You’ve played in a few far out places most recently being Angkor Wat in Cambodia as part of a campaign against human trafficking. Is that a conscious decision on the part of the band – to perform in locations not often visited by major recording artists? Or does that have more to do with the social cause you support?
Stefan: It was a combination.  It is an amazing location and MTV Exit is a very worthy cause to lend our name to.

Do you think you’ll have to change much of your live act for India? Will the live Placebo experience be any different?
Stefan: We’re a rock band. It’s not all clean and above board, but what in life is?  We’d go to put on the best show that we possibly could.

Placebo has been around now for 15 years. Six albums down, and a great deal of international success later, do you feel some sort of moral or obliged responsibility, in that your music has to have some Bono-esque social relevance?
Stefan: We’re musicians not politicians.  We express ourselves through our music, that is what we’re good at. We’re not here to tell anyone what to think or do.

You haven’t performed a lot of your older material at recent festivals and gigs. Is that something you’re consciously avoiding?
Stefan: It’s simply that the new stuff has more emotional relevance to us.  Some old songs feels like they were written by different people..

A message for your fans in India?
Stefan: Hold your head up, keep your head up.  Hope to see you soon!

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Placebo on MySpace

Most of you will remember Placebo from the single ‘Every You Every Me’ (from their seminal album Without You I’m Nothing) that was part of the soundtrack for the movie Cruel Intentions, which was, much to the delight of teenage Indian boys with cable, broadcast on Star Movies at a particularly disturbing frequency.

We’ll have an exclusive interview with the band about its plans for India soon, so stay tuned!

Till then check out this uber-interactive video for the single ‘The Never-Ending Why’. The band has been performing at a slew of European festivals, most recently the Leeds festival last week. Here’s them performing ‘The Never-Ending Why’ at Pinkpop in the Netherlands.