Interview taken from HermAphrodite #6 - Part 1.

Q. “There’s been a bit of controversy over the single style being similar to the Manic Street Preachers…”

Brian – “Has there been a controversy?”

Q. “I think there has…”

Brian – “Well we were never aware of it.”

Steve – “ ‘You Don’t Care About Us’? Really? Because it’s on a beach? Our beach isn’t in Wales though.”

( giggles )

Brian – “And we’re not wearing white suits either.”

The pictures weren’t taken after the band saw the front of the new Manics album and though ‘ah yes, that’s the look we want’. Both bands had had their sleeve art conceptualised and laid out quite a while ago, both bands use different companies for the look of their records. They just both have, well, some sand on them. I think, if that is a music press ‘controversy’, all praise Rick Witter for weeing in the Union Bar at Cardiff Uni ( early Nov. ) and thus providing a more scintillating read.

Brian - ( pause ) “I think it’s funny – what happened with ‘Pure Morning’, in one week there were five videos delivered [ to MTV ] with people throwing themselves off buildings. It’s very strange. I don’t know WHY ‘You Don’t Care About Us’ looks like the Manics record…”

Steve ( flatly ) – “Because it’s on a beach…”

Obviously.

Brian – “But we’re not on it. And we’re not about to put ourselves on the front of our records. That’s a bit of a cop out.”

Steve – “Yeah.”

And then I’m left wondering why… Because of shyness? Because this way they are able to deflect some of the public attention? Or just that the band are wishing to sell themselves on the basis of song strength, not personality or image or tabloid titillation ? Or so-called-controversy. The band are not stealing from the Manics.

And Brian’s Melody Maker awarded crown of Sexiest Man In Pop this year having been stolen by one Nicky Wire does not seem to have upset him. Or to have caused undue resentment. He is, after all, a big boy now.

Brian - “I find it really really very very funny that I was voted The Sexiest Man In Pop. In fact, let it be known that the Melody Maker turned around to me and told me that it was a fix.”

Steve - “Which it must’ve been, because the year before NOEL GALLAGHER was the SEXIEST MAN IN POP ! Jesus Christ ! ( giggles ) Answer that one...”

So if we’re on the subject of difficult questions...?

Q. “When you’re in the middle of a tour, and you wake up and there are bottles everywhere, and bad reviews, do you ever think ‘oh balls to this, I’ll go and start a fish-farm in Penrith or something? And if you do think that, than why do you decide to carry on, and if you don’t think that, is it just because you believe in what you do?”

Brian – “Yes.”

And then we’re off on touring...

Q. “Does it feel different to go on tour this time?”

Brian - “Yes. This time we’re tired.”

( giggles )

Q. “That’s all ?”

Steve - “I think it’s scarier, there’s a bigger expectation, obviously. Cos the singles are doing well, people still seem interested. We think we’ve got a good record, the tour’s sold out, so yeah, it’s different, it’s kind of ‘ooooh, shiiit...’ definitely.”

Stefan - “I think it’s more ambitious on a sonical level as well, cos we’re employing a lot more technology on this tour, as we did on the album, so we required more time to get our shit together this time.”

Oh, yes, the album. ‘Without You I’m Nothing’. Ostensibly the reason we’re all here. Let’s look at that for a bit, shall we ?

Q. “Who, or what, is the title of the album addressed to?”

Brian - “Well, it can work on three separate levels. First of all, it’s a message from us to each other; it’s a message to our fans as well; and in the case of the actual song, it’s about one particular person.”

Whose identity he is not about to divulge. Similarly the identity of the animate protagonist of ‘My Sweet Prince’…

Q. “’My Sweet Prince’ fits into a tradition of songs like ‘Golden Brown’ and ‘Perfect Day’ - sort of drug reference dressed up as love song - what were you intending with that song, what was the idea behind it?”

Brian - “ ‘My Sweet Prince’ vomited itself forward as a song, during the time that we were demo-ing the album. It’s a very personal song, it’s a song that deals with a lot of very dark emotions and very dark situations that surrounded us. It basically is possibly the most tender and most vulnerable thing that’s come out of Placebo so far; you can’t get lower than that. It’s a very very romantic song and it’s about the degeneration of a very very close relationship. It’s not really about drugs.”

( Uh-huh. Sample line - ‘me and the dragon, chase all my fears away... ...close up the hole in my vein’...

So it’s an obvious drug song about a lost love? Cunning... )

Stefan - “It’s Placebo in waltz time as well, we’ve never been here before.”

Brian - “Placebo go three-four.”

Stefan - “So grab your partner and schoooze...”

Hmm. Maybe to that song. But I wouldn’t fancy schmoozing to, say, ‘Brick Shithouse’. Or ‘Evil D.’ The album doesn’t continue at the same pace it sets out at, by any means.

Q - “From what I’ve ascertained from your new album, it seems to have a much darker, more disjointed feel, especially with the lyrics, you all sound quite pissed off at something. Does this reflect the band’s mood during recording, or at present, or at any time?”

Brian ( cattily ) – “Yes, we’re pissed off at you.”

( He didn’t mean it. Did too much cociane. Didn’t mean it. )

Steve - “It’s kind of a reflection of the last two years touring, I suppose. Coming off and learning a lot of things about yourself, losing a lot of things cos you’re away doing a hell of a lot of gigs... I’ve been in the band two years, the guys were on the road a year before I joined - that’s three years touring. And you’ve gotta make sacrifices, either for your career or for personal life, whatever. So it’s kind of a reflection of coming back to roost with an empty house. Of course you’re going to be pissed off!”

Brian - “We wrote the rock stuff when we were on tour, and we wrote the more pensive, more downbeat stuff before Christmas in a demo studio in London. I think at that time we were really feeling the fact that as our professional lives were really sort of shooting off into the stratosphere that our personal lives were kinda falling apart. There is a real schizophrenic element to this record, and a really really extreme one, mood-wise and atmosphere-wise, and that definitely reflects our state of mind.”

Q. “Brian, you were saying that while your professional career was going into the stratosphere, your private lives were falling apart. Did you mean you don’t have a private life, or do you mean there were specific things that were happening which were affecting you and which then went into the songs?”

Brian - “I think that you have to make a decision at one point in your career as musicians: it’s about sacrifice, and it’s about whether or not you’re prepared to sacrifice your emotional stability for achieving a certain career goal. And once you make that decision to make that sacrifice, so much falls by the wayside. As you distance yourself physically from people, then what happens is you’re distanced from them on an emotional level is very hard to get back, to walk across and get back to. Um. I haven’t answered your question, I know...”

Stefan - “We find that the time we need to allocate to actually playing music and rehearsing for this tour that’s coming up next week is, you know, very important, and sometimes things like this do come in their way. Although they’re good for you and in some ways good for us, they do tend to take up more time than we’d like them to and maybe it’s a price you’ve gotta pay.”

They’ve sacrificed themselves, it would appear, for the sake of the band. And as they are held up for public scrutiny and entertainment, the band also become vulnerable to imitators…

Q. “When I walk into my local indie clubs around Nottingham I see, along with the several Jarvis lookalikes, several Brian lookalikes...”

Steve - “Jarvis lookalikes?”

Q. “Jarvis lookalikes, big thing, definitely! Looking around the room now ( she looks straight over, past Vickie, at James ) I can see several people who are, maybe not modelling themselves on you, Brian, but looking similar. Does this affect your psyche in any way, or do you take it as a compliment?”

Brian - “Totally, absolutely. I’ve been quoted in the past as being quite nasty towards people who’ve chosen to model themselves aesthetically after me, I think that to a certain extent my comments were misconstrued. I think that Herman Melville said that imitation is the greatest form of flattery, and I’m certainly flattered by it. It’s kind of part of the reason I cut my hair - you have to stay one step ahead of your clones!”

At that there’s a giggle ripple.

But I’d agree with him. To feel that other people are able to imitate you, all that you hold unique of yourself, no matter their reasoning, must be disconcerting. I’d want to constantly be shifting my image, so as to avoid having a handle placed on me. But then Placebo are, in one way, defined by Brian’s hair – it spells out the gender ambiguity which many feel to be the root of the band. ( Almost like Evan Dando’s ‘hippie beauty’ was expressed through his hair, and lost when it was shorn. ) And I do like the fact that he gets both male and female lookalikes. I think that idea probably appeals to him as well.

Brian – “But I certainly don’t hold any nastiness or negative emotions; I find it quite a perplexing thing, simply for the fact that I find it strange that people want to model themselves after somebody who doesn’t feel very very secure in themselves anyway.”

So when you’re feeling insecure, to whom should you turn for advice?

Perhaps encouragement as to matters follicle ought not be discussed in all seriousness with a man who’s voluntarily bald. Perhaps.

Becca – “Last year, talking to Dream City Film Club, Michael said that you Brian were contemplating cutting all your hair off. ( the room starts laughing ) Is this true, or was he just talking balls as usual?”

Brian ( grinning affectionately ) – “Good old Michael. ( pause ) Yeah, I’ve been thinking about it for years…”

( Becca is looking increasingly unlikely to relinquish the microphone, she’s settling down nicely into chat form... )

Becca – “Because if you buy Isabelle’s fanzine HermAphrodite #2 ( she turns to gesture to me and I grin appealingly ) - she’s done it on her computer, and you look pretty good.”

Brian – “Do I ?”

We chorus a yes.

Brian – “Cos I’m thinking about cutting it all off, going completely blonde… We’ve been discussing this for a little while; we know we’d have to go and do it on computer first.”

Becca – “Buy the issue. Issue 2.”

This suggestion seems to tickle the band.

Brian – “BUY it ? You can give it to us…”

Give it to you? For free? Let me tell you, sweet-pea, unless you earn it, it’s never appreciated. Whatever the ‘it’ may be. Remember that. Else you’ll never get anywhere in the future...

And then, one more question afore the end...

Q. “How do you see the future being, what do you see yourself as in the future?”

Brian - “Much less pissed than you!”

Last revised: 26/07/01