You can can count on it being a bit happier, too.Who should decide really whether the Australasian terms 'Pom' and 'Pommie' are acceptable or not?Ĭlearly the English immigrants who have suffered it the most? Hewitt promises another record ahead of the progressive rock threshold. The LA Times wrote: `Molko was suddenly spellbinding and charismatic, the audience silent - transfixed.' On Friday Placebo will continue work on their third record, which they are writing during soundchecks. His renditions of Pure Morning (originally a b-side idea), You Don't Care About Us and Without You I Am Nothing have impressed the US. I go out and see bands all the time, and there's not many who sort of get me off."Īlong with songs from the first record (the best known is Nancy Boy), fans will be eager to see Molko's live deliveries of the new hits. "It's really important to be able to play good live, because people get tired of seeing shit bands. Hewitt, who takes his 200 CDs with him on tour, seems big on bands who can deliver live, and says Placebo will. Everybody says Britpop's dead, but every band still wants to be Oasis or the Verve." Even now there's still a bit of that Britpop thing hanging around. When you see bands like the Verve, that's just a tragedy. Expensive, but we got Virgin (Records) to cover that nice."Īs Hewitt's dance-influenced drumming is credited with Placebo's modem rock sounds, the conversation inevitably turns musical. Hewitt agreed to rejoin Placebo after some scrapping between Shultzberg and Molko, "I'd just signed a deal with Warners with another band so I had to get straight out of it to join Placebo. He was for two years - and the first record - replaced by Swede Robert Shultzberg. We're actually all healthy and loving it."Īlthough Hewitt was an original member of Placebo, when they made some demos together, his commitment to another band at the time meant he could not go full time with his buddies. You've been there before and you know all the pitfalls and the drinking and that. "We've been touring (mostly) for the last four years. Which is good because they won't see their homes until Christmas. Hewitt says the lads are fit, healthy, and they're not drinking (much). They've spent the last two months in the US, honing their live act for an eagerly (droolingly for some) awaited Powerstation show in Auckland on Friday night.Īfter that it's Australia, and back to the US. This week business brings Placebo our way. "You go through all your cliches, then say okay I've done that and start getting down to business." It was during a crescendo of Placebo's excesses that self-disgust set in, sparking some of the melancholy marvels that litter Without You I Am Nothing. "'Take three guys who are earning money and they're travelling the world, what are you gonna do? You're going to party, you know what I mean?" "It's absolutely necessary to get rid of all that (touring) shit," he explains. Hewitt says Placebo's first two years of touring, in '96 and '97 to promote their first record, Placebo, were 'partyville'. That's not to say the sun shines out of their 'boxes' to use Molko's favourite word on the new record. cocaine habits and it was like, I don't think so 'You try doing all that, then touring for six month and making a record when you come back. We had a great interview with them (Select) but they had us out of our head, prostitutes. But I find Hewitt sharp, polite, and a wee bit awkward about the press taking Placebo's candid interviews too far. I had to wonder, on a 5-minute hold to the Holiday Inn, downtown Salt Lake City - which incidentally has excellent gym and sauna facilities - what Hewitt, Placebo's deft timekeeper, will be like. His penchant for lipstick and evening wear not made for menfolk carries a likelihood of exacerbating the weird rep. It twists no knickers to say Placebo - the band compared with Bowie, Iggy Pop and Lou Reed have a reputation. You either thought "that's disgusting", or "on ya lads, y'all rock." It detailed orgies, obscene (apparently impossible) quantities of alcohol and uppers, and the use of sex like a similar commodity. Take Placebo's infamous Select magazine interview. It is an all-out, stand-alone fix of pure angst, laced with sex and drugs and plenty of tuneful rock 'n' roll.Īctually, not so much of the sex and drugs as many music readers are led to believe. But by the band's own admission, Without You I Am Nothing has come as a saviour for the closet depressive in all of us. Yeah, all right, it's their second album. Brian Molko, the American singer/guitarist, Stefan Oldsal, the Swedish bassist, Steve Hewitt, the pommie drummer. After two years of Girl Power and commercially doctored melodies. After two years of clean, happy, lyrically barren pop.
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