Placebo’s Steve Forrest on eating fellow band members

Hello Steve. How are you today?

I’m fine, thank you. I’ve just been out shopping with my girlfriend, getting ready to fly to Budapest.

You came from relative obscurity to join one of the biggest names in rock music today. How did that happen?

My band Evaline had opened for Placebo a few times when they toured the States, so that’s how we initially met and they saw me play. Shortly after that, my bandmates and I went our separate ways. I spent a year doing this and that until I found out Steve Hewitt was no longer in Placebo, so I got in touch, came over in January 2008 to jam and hang, and we’ve been together ever since. Quite lovely I must say.

Where did you grow up, and what was it like?

I grew up in a very small town in northern/central California where not much went on. There were three things you did after graduating high school. Go to college or join the military and get a degree or a few scars. Join the workforce and get either pregnant or married. Usually the latter followed the former. Do drugs and join a band. Guess which one I did.

The stereotypical Placebo fan used to be a pale, moping self-injurer, and the music frequently referenced drug use and despair. Would you have been a Placebo fan in their beginnings, when you were about 13?

It’s hard to say, to be honest. When I was 13 my head was sort of all over the shop like most people’s, and I was into a lot of rock at the time. I guess I would have liked the music, but the whole gothic, lipstick look wasn’t really my thing — never was and still really isn’t. As far as being pale, ha — not possible where I’m from.

‘When I was 13… I guess I would have liked the music, but the whole gothic, lipstick look wasn’t really my thing.’

Battle for the sun feels more mature and optimistic than previous Placebo albums. Does your personal outlook work better with where the band are at now?

The Placebo of today would definitely have been more appealing to my personality and taste in music.

Are you pleased with your work on Battle for the sun? There must’ve been a lot of pressure.

I am very proud of my work on this album, I put my heart and soul into these songs and these recordings. The pressure wasn’t too bad actually, I mean, playing music is what I do best and so I’m very confident in myself as far as playing and performing goes. I guess there was more pressure on me media-wise, but that came later.

You must be comfortable in your own skin and secure in your sexuality to join this band, for obvious reasons. Where did that come from?

I have always been attracted to people who weren’t afraid to be themselves and push the boundaries with their music, their look and their sexuality. I find it very brave indeed and so that’s what I tried to do my whole life. I loved being different and making people ask questions like, ‘Why is he doing that?’ ‘Why does he dress like that?’ I was raised around very square people, and that’s one thing that I never wanted to be, and that’s one thing that I never will be.

‘I have always been attracted to people who weren’t afraid to be themselves and push the boundaries with their music, their look and their sexuality.’

What do the lyrics ‘I will battle for the sun, ‘cause I have stared down the barrel of a gun’ mean to you?

‘I will battle for the sun’ to me means that I will fight for what I want in this life, for what I love, and for what I need to live. The lyrics ‘I have stared down the barrel of a gun’ to me mean that you’ve looked death or the possibility of death in the face — in the sense that you saw that your path was going to lead to certain destruction and decided best to change your routine.

Placebo’s androgyny has been a huge attraction to female fans, and in music there’s a long history of androgynous men, such as Robert Plant and David Bowie, being acknowledged as attractive to women. Meanwhile, magazines like Filament are criticised for suggesting that women might sometimes fancy androgynous men outside the context of music. Why do you think male androgyny is accepted in music but less so elsewhere?

I’m not sure about that one. I guess it’s more accepted for performers because that’s just what you are doing, performing. So make-up, wild clothes and crazy hair is somewhat normal in our line of work. I’m not sure where these things aren’t looked at as attractive but wherever that is, I don’t wanna party with those people. They sound like they need to get their priorities crooked.

Drumming is hell on your wrists and shoulders, surely. What do you do to keep the RSI at bay?

I stretch a lot, I keep my body fit and I make sure not to strain anything, and when I do, I get it sorted. You can’t mess around with your body, it’s what makes you your money. I also keep a sweat band on my left wrist to help support the hard blows during a gig.

Why do you get tattooed? Which one’s your favourite?

I just got a new one of an American Indian girl, who also has tattoos, about three weeks ago on my upper thigh. I get tattooed I guess because it separates me from everyone else on the planet, in the sense that I have my own bookmarks and stamps from years past that no one else quite has; it’s the one thing aside from my music that nobody can take away from me. My favourite I guess would be my knuckles, which say open mind.

You’re significantly younger than Brian and Stefan, and they have a long history of making music together. How does this play itself out in the band dynamics?

It makes for a lot of piss-takes, but the age thing doesn’t come into it when we’re working. We meld together quite well and I guess you could say that I’m an old soul in a young body, and they’re a bit the opposite, so it balances out. They do have a lot of history together, but I try not to let that get in the way of my creating with them. It just means that I don’t get a lot of the inside jokes about their past.

Where does your amazing on-stage energy come from?

Um, I don’t know exactly, it’s just there. I’m excited about playing music. It’s the most fun thing in the world to me, so when I get on stage, the only thing I want to do is blast every emotion that’s inside my body out of me all at once and be this person that normally I can’t be because it’s not a proper way to act in society. I don’t know, I guess I’ve just been blessed with a lot of energy so I figured, why not do something productive with it?

‘I want to blast every emotion that’s inside my body out of me all at once and be this person that normally I can’t be because it’s not a proper way to act in society.’

If you were stranded on a desert island with Stefan and Brian, who would you eat first?

Definitely Brian. Both of them would be easy to take down, but although Brian is a small man, he does have more meat on his bones than Stef, and would probably keep me and Stef alive until help came. Plus I don’t think Stef would feed both me and Brian, so just to fill my belly I would have to then kill Brian, but would only be able to eat half of him due to already having had a helping of Stef, and that would just be a waste.

This interview appeared in Filament magazine Issue 2, September 2009. For more information about Placebo check out Placebo’s official website: Placebo World. Photography by Roman Skyva.