harder, especially for new artists. Placebo, you know, we're lucky. We came out of the mid-nineties. The golden age of the CD. Signed to a label that had the Spice Girls. Which bought in a lot of cash, which helped our marketing deals and things... ILM: No-one tried to convince you to collaborate then... Stefan: Haha! No, no! We escaped that! Haha! Stefan Olsdal, Steve Forrest, ilikemusic.com, mai 2009 Source : www.ilikemusic.com PLACEBO WORDZ HOME |
