Placebo frontman Brian Molko has opened up about the motivation behind the band’s new project, Placebo: RE:CREATED, a complete re-recording of their iconic 1996 self-titled debut. Speaking with John Kennedy on Radio X's X-Posure, the singer revealed that the band’s original effort felt unresolved, driving him to revisit the material three decades later.
Molko explained that the creative spark came after reading about electronic musician Tricky's regrets over his own debut. "That really resonated for me, you know, because I realised that I had a similar relationship with the first record of Placebo’s, which a lot of people also considered to be the classic album," Molko said. "We didn't really know how to use it as an instrument, the studio."
To remedy this, the band returned to the studio to breathe new life into the tracklist. "I wanted to take the 30 years of experience of playing these songs live and the 30 years of experience that I have recording, you know, and our sound has become a lot more textured and layered, and kind of bring that back into the first album – drag it into the 20-first century sonically, whilst retaining the integrity of the record," Molko detailed. "We put four to six weeks aside to do the project, and it was such a joyful experience. And we were in such a flow state, that we finished it in 13 days."
The conversation also shifted to the band's formative years in the capital, which heavily shaped their early music. Molko looked back fondly at "how unapologetically multicultural it was at the time, and how unapologetically diverse the music scene was," noting that the city was a foundational influence.
However, changing political landscapes eventually forced a departure. "We would have been a completely different band if we hadn't have got together in London," Molko reflected. "And yeah, it breaks my heart that I felt that I had to leave, you know, because of Brexit."
