Brian:
 
 
 

" In photographs, you’ll see that my beauty spot moves around my face quite a bit, depending where the largest zit is."

" We feel very strongly about our personal relationships, we feel very secure, so it doesn't really matter that sometimes the focus is on me more than them. And it means when I've got an entire day of interviews they can go shopping. Bastards."

"I feel very comfortable with the way I look, and I feel very comfortable with the kind of confusion that it creates in people's minds."

" It`s funny to see people who threated  you like a vermin, you know, like little kids ,you know, and now
talking to you like an adult, right, and you go, 'You were such a bastard, you were such a bastard,' you know, 'during history class. You were so bad, I hate you' [laughts] and  they go, 'Yeah, I know', you know, 'But you  all grown up now.'  'Yeah, so FUCK you!'[laughts]."
- interpretation up to you^_^.

”[...] it reminds me of a horrible story a friend told me, about a movie he saw. There’s this really, really big woman, and a very, very small Japanese woman… and a bathing cap.”

HE pauses. “I don’t need to say anything else, do I? It’s all rather reminiscent of [the performance artist] Leigh Bowery. I saw him at Bohemia [club] once. He came on, hugely fat, and did an entire show before falling to the floor and screaming as if he were going to die. And then he opened his legs, and gave birth to his wife Nicola, who he’d been carrying strapped to his body for over and hour. She was covered in jelly - she had on a baldy wig, and sausages wrapped around her waist. I think there was blood too.”

Brian pauses again, and then says, delicately : “and then he was like a mummy bird, and she was the baby bird - he puked in her mouth and she drank it.”

“In the beginning,there was a very tiny private school in Luxembourg, and there were two sons of bankers. One of these sons was very tall and he played basketball. The other was very small and didn’t. they were ten. And they didn’t talk.”

“Placebo’s Seven Deadly Sins are: Laziness, Homophobia, Racial Intolerance, Parental Guidance Stickers, Violence, Retro, Sobriety and the Early Licensing Law,”

In Germany, Molko’s dress-wearing tendencies led to an icky situation:
“I was chatting to this guy in a bar, when I felt something hard on my thigh. I thought ‘Oh hello.’ Then I looked down and thought ‘Oh no.’ It was a gun.”

“There were times when I looked back and thought - I shouldn’t have gone there. Moments where I went ‘I can’t believe I’ve just done that’,”

“DON’T TIE ME TO MY CLICHÉ! I crave…love. Now. I crave love. I want the security of a real relationship. Someone who really cares. Someone who’s not going to fuck with my head. Someone who’s not impressed with the fact I’m in a fairly successful band.. Someone who’s kind to me.” He drifts blissfully away. “We’d stay in and watch TV…”

"Yeah, I said far too much," admits Brian in a cloud of smoke. "I didn't mean to come across as misogynistic, I just meant to come across as honest. I think that was part of the problem. I was growing up in public and saying things that most bands wouldn't dare say about themselves, things which could be detrimental. I also think that when there's something so blatantly hedonistic and sexual, people hone in on it and make more of it than there is."

They started to model themselves on you?
"Yeah, I suppose. I just find it amusing that people want to look like an exaggerated version of me. It's very strange and, I'm sure this'll piss a few people off, you have to say, 'Why don't they just get a life?'
I guess it's just a part of the music, but to be confronted by a thousand yous is weird. It's very difficult to carry that cross for people. You know whatever you do you're going to disappoint people, because you can't be everything they want you to be. Essentially, they don't know who they are. I knew we'd be a weirdo magnet, but..."

“I’ve noticed a few Brian clones turning up at shows. I find that quite absurd. Not that I’m belittling it, but
I was never the kind of person who wanted autographs, even. It’s something I can’t attach any
importance to because I’ll start thinking I’m really cool, and I’m not. I’ll get an elevated sense of self-importance, which is bad - the music will be shit for a start. That’s why I find it absurd - I have to. Maybe I’ll just reinvent myself - cut all my hair off , bleach my eyebrows.”

"It reached a point where I just couldn't sleep any more," he recalls. "I was tearing wallpaper off the walls and waking Steven and Stefan at six in the morning, having panic attacks. I think I really, really desperately wanted to be rock'n'roll, and I think we took our souls and bodies to an extreme and then realised we couldn't do it any more."

Q:You stopped taking cocaine?
A: "Well, that's definitely calmed down now. Again, there's only so far you can go with that. Once it begins to change your personality, it starts to get scary. There was a point where whenever I went out,and I went out a lot, it was difficult not to get into an argument with people and shout at them.
"I know all that stuff comes acroos as incredibly superficial, but it was just our attempt to deal with it all. It was an attempt to block things out rather than deal with them head on. Drugs and alcohol are just an extended way of running away. Suddenly we realised that it was definitely time for detox."

About WYIN:
"I guess a lot of it is about me trying to deal with my own inadequacies," confirms Brian. "My weakness, my emotional cruelty, my selfishness, how egocentric I can be, these are all things I don't like about myself. I think it was Socrates who said, 'Know thyself and do no evil.' And that's what I'm trying to do. It's a continual search within me, because I'm not someone who often feels comfortable in my own skin or someone who likes himself very much."

“After doing that song on the ‘White Room’ I thought <<Jesus Christ. I’ve just gone on TV and sung,
'What a beautiful ass!’ >> I’ve also been on ‘The Big Breakfast’ singing ‘I’ll stick to my needle and my favourite waste of time’.”

Q:You know the way you look is going to affect Placebo’s initial appeal?
A: “I hope so. Otherwise it wouldn’t be worth all the money I spend on facials.” He raises his hands in the air. “That’s a JOKE. The thing is, I often get mistaken for a girl. At first I felt flattered because I reckoned it meant I was quite pretty, then I thought, ‘if it’s that easy, maybe I should play around with it, bring it into the world of the band.’ Placebo’s music is full of ambiguity. It doesn’t offer answers, just questions.”

“Gender confusion isn’t the last taboo but it’s something people find uncomfortable. When they can’t put their finger on you, that’s when you’re at your most dangerous, and I guess I like that position - not being able to have a finger put on me. So to speak.”

About David Bowie:
“He’s a fan. He likes my nail polish.”
“The first thing I said to him was, ’Hey, Dave, want a fag?’ and he said ‘No thanks, I’ve just put one out’.”

„Hootie [Hootie And the Blowfish], though, probe my pet theory that everybody on this planet should eat shit because 20 million flies can’t be wrong.”

“Oh I’d be a very wicked nun.”

"We found an internet porn site that has a live link up to Amsterdam, where you actually type in what you want them to do," Molko laughs. "No one believes it, of course, but then you ask them to wave at you - and they do! It's hilarious! "My favourite Internet porn site is this enema porn site: loads of photographs of women with tubes up their butts and shooting their enemas out into pans." Is it in real time? "No, just photos." He sighs, then brightens up again. "Still, they're very explicit."

Q:  Your fans are very devoted. What's the wierdest gift you've received?
A: „I get a lot of nail polish, lipstick and pornographic photos. People give me their antidepressants. I don't particularly need them right now. They probably need them more than i do. People send me notes begging me not to kill myself. I've no intention of going away.”

Q: Why is Shania Twain so big?
A: „Cos she's had a hard life, like Jewel. In America if you’re a cute girl and your past is tragic you sell millions of records. That song „Don't impress me much” sends me into fits of violence when i hear it.”

The Marilyn Manson rumor: The tall Manson has claimed the diminutive Molko performed a sex act on him. "Well, I do come up to his waist," says Molko, "But I have never given him (oral sex). The thing with Marilyn is that if he insults you in public that way it's an expression of approval and affection. He's got this reverse humor thing which I find hilarious."

Its no surprise that Molko counts fellow attention magnet Marilyn Manson as one of his closest friends in the business. " I have a lot of respect for him, he's an important artist and the kind of artist the world needs. He's taking on a moral majority of America with a big clenched fist. And you know where the fist is going."
The pair laugh about there media-created tags. "We are real human beings. I am not the drug-crazed sex dwarf and he is not Satan's spawn; we're just very, very good at our jobs. We can recognize that in each other."
And, like Manson, Molko also has accumulated a lot of enemies. "For somebody of my diminutive stature I have a mouth which is far to big, especially after a few drinks. I've made a lot of enemies. But if I didn't say what I thought, I would kick myself. Its important to speak your mind."

„If I hear the 'Are you a glam band?' question one more time I'm going to explode."

Cruel Intentions: Placebo's Every You Every Me plays over the opening credits of this sick teen flick.
" I studied drama, I know the original (Dangerous Liaisons) and we watched it on the tour bus when they wanted to use our song. I said: 'If he doesn't die in the end, if it's a happy ending, we don't do it.' It's quite perverted and manipulative, so the theme of the song fits in quite well.

"Indifference is the killer.If you inspire extreme emotions in people then that's really positive. If people despise you, you've found a raw nerve and your rubbing salt in the wounds. And the people who understand it, become devoted and faithful."

"Imitation is the highest form of flattery, but clones kind of get it wrong because we are promoting individuality and being proud of being yourself. But at the same time its flattering because it's a form of affection. It can be strange. In London my friends get confused sometimes in bars - they think they're talking to me and it's a lookalike. But [Brian proudly adds] The Molko Bob has died. You've got to stay one haircut ahead of your clones. Madonna can have it now. It was becoming too much an identifiable trademark. I'm on more of a Liza Minelli/ Cabaret trip right now. Every time I cut my hair I give the hairdressing business in London a big boost"

"We felt quite subversive singing 'a friend with weed is better', on Top of the Pops.We get away with it because of the catchiness of the songs. Our catchiest songs tend to be our most fucked up."

An infamous quote:
" We left a trail of blood and spunk across England"

"We were incredibly wild and crazy, we did everything. But it was nothing more then any young man in his 20s with money, attention and success would do. The only thing is that we would do it in public and we promised ourselves we'd never lie about it. The rumors (about us) are all true and all lies. It doesn't bother me. It kind of contributes to the creation of the rock 'n' roll myth. Rock 'n' roll should be bad behaved, it should be dirt, it should be transgressive and amoral. It was our first album, our first band, we got a lot of success. We spent a lot of the time diving into the deep end of every rock 'n' roll cliché, exploring them. It was a baptism of fire and we weren't going to rest until everything possible was transgressed. It's good to get that out of you system so you can grow up. We never wanted to become rock 'n' roll casualties. We've been to the brink a few times and managed to pull ourselves back.
Our thoughts now are on higher things. We want to be around for a long time, to the pleasure or displeasure of people."

"There is three of us in Placebo. Exactly 50 per cent of the band is heterosexual. If the only representation of alternative sexuality in music and the media are people like Boy George, then there's still a lot of work to be done. Boy George ran into our dressing rooms at the Brit awards and shouted, 'Is anybody gay here?' That's the kind of behaviour that gets a reward with a slap from people no matter which way they swing. I think he's suffering from being a bit chubby and a bit of a has-been these days. There needs to be a new face of alternative sexuality. Hopefully it's an inspiration to people and other musicians who maybe aren't past of that camp, leather trousers, white vest, moustachio scene to come out and be proud of their sexuality. And hopefully to people in general, teenagers, so they can be less confused and fell less alienated. We get a lot of letters from people like that. Which means we're doing good. I think the majority of people who detest us harbor a great deal of latent homophobia within them. If we're raising the middle finger to that, in a very flamboyant fashion, then that's also incredibly positive. We love winding up people. You know you're successful and famous when you get a stalker or you get death threats. We've had both, so we're doing something right."

His striking, androgynous look - 'I can't help it, it's naturally part of who I am' - has been adopted by male and female Placebo fans alike.
"During the concerts the band looks at the clones in the front row and say, 'What the hell have you done, Brian?'" says Molko.

Q: Recoed you'd use to seduce someone?
A: "I remember sitting around people’s flats listening to ‘Let’s Get It On’ by Marvin Gaye, and wondering how anyone could try to get someone into bed with all those ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ in the background. I’ve used Galaxie 500 or Seefeel. They worked, but wasn’t purely to the music. If you could make an automatic pulling record, it would never leave the top of the charts."

Q: Most embarrasing record in your collection?
A: "I get given loads of rubbish. So, I have two Alanis Morissette records which I hide when anyone with taste calls around."

Elsewhere, on the deceptively sublime 'Hang On To Your IQ', Molko sings: "I'm a fool whose tool is small / it's so minuscule it's no tool at all", which is a candid confession for any man, nevermind a blossoming rock star. "Well," he explains, "my lyrics reveal the truth about how I feel, and experiences I've had. I don't see why I should be shy and coy and hide behind macho rock posturing. That's not what I'm about."

From THE BITTEREST PILL interview:

"I've always felt outsider. But everything I got beaten up for at school, I'm now using to
positive effect, making me richer, sexier and more popular than those fuckers will ever be. I was obviously born to do this job."
 

Going…
"You know what?" Molko suddenly reveals, "I really dislie the way interviews eat into my time."

We have been speaking for all of 14 minutes.

   "It doesn't help that, right now, I'm not exactly in the best of moods, either. But even at the best of times, interviews are just a necessary evil, y'know? I've got far better things to do."

And it was such fun waiting for two and a half hours for you!
 

Going…
Perhaps, just ten more minutes?

"No! No, man, I haven't got ten minutes to give you. I'll give you two more questions, then I'm gone. Okay?"

A recurring theme in Placebo interviews is drugs. Brian Molko takes them. Quite a lot of them. Sure, he says, he probably doesn't do as many drugs as Oasis, but he does love them, nevertheless. He smokes joints, he's done cocaine, speed, he's tampered with shooting up, and has even experimented with crack, which, he says, was "dangerously nice". In the light of public outcry over East 17's Brian Harvey and Noel Gallagher, should he not think twice before speaking so freely?

"Oh Jesus. Look, I'm gonna stop talking about drugs because it just gets me into a whole lot of trouble. I'm bored on the subject and I wish people would stop asking me about it. And anyway, I don't do very many drugs, not compared to some people I know, and not as many as I used to, okay?"

Gone
Sadly, it seems as if the straw has just snapped the poor old donkey's back.
"Look," he says with barely disguised exasperation. "I've really got to go. See ya." Up out of his chair, Molko disappears round the corner with impressive, um, speed. Hey, everyone has a bad day, right?

What's On, 19 Feb 1997

Brian about himself :"some kind of bisexual drug addict deviant  slut".

"I wanted to be taller than I am. I wanted to be sexier than I am. I wanted to have less zits. I can be all of these things. When I'm on stage I am all of these things."

"The reason I want to stop talking so much about my private life is I don't want to become a caricature.
I don't believe I have a responsibility to my audience - I know that whatever I say about my life other
     people are going to do it anyway, so...”

     "I forget that these things are going to be read by X amount of people. I'm learning to shut my big mouth."

"What's missing is the music. I'd like to rant on and on about the music, the mechanics of it. It's what I think  about 90 per cent of the day. I don't think about getting high all the time. I guess I do think about sex a lot,though..."

"I don't believe in the categorisation of desire, why we have to choose these tags for ourselves. I'd say that sexuality is very fluid and I think it changes from month to month. The way that I feel certainly does. If I were to put any kind of tag on it I'd just say that I was Sexual."

„My interests  really, really bother my father, but I'm glad about that. He just wouldn't understand what we were on about. Whereas my mother would just want to know what she did wrong."

Q: If you'd been brought up by progressive hippy parents would you still be in Placebo?
A: "No. I wouldn't. By trying so hard to make me into this conservative person, they forced my identity into this direction. They created the monster that I am. I'm not the person they wanted. But that doesn't mean that I blame them.”

"I'm totally responsible for my actions."

      "I've always been arrogant, but I'm determined not to be a wanker."
Q: What's the difference?
A: "How you use it. Intelligence is the main thing. Liam is unnecessarily arrogant cos he's stupid. I wouldn't want Oasis fans to like us. They wouldn't understand, they'd feel threatened."

Q: What are Placebo fans like then?
A: "Well, I get really innocent love letters and I get ones that say 'When I listen to your record I don't have to cut  myself as much'. I think it's important that I'm there for these people. I feel very comfortable about being in a  band for all the outsiders. If I was 14, I think I'd want to be in my shoes. I'd think I was a total star."

 He's just written a song called 'Burger Queen' - about being a gay goth heroin addict in Luxembourg.
"It's really the worst you could ever be. A goth, gay and on smack in the worst place, Luxembourg. It's so sad."

"Fifty? Sometimes I wonder if I'm going to make 30. I've done a lot that puts me in jeopardy."
  No details are forthcoming. He's being coy again, isn't he?
"Come on! I've got to retain some mystery."

„Shut the fuck up,Steve”