Rolling_Stone_Australia_October_2017

The Song That Reminds
Me of School

Air SupplyAll Out Of Love, 1980

“IntheEightiesIwenttoan
American school in Luxem-
bourg, and believe it or not I ac-
tuallydidsomesports;Iplayed
soccerandbasketball.Andweusedtodrive
toBelgium,GermanyandFranceandhave
gamesagainstotherAmericanschools,and
onthebustripsalotofpeoplewouldbring
theirboomboxes,anditwouldendupasa
kind of battle of the boom boxes. The guy
whoreallylikedAirSupplyusuallyusedto
win because I guess that was the band that
the chaperones could tolerate the most.”

The Song You Wouldn’t Expect to
Find On My iTunes

Bruno MarsLockedOutofHeaven, 2012

“I have to make it very clear that
Ireallycan’tstandBrunoMars.
Idon’tlikehismusic,Idon’tlike
hispersona–Idon’tlikethat
cheeky coked-up confidence he’s got. I un-
derstand it, because he’s small, like me, it’s
small man’s syndrome, just played out way
too far. But this song itself is an absolute
fantastic pop song.”

TheSongIWishWeHadn’t
Recorded

PlaceboCommercial For Levi, 2000

“The theme of the song I think
is good, which is, ‘Dude, you’d
better cool it with the drugs or
you’regoingtofuckingdie’.But
themusicisabitnurseryrhymey,andit
mentionsthenamesofactualdrugsinthe
song, and I find that puerile and unimagi-
native.Iwasgoingthroughaperiodinmy
lifewheremylifestylewassohedonistic
thatIthoughteverythingIdidwasafuck-
ing masterpiece, and I thought the sun
shone out of my ass, so I didn’t really pay
muchattentiontoqualitycontrolbecause
ofcourseanythingIdidwasfuckingamaz-
ing![Laughs]ButthatwastheNineties.
I’ve changed!”

The Song With the Greatest Lyrics

PeachesDick in the Air, 2015

“It’s a song about female sexual

empowerment,butitalsojust

happens to be fucking hilarious.

And why can’t feminism be

funny?Whydoesithavetobedryandac-

ademic? It’s about reversing the gender

roles:getyourdickintheaircoswe’vebeen

shakingourtitsforyears,soit’syourturn

now.There’sabreakdownwhereshegoes,

‘Ballsanddick,twoballsandonedick,

balls, balls, dick, dick, balls and dick.’ What

the fuck? That’s brilliant! [Laughs] ‘Dick

intheAir’isatestamenttoPeaches’lyrical

imagination and ability to have you laugh

whilegettingamessageacross.”

The Song That Makes Me Cry

The Cinematic Orchestra

ToBuildaHome, 2007

“Itreallyjustgoesstraighttomy

heartstrings.It’stheinstrumen-

tation, it’s the singer’s voice –

whichisquitehighpitched,he’s

singing almost beyond his range, so there’s

akindofdesperationthere–andit’sasong

about unconditional love and the desire to

take care of another person completely self-

lessly, and to overcome life’s challenges and

hurdles with another person that you

adore. It resonates for me because it’s

somethingI’veexperiencedmyselfbeinga

father.”

TheSongI’mProudestOf

PlaceboBosco, 2013

“Every band wants to write two

songs.Thesongthat’sgoingto

be such an enormous hit that

they’llneverhavetoworkagain,

whichwehaven’twrittenyet,andthesong

that transcends a band’s identity. And I

thinkwefinallyachievedthatwith‘Bosco’.

You can take everything away about Place-

bo – what we represent, how we look, the

perception of us as a band and our music,

theperceptionofusaspeople–andjust

give this song to somebody. It can exist

completely within its own universe, with-

out needing any information from any-

where else in order to get its point across,

in order to communicate very powerful

emotions to the listener. So it’s transcend-

ed us as a band, and that’s an amazing

achievement.”

TheSongIWishIWrote

Sonic YouthHey Joni, 1988

“For me it sort of distils the es-

sence of Sonic Youth in one song.

It’s got the dissonance, but

there’salsotheunusualmelo-

dieswhichareveryhooky,aswellasthe

uniqueguitarsoundsthatSonicYouthcre-

ate. I did a fashion shoot once for Calvin

KleininNewYork,alotofothermusicians

were doing it, and Kim Gordon [was one of

them]. Now, Sonic Youth are my favourite

bandofalltime,andweweresharinga

spacewherewecouldgetchanged.Shewas

offgettingherphototaken,andIsawher

sneakers, and on top of her sneakers were

her socks. And I had this moment where I

frozeandIwent,IwanttosmellKimGor-

don’s socks. Ihaveto smell Kim Gordon’s

socks!AndthereIam,staringathersocks

anddaringmyselftosmellthem,andjust

as I’m about to bend down to pick them up,

KimGordonwalksintothemake-uproom.

Thank fuck I didn’t do it! It would have been

very embarrassing.”

The Greatest Song Ever Written

Jacques BrelNe Me Quitte Pas, 1959

“Ittranslatesas‘don’tleaveme’.

It’s basically a man begging a

woman on his hands and knees

nottoleavehim.Thereissuch

desperation and devastation in this song

andit’scommunicatedwithsomuchveri-

similitude, in such a real way, you can real-

ly feel the desperation and devastation

jumpingoutofthespeakers.Atonepointin

the song, I’ve done a little translation, he

says,‘Don’tleaveme,I’llbetheshadowof

your hand, I’ll be the shadow of your dog,

justplease, don’t leave me.’ That’s pretty

fucking heavy. And pretty desperate.”

MY SOUNDTRACK

R&R

The Placebo frontman came this close

to smelling Kim Gordon’s socks

BY ROD YATES

Brian Molko

38 | Rolling Stone | RollingStoneAus.com October, 2017