Brian Molko

Born in Brussels in 1972, Brian Molko grew up between Belgium, Luxembourg, Liberia and Lebanon before settling in London, where he studied drama and co-founded Placebo with Stefan Olsdal in the mid-1990s. In the duo that became a full band, Molko developed a distinctive songwriting and vocal style—an unusually high voice and taut guitar playing—within a blend of alternative rock, post-punk and glam rock featuring often spare, melodic lines. Placebo emerged with the album Placebo (1996) and followed up with Without You I’m Nothing (1998), on which David Bowie appears on a new version of the title track. Molko continued this trajectory on records such as Black Market Music (2000), Sleeping with Ghosts (2003), Meds (2006) and Never Let Me Go (2022), moving the band’s sound toward more electronic textures without abandoning its rock framework. Alongside Placebo, he has collaborated with artists including Timo Maas, Indochine, Jane Birkin and Faultline, and appears in Todd Haynes’s film Velvet Goldmine. Molko remains associated with a European rock scene marked by the intersection of pop tension, an androgynous aesthetic and a post-punk heritage.