Interview taken from HermAphrodite #6 - Part 1.

And on the subject of persecution and filming…

Q. “There’s been a lot of press – especially in Select – on the audience reaction to ‘Velvet Goldmine’. That there was actually laughter when ‘Twentieth Century Boy’ was played

( me in the background – “That’s so RUDE…” )

…does that irritate you or…?”

Brian – “No. Select is a vile publication and it doesn’t deserve your time. ( giggles ).”

Steve – “It’s a shame really, because it’s a really beautiful film. I’m not surprised you’d laugh at ‘Twentieth Century Boy’ – I look like a big sexy lion for God’s sake, it’s ridiculous.”

Brian – “It was meant to be ridiculous.”

Steve – “In a way, that’s glam – far out.”

Brian – “That was so ridiculous, that period.”

Steve – “The Flaming Creatures [ his and Brian’s onscreen band ] are the comic relief of glam, definitely.”

Ah, they just rock ‘n’ roll.

But in the film, they are just acting. Or maybe, when onstage, over-acting. ( Just a little. ) But it is just a film. Placebo aren’t The Flaming Creatures. Though they can both look glam. And both, well, rock.

Q. “I detect there’s a kind of lineage between you and the Glam movement of the Seventies, particularly people like Bowie and Iggy Pop rather than the more jokey stuff - is it fair to say that in some way you’re reinventing or updating glam rock ?”

Brian - “No. Absolutely not, no. We’re, on a sonic level, very very far from being influenced from anything that really truly is Glam. When I sort of discovered Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, it was a great ROCK album for me, and it created kind of like a trampoline or platform to discover people like Iggy and the Stooges, and the Velvet Underground. But the influence that it had on me was far more on a sonic level than an actual aesthetic thing. Glam for me is Gary Glitter and The Sweet and Mud and people like that, which are essentially lager louts in their mother’s underwear. So we’re definitely not trying to reinvent that or comment on that. No.”

Somehow I think the glam suggestion has been levied more’n once before...

Brian - “I think it’s very easy for people to put a hook on it and go ‘you are in Velvet Goldmine, therefore you must be a glam band’. I’m sorry, but that just demonstrates a certain lack of... ( fixes the questioner with his gaze ) depth.”

Stefan - “I think the whole revival is more up to Marilyn Manson than us.”

( Yup. Have you seen the video for ‘The Dope Show’ ? He’s got the same hair thing going, same sort of eye make-up, and is even wearing the jumpsuits... Zowie. )

Q. “Do you see any similarities between what you do and the sort of thing that he does ?”

Brian - “Not really. I think that Marilyn Manson is trying to very very much move away from this kind of ‘psycho, baby-fucking Goth’ thing, this ‘Satan’ thing, and I think that him and his band have made a very very calculated image change. It’s certainly not about the way that we live our lives, it’s not about the way that we choose to portray ourselves.”

And then, in following the idea of Manson’s image change to become just a little more toothsome ( or at least aesthetically pleasing ) and maybe sell a few more records...

Q. Do you feel lucky that you’ve managed to have such massive success without having to compromise what your music’s about; and how would you explain that in comparison to other bands that do have to compromise themselves to get chart success?”

Brian - “Well, give me some examples first, and then we’ll talk...”

Q ( flustered ) “Um I don’t know… ( turns to friend ) You’re able to do what you want to do and still have the success, whereas a lot of alternative bands would have to...”

Brian - “Well, I have to say that that rests down to our record label. It’s down to the fact that Hut Records are an incredibly artist driven label. That they are a label that don’t fuck with your identity, that don’t try and mould you into being somebody that you’re not, and let you be yourselves, and let you express yourselves, and give you complete creative freedom, which is what we’ve experienced in signing to them in January 1996. I think that we’re very lucky to be on Hut Records, and I would wish it on every band out there, but they’re just kind of not good enough...”

( laughter)

Steve - “Also I think the band’s been able to push forward with their ideas, cos most of the ideas do come from the band, like Hut going hand in hand with with us and letting us do what we want, whereas other bands struggle because maybe they’re too oppressed by their record companies, which is an unfortunate thing in the music business but it still happens a lot. It’s a shame. Plus a lot of bands haven’t got any ideas anyway.”

The next day, Becca and I went to interview The Dream City Film Club in Manchester. And, while appreciating that they don’t always tell the exact truth, they were making it fairly clear that Pure Morning, which was recorded after the rest of the album, was intended as a B-side. Because it was recorded with the rest of the B-sides. But the record company stepped in and told them it was to be the first single off the new album. No arguments.

And with that there could be a leetle grain of truth.

Because ‘Pure Morning’ was, by Brian’s own intimation, recorded along with their B-sides. But then, it’s also a song they seem incredibly proud of.

Brian - “We delivered our album before we went in to do B-sides and before we went in to record ‘Pure Morning’, and ‘Pure Morning’ was kind of like a revelation. It was the first time we walked into the studio with one loop, and built a song around it, and I think that it’s probably more of an indication of where we’re going, something that’s more technology based, something that’s more loop based; something that is allowing us to not get bored, basically. At the moment kind of we feel more excited about walking into a studio with one idea and building it up over the space of two days than sort of rehearsing for about a month and getting a new album together, or whatever. These new techniques are intriguing us.”

And so they can’t say for sure where the new direction will take them.

Q. “If the first album’s about sex and going out, and this album is about the hangover and the comedown of it, what can we expect next?

Steve - “Probably finding a new party. I don’t know.”

Stefan - “A jazz album I think. ‘Placebo go cabaret !’ ”

Steve - “It’s just sketches at the moment, obviously.”

Grin.

Though they have been listening to a lorra funky shit recently…

Q. Les Rhythmes Digitales and Howie B remixed Pure Morning - would you say that sort of music is influencing you at the moment?

Brian - “That one’s been around - our favourite record of the past few months has been the UNKLE record, and we’ve been listening to it obsessively. It’s always been part of where we’re at and part of what we listened to when we were travelling the world and playing rock. You know, you play distorted guitars continually, you don’t want to listen to it when you get back on the tour bus and you want to chill out. So it’d be wrong to say that these things don’t have an influence on us. Howie was somebody that we met on the U2 tour; Jacques [ Lu Cont, Les Rythmes Digitales ] was somebody I met at V97 and had so much energy that we thought it would be interesting for him to remix us. The Les Rhythmes Digitales remix is the favourite remix that’s ever been done of our music.”

And then, thinking about influences…

Q. “Lots of people you’ve said are your musical heroes have been known for being quite original and extreme, like Sonic Youth and Jane’s Addiction, and people like that. What would you feel you as a band have to offer beyond just being a synthesis of all these influences? Or doesn’t it matter about being original? Do you see yourselves as original or synthetic?

me ( quietly ) – “Ouch.”

Brian - “Makes me think of ‘Spinal Tap’... when they were called The Originals, and then somebody else was called The Originals, so they called themselves The New Originals...

I think originality is something that most musicians battle with, and every time it has its own battle with originality, every time it feels that it’s impossible to be original. I think that we’re just, you know, in a very honest way, pulling together everything that we’ve loved and sort of digesting it.”

( So your music is half chewed grass? )

Brian – “Digestion is an important concept, because it means ‘taking in’ as opposed to just pure copying, and in this supposed post-post-modern climate that we live in, it seems to me that people are more interested in taking elements of everything that’s been before and trying to put them together in an original way. This is all very very abstract and actually doesn’t really have much to do with where you’re at when you’re in a studio recording. These things don’t come into your mind when you’re actually down to the nitty gritty of making music, you just do what comes out naturally.”

Thus, while you can hear bits of other people in their music, it’s not a conscious emulation. The band are adamant that they are not setting out to ‘be’ anyone but themselves. And so the mole-hill mountain ‘copycat beach sleeve-art’ accusations in the recent music papers are treated more with humour than paranoia at their plans being seen through…

>>> Part 3

Last revised: 26/07/01