___________________________________________________Brian Molko __________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________
Brian Molko:
Born to an American
international banker father and a Scottish born-again Christian mother, the
Molko family moved frequently during his childhood, including spells in
Scotland, Liberia, Lebanon and Luxembourg. Brian has referred to his mother's
home town of Dundee, Scotland as "where I grew up".[1]. 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.
While Molko was brought up in a strict household that disapproved of artistic
..his father wanted him to become a banker) he rebelled by affecting
an androgynous image, wearing nail polish, lipstick and eyeliner, and listening
to punk and glam rock. In his late teens, he came out as bisexual.
Molko and Stefan Olsdal both attended The American International School of
Luxembourg (now known as The International School of Luxembourg) in Luxembourg,
but they were never friends. When Molko moved to London to study drama at
Goldsmiths College, where he graduated with a degree, he met Olsdal at South
Kensington Tube Station. Molko invited Olsdal to one of his gigs in a club,
which he played with Steve Hewitt. Olsdal was impressed with Molko's voice, and
together they formed Ashtray Heart; eventually they changed the name to Placebo.
Together with drummer Robert Schultzberg (a friend of Olsdal's from Sweden)
performed together in 1996. Schultzberg did not fit in the band, however, and
was soon replaced with Steve Hewitt, who played on Placebo's demo tracks.
Molko's musical influences include Dead Kennedys, Bad Religion, Sonic Youth, PJ
Harvey, Nick Drake, Joy Division and 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 admits he's not very
good at it. Nowadays Molko listens to Peaches, Ladytron, At the Drive-In, Jane's
Addiction and many more. He likes to experiment with electronic sounds.
Along with Hewitt and 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."
In 2005, Molko's long-term partner, Helena Berg, gave birth to his first child,
Cody. He said he named the child after his long time friend who died in a car
accident, but others claim he is named for the Mogwai album Come On Die Young.
Although there has been some rumours about the status of their relationship,
Molko has confirmed several times they're in a quite stable status, "more or
less married".
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.
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