David Bowie: BananaGirl81 says: "If they weren't in Placebo, what would they be doing employment-wise today?" Steve?Steve Hewitt: I'd probably be working for a racing-car team, Formula One racing-car team.
David Bowie: Yeah, right. Stefan?
Steve Hewitt: I'm serious.
Stefan Olsdal: He used to do it!
David Bowie: Really?
Steve Hewitt: I used to do it, but I gave it up to do rock and roll.
David Bowie: Wow. Much faster than what you're doing now, isn't it?
Steve Hewitt: Mmm-hmm. Much more satisfaction as well. Working for yourself.
David Bowie: I've been reading an article by a friend of mine who edits a magazine called Raygun, he's written a book which was illustrated by a first-class photographer and video maker called Doug Aiken, the book is called "I Am A Bullet". It explores the idea of speed throughout the 20th Century, and what a pivotal force it's been, how it's changed our outlook and way of life. Did you find that when you were driving at extreme speed that you would take in information far quicker, that in fact it seemed like you were finally going at the speed that your mind really goes at. Because I find that our mind goes so fast that we can't possibly physically carry out all that goes on in our heads.
Steve Hewitt: I think it's about conditioning if you're in a situation for a long period of time, whether you're driving or whether you're working with a team I wasn't driving, I was working with an engineer, tuning up engines and things like that.
David Bowie: You must have got in like on a Tuesday night when you'd had a few.
Steve Hewitt: Yeah, I got in a few times.
David Bowie: Like, "I'll take this sucker around the circuit".
Steve Hewitt: ...changed my underwear afterwards. (laughter). But yeah, totally.
David Bowie: The extraordinary thing they used as an example in the articles in this book, one of the speed champions who'd been putting his machine up to like three or four hundred miles and hour crashed, and he actually got out of the damned thing, which was absolutely unbelievable, and he talked about the last seven seconds or so of that flight. And when they played the playback of it, he'd talked for over an hour. So he had somehow assimilated seven seconds worth of experience and he was able to articulate that seven seconds over the course of one hour. The amount of information that he was taking in was formidable, quite beyond.
Brian Molko: I remember that when I was a child, I must have been about eight years old, I remember when I was hit by a car, crossing in front of a bus in Dundee Scotland, where my mother comes from. And I remember time slowing down.
David Bowie: Yes! I think we've all experienced that, there's been some emergency in one's life where at that point you almost become a calm and still force in this vortex of experience.
Brian Molko: I wonder if certain amphetamines actually create the illusion of what you were talking about earlier?
David Bowie: I've always found it wise to take speed before you're going to have an accident. (laughter). I_Am_A_Placebo: "How do you find the American audiences in comparison to the European audiences?"
Brian Molko: The Europeans wear fewer baseball caps. Full stop. In Europe, there are no baseball caps in Europe.
David Bowie: Is it because the Europeans have more hair, on the whole?Steve Hewitt: It brings up an interesting point, actually if you didn't wear the baseball cap, you'd have more hair anyway.
Brian Molko: Yeah.
David Bowie: AlbanyHendrix asks: "David, do you feel that rock is dead?" Mick Rock is very, very well. He lives in New York and is still taking photographs. He's with a fine eighteen-year old, even though he's had multiple bypass surgery. "Is Placebo one of the new bands that will lead rock into" where?
(Chorus): The new millennium!
David Bowie: I thought we were going to get through this chat without having to say that damned word. But no, here it is! Yeah, I certainly feel that Placebo are one of the major important bands of the moment, as yet just breaking, just touching the cusp of fame in the States, but I'm sure that they'll be all over your radio any day now!
Brian Molko: Who else do you think is up-and-coming and important?
David Bowie: Well, it's significant 'where', isn't it? It's diversified so much, especially from America to Europe, apart from soul and hip-hop, which has practically become a form across both continents. Underneath that there's so much diversity that I think.
David Bowie: I think there's probably still a lot of grounds to be taken by the so-called rave bands from Europe, there's a lot more room for Chemical Brothers and Goldie if he doesn't end up in the cinema all the time. Because he's just got the new Bond movie as the villain. So I think we might lose him to the cinema.
Brian Molko: We hardly listen to rock anymore. We play it every day, we find we listen to the Aphex Twin a lot, we listen to Talvin Singh, Joy, DJ Shadow a great deal.
David Bowie: Grooverider's cool, I like his stuff.
Brian Molko: It's very interesting for us, to try and assimilate that. It's very different than when we were teenagers, trying to assimilate all the rock and guitar music, and now it's a second stage for us, assimilating things into our music that don't necessarily have a place, which is something that you've always done.
David Bowie: I hope Squeaky, if you're out there, realise that Placebo are Aphex Twin fans. She'll know what I mean. "Do you try to keep up with the technology by that I mean encoding your video or audio for the www?" So there you are.
Brian Molko: It's something that we haven't done, but could be happening quite soon. It's the way forward.
David Bowie: How do you feel about MP3 of your songs being available for free download all over the world?
Brian Molko: Well, it's a money thing, isn't it? (laughter). I don't know.
Stefan Olsdal: To buy a CD is to actually have this physical finished art piece, with its inlay card and everything, I think you feel more like you own it. An MP3 is just downloading.
David Bowie: Are you suggesting that people should go out to the record shops and actually buy the albums, rather than getting them for free?Brian Molko: Yes! (laughter). What do you think?
David Bowie: I think that NancyBoy wants to ask you a question! "Steve, you cite funk and hip-hop as your influences for your fast-style drumming. Any one musician in particular?"
Steve Hewitt: Funk and hip-hop, yeah, totally. Favorite? It's a big question yeah, probably Chuck D and Sly Stone.
David Bowie: Chuck D rules.
Steve Hewitt: He and Sly Stone are the first people that come to mind.
David Bowie: I was trying to think of the song that Sly had years ago, "Making Me Feel Myself Again?".
Brian Molko: "Thank You For Letting Me Feel Myself Again".
David Bowie: That's right! Sorry. (laughter).
Brian Molko: A good one as well is "If I Could Do It All Again I Wouldn't Change The Skin I'm In". I feel that more and more every day.
Steve Hewitt: That's good, that's a good one.
Stefan Olsdal: It's Steve that sort of brought the funk to the punk.
Brian Molko: In the band, yeah.
David Bowie: Say that, loud and proud. (laughter).
Stefan Olsdal: Steve brought the funk to the punk!' (laughter).
David Bowie: Making it funky punk! "Placebo, any chance of you working with Unkle in the future?"
Brian Molko: Ummm.
Steve Hewitt: You nearly did, didn't you, Brian?
Brian Molko: Yeah, James and I went out drinking several times and got rather pissed there was talk of working together, but he was making the album while we were making ours, so nothing ever pulled off. However, I think that he could maybe be remixing something for us in the future.
David Bowie: Okay, I think we've got maybe a chance for five more questions, guys?
CreamyJesus asks: "Was it a personal choice not to work with Brad Wood on your latest album?"
(Chorus): Yes.
Brian Molko: Yes, certainly. At the time we worked with Brad we were novices, very inexperienced.
Stefan Olsdal: He taught us a lot.
Brian Molko: The songwriting had taken a step up, and the production values had to take a step up as well. When we worked with Brad we were interested in just trying to get a snapshot of where we were at as a band we wanted the record to sound like the band was playing in your room. Kind of Albini-Brad Wood production. But with Steve Osborne we wanted a mix of technology and rock music. More machines. We used a lot of toy instruments with Brad; with Steve Osborne we used a lot of very, very expensive toys as instruments. It's all about taking one step one as a band no disrespect to Brad, he's still a very good friend of ours.
David Bowie: And now he's running a very successful toy shop in North London. (laughter).
Brian Molko: Running a very good studio in Chicago, actually.
David Bowie: He sold the toy shop, then?
Brian Molko: (Laughter). Yeah.
David Bowie: Brian Eno used to talk about making decisions I was always quite fascinated by the idea of having decisions made for you. He had this thing going when we were working in Berlin he'd take out a map of Berlin, then take out the amount of spare change that he had in his pockets, then take out a pair of compasses, and he'd make a circle around where we were that was directed by how far out spare change would let us go on the subway. Then he'd pick out novelty points on the circumference of that circle and take the subway to those points, and spend the rest of the day there and see what happened. And he'd do a lot of things quite like that. So the decisions were sort of made for me. I did that once and I ended up with Tin Machine. (laughter). I never did it again. "Placebo, do you consider Bowie to be your mentor or friend?"
(Chorus): Our friend.
David Bowie: Of course I'd like to think that you think of me as a friend.
Brian Molko: As a very good friend.
David Bowie: I love how you rush to affirm that. (laughter). "Being from the UK", but they aren't all from the UK, that's the thing, " - you might not be aware how difficult it is to get UK acts to break through to the US. How did you arrive – " How did you get here, I think he's asking?
(Chorus): By plane! (laughter).
David Bowie: I presume he's talking about actual work permits and things? I think that at some level most bands have to make sure that there's another American band reciprocating back over in Europe before they can come in? It can't work like that? Can't really help you with that one! SilverRocket asks: "Are you thinking of doing anything more to your official web site, and what do you think of the unofficial web sites?"
Brian Molko: The unofficial web sites are brilliant!
David Bowie: They really are, aren't they?
Brian Molko: They were up and running before our official one was any good. We don't spend enough time on it.
Steve Hewitt: I wonder if this is going to be on it, what we're doing right now?
Brian Molko: Brick Shithouse, Plastic Venus, Ashtray Hearts, Placebo.co.uk are the unofficial ones and they're all worth checking out. We keep in touch with the people responsible for them, give them quite a few tidbits, which is fun. You have an official one, which is kind of corporate, and then you have the unofficial ones.
David Bowie: I'm of exactly the same mind. I have the official one, BowieNet, and I think it's a great exercise, but I'm in awe of so many of the fan sites, I think they're quite remarkable, and I depend on them a lot for information about what I'm doing! That's a rather embarrassing and humiliating position to be in! This is going to be our last question listen guys, this has been really enjoyable today.
Brian Molko: It's been a lot of fun.
David Bowie: Any of you that want to come down and see the show tonight forget it, it's sold out! (laughter). But you guys are working here again tomorrow night, so buy, beg or borrow a ticket. Though it's probably sold out again tomorrow night, but you can always try. Sable333: "What direction do you see your music going?"Brian Molko: Ummm... (laughter). We used to be South East London, we're kind of a bit more West London now.
Steve Hewitt: A bit of North in there.
David Bowie: A lot more French poets going to be worming their way in there, a lot more existentialism. It's gonna get very Left Bank.
Brian Molko: The stuff we're writing is very melodic, we didn't want to repeat ourselves. That's why "Pure Morning" was the first single people were expecting an album full of "Nancy Boys", and we weren't prepared to give that to them. It would've bored us shuttles. "Pure Morning" was the last thing that we did for the album, and it was the first time we used things like loops. The new album probably won't be packed full of loops, but it's very emotional and probably the most melodic dynamic stuff we've ever written.
David Bowie: I must say, I like your penchant for poignant romanticism. I really like that a lot, because I'm big on that sort of stuff. I have to wind down now!
Brian Molko: Thank you, David!
David Bowie: Thank you very much, everyone!
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