Brian Molko of Placebo
Born to an American international banker father and a Scottish born-again Christian mother, the Molko family moved frequently during Brian's childhood, including spells in Liberia, Lebanon and Luxembourg. In 1990, he attended Goldsmiths College in London, where he studied drama. He describes his childhood as a period when he felt very lonely and alienated. He started to wear make-up at the age of 11. He was an actor in a school drama theater. He speaks French. He is lactose intolerant.
His parents attempted, during his childhood, to bring him up according to their standards. His father wanted him to become a banker. However, the result was rebellion, as he forgot his own identity trying to escape from their educational, family and religious pressures, becoming the nail polish, lipstick and eyeliner-wearing, openly bisexual, androgynous, cross-dressing, sometimes chain smoking rock musician that would later find him fame and infamy.
Placebo From left to right, Steve Hewitt, Brian Molko and Stefan Olsdal
Molko attended the same school as Stefan Olsdal in Luxembourg; however, they never communicated (it was a European School). When Brian moved to London to study drama at Goldsmiths College, where he graduated with a degree, he met Stefan at a South Kensington Tube Station. Brian invited Stefan to one of his gigs in a club, which he played with Steve Hewitt, later to become a drummer in the band Placebo and out of politeness Stefan attended. Stefan soon fell in love with Brian's voice and together they formed Ashtray Heart; eventually they changed the name to Placebo. Together with drummer Robert Schultzberg (a friend of Stefan's from Sweden, as Stefan is Swedish) performed together in 1996. Schultzberg did not fit in the band and Brian and Robert did not get along with each other. Soon the drummer was replaced with Brian's friend Steve Hewitt, who played on Placebo's demo tracks.
His musical influences include Dead Kennedys, Sonic Youth, PJ Harvey, Nick Drake, Joy Division and The Pixies. Molko taught himself to play guitar. At the age of 16 he got a fake Telecaster as a present from his parents, he soon bought a real guitar, with actual strings. He plays other instruments such as bass, harmonica, keyboard, saxophone, drums and turntables. Occasionally, Molko works as a disc jockey at clubs but he says he's not good at dj'ing. Nowadays Molko listens to Peaches, Ladytron, At the Drive-In, Jane's Addiction and many more. He likes to experiment with electric sounds.
Brian Molko of Placebo
Along with Steve Hewitt and Stefan Olsdal, he had a small role in the 1998 film Velvet Goldmine, for which Placebo performed the T. Rex song "20th Century Boy". He played Malcolm, a singer of the fictional glam rock band, "The Flaming Creatures".
He has performed as a guest vocalist on tracks by Timo Maas - 'Pictures', 'Like Siamese', 'First Day', Alpinestars - 'Carbon Kid', Trash Palace - 'The Metric System', 'Je t'aime, moi non plus' (duet with Asia Argento), the AC Acoustics - 'Crush', Kristeen Young - 'No Other God', Dream City Film Club - 'Some' and with Jane Birkin - 'Smile'. He also wrote the English lyrics to 'Pink water' version 3, a song by Indochine from the album that is due to be released at the end of 2005.
Molko is friends with David Bowie (they sang Placebo's song 'Without You I'm Nothing' and the cover T. Rex's song '20th Century Boy' together live), Marilyn Manson, and Nicola Sirkis from Indochine. He was also close to the late Simon Hobart.
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