一日一翻 6/15
世界是舞台
Fionna Shepherd和Placebo的主唱Brian Molko互换化妆品。此处全无讽刺之意。
“我觉得现如今的音乐，表面上冷嘲热讽，实际上全是惺惺作态的大男子主义。我想，可能是因为人们在渴求一种真实、残缺、脆弱的事物吧；音乐一旦承载上这样沉甸甸的情感，必然会变得私密而坦诚。我觉得我们的音乐很平易近人，它如此的专注于内心，除了感性再没有什么词来形容它了。
啧啧！这个对着他不加雕饰的音乐高谈阔论的年轻人就是Brian Molko，尽管他一再声称要实话实说，却仍旧给乐队起了个名字叫Placebo——人们给病人服用安慰剂，让他们相信他们真的会好起来。再加上Molko还在伦敦学过戏剧，因此他摈弃戏梦人生而选择站在舞台上做回自己，多少有点好笑。
“我想站在舞台上尽情表现自己一定更有劲，”他说，接着浪漫地描述道，“摇滚就像个马戏团（！），怪人们蜂拥而至，它能让你梦想成真。世俗的条条框框在这儿可行不通，你有充分的自由把你认为最有趣的一面展现在众人面前。”
就Molko出挑的样貌、声音和存在而言，他企图强调的那一面与一些形象不谋而合：电影Pulp Fiction中的Uma Thurman，Family乐队的Roger Chapman，以及加拿大前卫摇滚乐队Rush的Geddy Lee。尖而颤的嗓音，乌黑柔亮的短发，眼线和黑色指甲油，熔成一个他，对于这所引起的争议，他再清楚不过了。
“那当然，可那些在演出开场时叫着‘同性恋！’的家伙们 ，到终场却总是叫着‘再一遍！’”
Placebo刚结束了一场由Weezer赞助的巡演，从美国东岸一直演到加拿大，在巡演中这样的场景时有发生。在英国，他们的首张专辑行云流水，脍炙人口，使得三人在伦敦站稳了脚跟。
“我们的音乐中有一些跨界的成分，”Molko说道。“实验性的碰撞和朋克精神总是充斥其中，尽管这有时显得与主流格格不入，但这张专辑却是披着流行皮的噪音，或许就是这赢得了人们的喜爱吧。”
对于一支两年前才刚刚成军的乐队，他们已经做得很不错了，两年前的那天Molko偶遇了他在卢森堡上美国学校时的旧相识（Molko的双亲都是美国人，他也操一口美国腔，可他从未定居美国）。
“我上学时，学校里有个老高老高的瑞典人，叫Stefan。他是校篮球队里年纪最小的，因此他是运动健将小组的，而我进了戏剧社，往荷兰走私点东西什么的，所以我基本属于废柴小组的，总之我们八杆子打不到一块儿。”
然而几年后的清晨，他们在伦敦地铁站重逢了，并且发现，他们有着很多相同点，这是他们在学校时所不知道的，之后又来了个Robert（也是个瑞典人）做鼓手，Placebo就这么诞生了。
“由于我们都生长于异乡，如孩童般游荡，因此我们有着相同的飘零感， 尽管你要面对不同的文化，但同时你也免去了一些愚蠢的洗脑，像是爱国主义教育和民族音乐传承，这种东西非憋死我不可。”
至于Placebo呢，非爽死你不可。试试看吧——你真会觉得好过些。
原文
ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE
Fionna Shepherd swaps make-up tips with Brian Molko,
lead singer of Placebo.Without the least trace of irony.
"I think there's a lot of macho posturing and hiding behind irony in music today.
I think that perhaps people are starved for a certain honesty and vulnerability and
a fragility; music that carries this emotional weight that's also quite personal and naked and I think our music is very human because it's so turned in on itself that it could be nothing else but very emotional."
Phew! The young man delivering this eloquent analysis of his artless art is Brian Molko who, for all his protestations of genuineness and naked truth, still opted to call his band Placebo, after the false "cure" handed out to ailing individuals to fuel their belief that they are getting better. Add to this Molko's history as a drama student in London and it does actually seem ironic that he abandoned a life of role-playing to stand on the stage and be himself.
"I decided it would be more fun to play my own part on stage," he says, before elaborating romantically, "Rock'n'Roll is a circus where all the freaks go and it gives you the freedom to be everything that you always wanted to be. The normal rules don't really apply and it gives you the freedom to take aspects of your personality which you particulary like or think are more interesting and bring them to the forefront."
Given Molko's very distinctive appearance, voice and presence, it can only be assumed that the aspects of his personality he seeks to magnify are the ones which tally most closely with Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction, Family's Roger Chapman and Geddy Lee from Canadian progrockers Rush. His idiosyncratic combination of high, quavering vocals, sleek raven bob, eyeliner and black nail varnish have proved as provocative as he no doubt envisaged.
"Yeah, but the people who at the beginning of the gig are screaming "homo!" by the end of the gig are the people who are screaming for more,"
Placebo have just returned from aWeezer support tour of the US east coast and Canada where such reactions were regular occurrences. In Britain, with a well-received and fluent debut album already well under their belts, the trio are on a firmer footing.
"There's some sort of crossover quality to our music, " says Molko. "What we have is a lot of experimental dissonance and punk adrenalin and it can be quite discordant at times, but what the album is is all this noise crushed into pop structure which is probably what ends up winning people over."
Not a bad report card for a band who came into being two years ago after Molko bumped into a former acquaintance from his days at an American school in Luxembourg (Molko has American parents and an American accent but has never lived in US).
"There was a certain very tall Swedish person called Stephan at school. He was the youngest to play varsity basketball, so he was in the jock group and I was into drama club and making smuggling trips to Holland so I was more in the loser group, so we never mixed."
A chance early morning encounter in a London tube station years later revealed that the two had far more in common than in their schooldays and with drummer Robert (also Swedish) Placebo were to be formed.
"As all of us grew up in countries which weren't of our own origin and all of us moved around as kids, so we all share a certain rootlessness which means you get exposed to many cultures, but it also means that you don't deal with stupid concepts like patriotism and your national musical lineage, and all that stuff which bores the pants out of me."
With Placebo, it's more a case of charming pants off. Try them - you'll feel much better.
The List, 13 Dec 1996
Fionna Shepherd和Placebo的主唱Brian Molko互换化妆品。此处全无讽刺之意。
“我觉得现如今的音乐，表面上冷嘲热讽，实际上全是惺惺作态的大男子主义。我想，可能是因为人们在渴求一种真实、残缺、脆弱的事物吧；音乐一旦承载上这样沉甸甸的情感，必然会变得私密而坦诚。我觉得我们的音乐很平易近人，它如此的专注于内心，除了感性再没有什么词来形容它了。
啧啧！这个对着他不加雕饰的音乐高谈阔论的年轻人就是Brian Molko，尽管他一再声称要实话实说，却仍旧给乐队起了个名字叫Placebo——人们给病人服用安慰剂，让他们相信他们真的会好起来。再加上Molko还在伦敦学过戏剧，因此他摈弃戏梦人生而选择站在舞台上做回自己，多少有点好笑。
“我想站在舞台上尽情表现自己一定更有劲，”他说，接着浪漫地描述道，“摇滚就像个马戏团（！），怪人们蜂拥而至，它能让你梦想成真。世俗的条条框框在这儿可行不通，你有充分的自由把你认为最有趣的一面展现在众人面前。”
就Molko出挑的样貌、声音和存在而言，他企图强调的那一面与一些形象不谋而合：电影Pulp Fiction中的Uma Thurman，Family乐队的Roger Chapman，以及加拿大前卫摇滚乐队Rush的Geddy Lee。尖而颤的嗓音，乌黑柔亮的短发，眼线和黑色指甲油，熔成一个他，对于这所引起的争议，他再清楚不过了。
“那当然，可那些在演出开场时叫着‘同性恋！’的家伙们 ，到终场却总是叫着‘再一遍！’”
Placebo刚结束了一场由Weezer赞助的巡演，从美国东岸一直演到加拿大，在巡演中这样的场景时有发生。在英国，他们的首张专辑行云流水，脍炙人口，使得三人在伦敦站稳了脚跟。
“我们的音乐中有一些跨界的成分，”Molko说道。“实验性的碰撞和朋克精神总是充斥其中，尽管这有时显得与主流格格不入，但这张专辑却是披着流行皮的噪音，或许就是这赢得了人们的喜爱吧。”
对于一支两年前才刚刚成军的乐队，他们已经做得很不错了，两年前的那天Molko偶遇了他在卢森堡上美国学校时的旧相识（Molko的双亲都是美国人，他也操一口美国腔，可他从未定居美国）。
“我上学时，学校里有个老高老高的瑞典人，叫Stefan。他是校篮球队里年纪最小的，因此他是运动健将小组的，而我进了戏剧社，往荷兰走私点东西什么的，所以我基本属于废柴小组的，总之我们八杆子打不到一块儿。”
然而几年后的清晨，他们在伦敦地铁站重逢了，并且发现，他们有着很多相同点，这是他们在学校时所不知道的，之后又来了个Robert（也是个瑞典人）做鼓手，Placebo就这么诞生了。
“由于我们都生长于异乡，如孩童般游荡，因此我们有着相同的飘零感， 尽管你要面对不同的文化，但同时你也免去了一些愚蠢的洗脑，像是爱国主义教育和民族音乐传承，这种东西非憋死我不可。”
至于Placebo呢，非爽死你不可。试试看吧——你真会觉得好过些。
原文
ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE
Fionna Shepherd swaps make-up tips with Brian Molko,
lead singer of Placebo.Without the least trace of irony.
"I think there's a lot of macho posturing and hiding behind irony in music today.
I think that perhaps people are starved for a certain honesty and vulnerability and
a fragility; music that carries this emotional weight that's also quite personal and naked and I think our music is very human because it's so turned in on itself that it could be nothing else but very emotional."
Phew! The young man delivering this eloquent analysis of his artless art is Brian Molko who, for all his protestations of genuineness and naked truth, still opted to call his band Placebo, after the false "cure" handed out to ailing individuals to fuel their belief that they are getting better. Add to this Molko's history as a drama student in London and it does actually seem ironic that he abandoned a life of role-playing to stand on the stage and be himself.
"I decided it would be more fun to play my own part on stage," he says, before elaborating romantically, "Rock'n'Roll is a circus where all the freaks go and it gives you the freedom to be everything that you always wanted to be. The normal rules don't really apply and it gives you the freedom to take aspects of your personality which you particulary like or think are more interesting and bring them to the forefront."
Given Molko's very distinctive appearance, voice and presence, it can only be assumed that the aspects of his personality he seeks to magnify are the ones which tally most closely with Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction, Family's Roger Chapman and Geddy Lee from Canadian progrockers Rush. His idiosyncratic combination of high, quavering vocals, sleek raven bob, eyeliner and black nail varnish have proved as provocative as he no doubt envisaged.
"Yeah, but the people who at the beginning of the gig are screaming "homo!" by the end of the gig are the people who are screaming for more,"
Placebo have just returned from aWeezer support tour of the US east coast and Canada where such reactions were regular occurrences. In Britain, with a well-received and fluent debut album already well under their belts, the trio are on a firmer footing.
"There's some sort of crossover quality to our music, " says Molko. "What we have is a lot of experimental dissonance and punk adrenalin and it can be quite discordant at times, but what the album is is all this noise crushed into pop structure which is probably what ends up winning people over."
Not a bad report card for a band who came into being two years ago after Molko bumped into a former acquaintance from his days at an American school in Luxembourg (Molko has American parents and an American accent but has never lived in US).
"There was a certain very tall Swedish person called Stephan at school. He was the youngest to play varsity basketball, so he was in the jock group and I was into drama club and making smuggling trips to Holland so I was more in the loser group, so we never mixed."
A chance early morning encounter in a London tube station years later revealed that the two had far more in common than in their schooldays and with drummer Robert (also Swedish) Placebo were to be formed.
"As all of us grew up in countries which weren't of our own origin and all of us moved around as kids, so we all share a certain rootlessness which means you get exposed to many cultures, but it also means that you don't deal with stupid concepts like patriotism and your national musical lineage, and all that stuff which bores the pants out of me."
With Placebo, it's more a case of charming pants off. Try them - you'll feel much better.
The List, 13 Dec 1996
