Placebo, David Bowie,chat 29 mars 1999
PLACEBO
David Bowie: We're ready to start.
(Reading)... David, please get an opening statement from the band. (Finished reading).
Well, before I go to the opening statement I am of course David Bowie, and I'm going to be the host of this chat. This chat is presented by SonicNet in association with
Virgin Records. We're being hosted by Yahoo! We're doing a video broadcast of this chat, it's going to be produced by Globix Streaming Media Group, and it's being streamed
by Broadcast.com. I'd like to introduce everyone from Placebo. First on my immediate right is...
Brian Molko: My name is Brian... Brian Molko. I sing, play guitar, sometimes bass. And I'm just the general prima donna of the band.
David Bowie: And to his right is
the extremely virile...
Stefan Olsdal: Stefan... I play a lot of bass, bit of guitar and keyboards. And I am the Viking from Vulcan. (laughter).
David Bowie: And to his far right,
a coochie-looking guy, whose birthday it just was, and who's received a wonderful guitar from the rest of the band I'm green with envy.
Steve Hewitt: Steve... I play drums, percussion, and just generally keep everybody else in line.
David Bowie: I'm going to take a
lot of questions from out-there-world. Opening question is going to be: Hi Brian, I would like to know about the music that influencedyou as a teenager.
Brian Molko: As a teenager I
remember around the age of thirteen becoming quite obsessed with Jello Biafra and The Dead Kennedys. They were a perfect avenue for me to stream all of my teenage angst
into. So there was a bit of American post-punk in there. Around the age of 16 I kind of discovered Sonic Youth, which changed a lot. Mr. Bowie of course, and the Stooges,
Iggy. Also a very big discovery for me, and an important one, was the first PJ Harvey album. The emotional depth and the confessional quality of the songwriting had a very
strong impression on me.
David Bowie: Did you find, any of
you, that when you moved from your teenage years to your twenties, that the actual need and reason for music in your life changed? Or has it always maintained the same
value foryou?
Stefan Olsdal: Well, I moved from
a serious rock and heavy metal stage in my teenage years guess that's the power of loud guitars and sort of heavy beats, it's a way for your teenage frustrations to come
out.
David Bowie: Is it because one
feels very impotent as a teenager?
Stefan Olsdal: Yeah, yeah. I think
you feel it on the outside, you feel the extreme guys in sort of leather, and sweaty, with the long hair, just sort of turning everything up to 10.
David Bowie: Did you like bands
that bled for their music?
Stefan Olsdal: No, it was a bit
more contained than that, more melodic, I guess.
Brian Molko: I think as a teenager
you feel a great deal of alienation, because you're this kind of ball of hormones and you feel like you're a young adult trapped in a kids body, and everybody's still
treating you like a kid. Music sort of becomes a means of escape, really, and I guess the difference between that is that music has become a means of expression.
David Bowie: Does it also seem
that, when you're a teenager, that the rest of the world has all the answers and that all that oneself has is all questions? And that sort of drives us at the outside,
becauseyou feel kind of insecure that you don't know all the answers so you start making up your own answers?
Steve Hewitt: Yeah, I think so. I
mean, from your teenages into your twenties you start looking for more identification within yourself. You start looking at music and looking for music that makes you feel
you know
David Bowie: I think that before
the Second World War well, maybe earlier, maybe up to the First World War, there was no such thing as being a teenager,you 'd go from being a boy to being a man. I wonder
what happened to those years that we call thirteen to, like, twenty-one? I wonder what people felt like at that time, when they had no recognisable categories to pop
into?
Brian Molko: They used to get
married a lot earlier, go off to sea a great deal earlier.
David Bowie: Damn right!
Brian Molko: Conceiving a great
deal earlier. People put it down to James Dean a lot, don't they? They say that he was the first teenager, the first rebel. Which is an interesting concept.
David Bowie: People like
Baudelaire also, in another era. They were the first kind of dreamy teens, in a way. Poetic and romantic.
Brian Molko: The ones who refused
to grow up.
David Bowie: The ones who refused,
point blank, anything.
Stefan Olsdal: I think a lot of
the kids started working a lot earlier, in the family businesses for example. Like my grandparents were farmers, and in that situation whenyou were thirteen you were put
to work, you were an extra hand supporting the family, basically. With the pressure of that, I think you were expected to work at manual labour a lot earlier.
David Bowie: Here's an odd
question do you feel that you missed out on something by not having experienced a war, not having gone through a war as serving military? But you probably were in the
military, weren't you, Stefan?
Stefan Olsdal: No, I wasn't. I
escaped.
David Bowie: But just the
experience itself, do you think maybe it's an element of a male human's life that's not fully explored unless it's taken part in? There's one thing that we're very good
at, which is hostility.
Steve Hewitt: Yeah. As a teenager,
when I was growing up, you feel that from past generations. You know, "we were in the war, and you should feel yourself very lucky that you didn't have to go through it."
Which is a good thing it's not something that anybody should have to go through, war. I think the generation gaps now getting wider, because there are less and less wars
now. But there's definitely a pressure from past generations, and it's hard to realise and embrace your heritage ifyou've never been anywhere near that.
David Bowie: Do you think the need
to shock is a kind of a mutation of that aggression, that sort of is channelled in another way?
Brian Molko: Well, perhaps it's
the enemy within instead, it's the enemy inside, you know?
David Bowie: Ooooh!
Brian Molko: It's the enemy within
your own society as opposed to the one that's overseas. Perhaps that's where a provocative desire and a confrontational desire comes from.
David Bowie: Here someone asks,
"with your initial image, were you attempting to shock people and make them sit up and take notice, or were you just being yourselves?"
Brian Molko: Well, we've gotten
more extreme as the time goes on, as the years go on. I think it happens with most bands the more you tour, the more you feel like a freak, and the more it comes out in
the way you look.
David Bowie: Anyone that stands
out in front of five thousand people is a freak. (laughter). I think it shows bucket-loads of dysfunctionalism.
Brian Molko: The image kind of
grew, it evolved. I think it was always inside of us, it wasn't a calculated sort of marketing move. We were lucky that we were able to express this identity, this side of
ourselves, in our job and in our art. We're very lucky to be able to marry work with the love of our art anyway, and very lucky that we don't work in banks and that we can
wear make-up whenever we please. And lucky that we can be adored and reviled for it.
Steve Hewitt: And be completely in
control of touring as well, and have this space and situation where there's a complete amount of freedom why, we could do anything that we wanted to do. I think because of
that there's a raise in the creativity, in any situation, and it manifests it becomes, it could become, uncontrollable.
Stefan Olsdal: And I think that in
the music scene you don't want to just see a show, with guys who walk in off the street in jeans and t-shirt, you want to be taken to another dimension, this other world
with someone that stands ten feet taller than you as an audience.
Brian Molko: An alternative
reality, yeah. It's kind of like being placed on a pedestal, you know? I guess there is a kind of tradition that we do come from, you know, or that we're following through
to, its the Velvets and Lou Reed, Iggy, and yourself. That ambiguity, but also that power. That ambiguity married with rock 'n' roll.
David Bowie: One tends to think it
counters the Catholic church, but I think that rock has a lot to do with Shamanism, with the idea of ritual and slightly neater clothing, and congregation in an audience,
and performers being the priest element. It's very tribal, and I think it goes back to the earliest dawn of man's need to bond together and find a mutual spirit.
Brian Molko: It's your preparation
for the presentation of your identity, of your collective identity, to strangers. It's a very powerful position to be in, to be on stage, but it doesn't necessarily mean
thatyou're in constant control of it, you know, which can be very exciting.
David Bowie: We have another
question "Do you write all your songs from an autobiographical standpoint?" I think there's always been the question in rock music of if a song is autobiographical for an
artists by virtue of being his song.You write from, maybe, autobiographical bases, but it has fanciful connotations, does that mean you lose your integrity by not writing
from your own personal point of view? Aren't you really just making things up?
Brian Molko: No! Otherwise what
you would be doing is essentially putting your diary on to tape, its kinda like believe lyrics are meant to be heard and not read, you know? It's about context, and I
think all art is autobiographical in one way or another, but lyrics you have to compress, you have to slow, you have to compress things into a smaller space so that it has
meaning and isn't waffling.
David Bowie: Why is it that
certain groups of people, including the artist, find it important that more than ten people know what they think? It's not enough for them to say "that car has been parked
outside number forty-six all week long," they need to stand up in front of 20,000 people and sing "that car has been parked in front of number forty-six all week long!"
(laughter).
Brian Molko: It's a pathological
desire to lay yourself naked.
David Bowie: It's very
pathological, isn't it? What drives the artist to do this very asocial thing?
Brian Molko: It's the only thing
that the artist can do to be happy, to not be miserable, to not be depressed.
David Bowie: Do you think he'd be
better off locked up?
Brian Molko: Umm... No.
(laughter). Every society that has tried to be historically fascistic in any way, like Stalinism or Nazism, has tried to squash their art first thing.
David Bowie: Democracy has had a
pretty fair whack at it itself.
Brian Molko: Art's one of the most
important forces in the world, and its quite shameful that still, in England in particular and in America, people still lack an education, that the first thing that gets
axed is the art. Creating a nation of bankers.
David Bowie: Outside of the
writing, do you guys involve yourselves in art?
Stefan Olsdal: There hasn't been
much time for it we've been very busy. We've worked on films.
Brian Molko: A film which you
particularly dislike. (laughter).
David Bowie: What's that,
"Shakespeare In Love"? (laughter). "The David Bowie Story", isn't it?
Brian Molko: Yes, "The Velvet
Goldmine". And we've done a bit of modeling, here and there. Modeling for Gucci.
David Bowie: You know, it wasn't
that I disliked the film, it's just that I thought it wasn't terribly successful. The only bits that I liked in "Velvet Goldmine" were the gay bits. I thought they were
really very well done andyou really felt the heart of the director. But I thought the rest of the film wasn't very good. It felt very early-80's to me.
Stefan Olsdal: The thing for us as
well, we didn't grow up during that time, so we weren't part of it. As young people, we didn't experience that era, and we don't really know what to compare it to.
David Bowie: I think that anybody
who has lived through one era, and then looks at somebody from another period altogether, is going to be substantially touching the wrong keys, is bound to be just sort of
out-of-sync. I think it produces this surreal idea of what it might have been like. It's a bit like the Jane Austen England books thatyou see on television, you get this
incredibly parochial, pastoral world which was in fact probably a lot dirtier, smellier, more evil okay, SaintMarkHall asks: "Doyou feel like you're part of the England
invasion into the US?"
Brian Molko: No.
Steve Hewitt: Absolutely not.
Brian Molko: No. The important
thing to realise about this band is that it is comprised of three nationalities American, Swedish, and British. We've never felt particularly British we're based in
London, but its because we kind of fell there. There's always been a kind of cosmopolitan world view to what we do. I think bands that have comprised of several
nationalities take Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, for example, or the Jimi Hendrix Experience it brings so much to the melting pot, culturally, it makesyou culturally
un-xenophobic as an artist. It's not the same as a group of four or five kids who grew up together in the same suburb in the North of England it's a very different point
of view. So we don't feel like we're part of any English or British invasion we're far too international for that.
David Bowie: Agreed.
SpacegirlBianca asks: "How did you become involved as the opening band for David at his birthday concert?"
Brian Molko: Aha!
David Bowie: Well,
SpacegirlBianca, we actually go back a lot longer than that, don't we, guys!
Stefan Olsdal: We do!
Brian Molko: Would you like to
explain how?
David Bowie: No, you tell the
story. But I'll say that I spotted them, I thought they were a really terrific band. And Virgin let me have their very earliest things, including the song "Nancy Boy". I
thought, That's a terrific song for a bunch of jacks to sing, I think they'll probably be huge!' (laughter). And we got together, and we were working together what
year?
(Chorus): Ninety Six.
David Bowie: Ninety Six.
Stefan Olsdal: The "Outside"
tour.
Brian Molko: We went from playing
to three hundred people, maximum, in England, to thousands of people with you in Europe.
David Bowie: Yeah. From three
hundred to well over four or five hundred some nights.
Brian Molko: Well over eight
thousand, I think. (laughter). And you got hold of some of our demos, I think we had started touring with you before we had even started recording the first album.
David Bowie: And I kept on at them
like a dog with a bone, excuse the pun, to put out "Nancy Boy", which of course became a very good song. All of their songs, of course, are very good. I think their songs
are much better now.
Brian Molko: Well thank you.
David Bowie: But it's very
consistent, isn't it, it's been a consistent relationship. I mean, it's not been steps and starts, I think we've brought together quite a lot.
Brian Molko: We toured "Outside"
with you and most of "Earthling".
David Bowie: Yeah, it's been
great, it's been a very good relationship, I've enjoyed it a lot. Watching them grow hopefully I shall watch them grow into old age as well. Because I'm never going to
die. (laughter). Anyway, we have another question, from PunkInPink: "What doyou think of Marilyn Manson? You seem to have little things in common, but you also seem to
deserve a bit more respect."
Brian Molko: Well, I think Marilyn
Manson's thing is probably quite considerably larger than mine, considering his height, but you never know.
Stefan Olsdal: It's all about the
hands, though?
David Bowie: Aren't the feet
supposed to come into it somewhere along the line?
Stefan Olsdal: The nose,
maybe?
Brian Molko: We know each other,
we've hung out on a few occasions. He's quite a fascinating character.
David Bowie: Yes, I read that you
went to a gig together!
Brian Molko: Yes, we went to the
local Goth club in London to freak out the little Goths.
David Bowie: How funny! Were they
indeed little?
Brian Molko: Oh Jesus were they
freaked out.
David Bowie: They were both little
and freaked out?
Brian Molko: Yeah it wasn't
actually as debauched as everyone would like to believe, the time we spent together. He's an incredibly intelligent individual, he's taking on the moral majority of this
country, which is a good thing, and he's also incredibly ruthless, which is why he's become so successful so quickly.
David Bowie: Do you feel that
that's necessary?
Brian Molko: A certain amount of
ruthlessness is necessary.
David Bowie: How do you define
ruthlessness? What would you stop at?
Brian Molko: Ruthlessness has a
lot to do with protection, I think, you have to be above it all. You have to stop people from fucking with you, because they will at every chance they get. You have to
preserve the unity in our case it's a triangle you have to preserve that.
David Bowie: Would you beat up a
competitive band?
Stefan Olsdal: We don't get
physical.
Brian Molko: No.
David Bowie: Would you blackmail a
television producer to get on the show?
Brian Molko: No.
Stefan Olsdal: Not now.
David Bowie: You're not very
ruthless, are you? Well. (laughter).
Brian Molko: No, we are not.
(laughter).
David Bowie: Another question, "is
David going to join Placebo onstage tonight?" Well, as they're most decidedly not separated, there's no need for me to join them. However, I might go and sing with themyou
never know.
Steve Hewitt: You never know.
Brian Molko: You never know what
might happen!
David Bowie: You never know, do
you?
Brian Molko: No, no.
David Bowie: Well, this thing's
run out of questions, so I'll keep on with mine. Do you actually have the chance anymore to go and see bands? I mean, because I kinda know what it's like once you get on
the road, it's very difficult to get out of that world and see what's happening anywhere. After this show and the next it's straight to the bus or the plane.
Brian Molko: Neubauten was the
last one.
Stefan Olsdal: They were
fantastic.
David Bowie: They are, aren't
they?
Steve Hewitt: We saw a gig of
theirs in America at the end of December, and they were amazing.
Stefan Olsdal: I think tomorrow
we're going to see Les Paul play in town.
David Bowie: Les Paul? Are you a
fan? At Fat Tuesdays, isn't it? I saw that listed.
Brian Molko: We managed to see
Chaka Khan in Chicago, which was superb.
David Bowie: Les Paul's amazing,
he sells his cassettes at the door.
Stefan Olsdal: Can you get them
signed?
David Bowie: Yes! He's so generous
with his time.
Stefan Olsdal: How old is he?
David Bowie: Oh, he's way into his
70's. He is something else, he's absolutely fabulous. And going in to watch him play at the club is like looking into a Who's Who of guitar players,you cannot believe most
nights. Because they know he might give up playing altogether very shortly, so it's always packed with an extraordinary amount of people who are very well-known.
Brian Molko: There are plans to go
and see, at Wembley Arena, Little Richard.
David Bowie: Oh, yes!
Brian Molko: It might be the last
time that he plays England, so can't miss that.
David Bowie: It was so depressing
when he put all that mirror stuff on in the 60's I mean, why did he feel that was necessary?
Brian Molko: He was fantastic. He
was a black man wearing make-up, screwing white girls and white boys. In a time when that was unforgivable.
David Bowie: There was a
quasi-drag queen working in the same town that he came from - anybody out there know the name? See if you can get online and tell me that Richard took a lot of the stuff
from, even the singing. And he openly admits it. I think it's kind of a tradition with these kinds of artists. Didyou know he was born on Christmas Day?
Stefan Olsdal:
Really?
PART 2
Placebo, David Bowie, chat, 29 mars 1999
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