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Interview with Richard Patrick of Filter
I see Filter is back with a new crew -- tell
me about the new lineup.
The new band consists of Mitch Marlow [guitar], John
Spiker [bass] and Mika Fineo [drums]. They are the new touring carnation of the band, but I think Mitch and John are
definitely going to be rocking on the new record with me -- as well as John 5 and maybe some other folks.
Are
you guys going to work on a new record pretty soon?
Yeah, we've already started -- I've got about
twelve songs already. Right now we're just trying to narrow down what producer we want to work with and if I want
to work out a new label deal -- if I still want to do it on my own label, Pulse. Stuff like that. I love 'Title
[of Record]' and I love 'Short Bus' and I love 'Amalgamut' and I love 'Anthems [for the damned]',
but this band ... we change when we grow. I think it's really important to develop a sound and press forward and
keep doing stuff, but it will be kind of a reflection of the older stuff -- it's going to be heavier and meaner for sure.
Do you guys plan on hitting the road before or after releasing the CD?
We do spots every
once in a while -- we're playing Louisville in a couple of days -- and North Carolina, we're doing some festivals.
We just did Papa Roach; we did a tour with Papa Roach in Europe for about three weeks. It was great to get back to Europe.
We're focusing now on the record -- we always tour, we always try to get out and play as much as possible. We were
so dormant for so long that now it's kind of like -- it's really an incredible experience to play live with Filter;
it's the most freeing thing in the world... it's my band, it's been my band for twelve years. I never get
tired of singing "Hey Man, Nice Shot".
That's nice because a lot of bands get tired of playing
their older material.
Oh yeah, I don't understand why bands trip out on their past -- it seems like
Billy Corgan is really about what he's doing right now and trying to get everyone to like what he's doing right now
-- I'm like; "I love the music right now, but you can't play 'Today'?" -- that's an amazing
song. Not that there's anything wrong with what Billy is doing now; I've always been a massive fan for years
and years and years -- I'll put that little disclaimer out there.
Looking back at yourself when you
first formed Filter and at yourself now -- are you a different person?
Oh, completely. I quit Nine
Inch Nails almost out of necessity; there was just no future in that band for me whatsoever. I had this incredible song,
"Hey Man, Nice Shot", which I kind of offered up [to Trent] -- "Well, do you maybe want to use it or put it
out on your label [Nothing Records]?". He offered me a little EP and then I got a deal from Warner Bros. -- I was
like "wow" -- this song literally changed my life. I was kind of unexpectedly thrown into this thing.. you
know... there's a lot that goes into singing... there's a lot that goes into it, and here at the age of 40... 41 years
old -- when you take care of yourself and when you take care of your body... you do warm-ups and stuff like that... you can
really kick ass as a singer. Back then it was a half a pack of cigarettes and a case of Bud Light just to kind of walk
out on stage; I was just a very fearful... scared singer... one year I was a guitar player for years and years and the next
thing I knew I was a singer. It was really a tough transformation; it was something that I had a real hard time doing.
And that begot more drinking - and that created more problems... then there was drugs. I had to kind of learn the hard
way that if you want to live on the planet you can't really do this to yourself too long; otherwise you're going to
end up like Kurt Cobain or Jim Morrison - you don't make it into your 30's. I cleaned my life up significantly
- honestly, just in the last three or four years I really feel like singing has become really easy; both onstage and in the
studio. Even in the studio, you can really freak yourself out if you're not careful. I just really wanted
to kind of conquer all those demons that I had - so I just worked on being a great singer for the last three to four years,
and it's finally become this incredibly fun thing. It was interesting, in listening to some of the older Filter
records - the last record that i did, 'Anthems for the Damned', was incredibly poignant - I took it really seriously,
it was written about soldiers in the Iraq war, one of which was a fan of the band - he had died; he was a 21 year old kid
who died for this big huge war in Iraq... so the record was very heavy and very intense; not heavy necessarily sounding, but
loaded with so much protest and meaning and just a serious, serious, serious record. But listening back to 'Short
Bus', I had more fun - like the song "Under"... in the original tracks you can hear me laughing in-between screams.
If you saw where I was; I was in this office space in Hollywood and I went in there after hours and setup a machine and recorded
my vocals - it was very much in the spirit of like ... "Just fuck off!" ... here I am - singed to this record company,
I've put everything on the line with my music and I'm getting away with the most ridiculous screamed vocals performance
of my career - and enjoying the hell out of it. I was thinking; "They are literally paying me for this".
"Under", when you hear it... there is this intensity... but really, if you solo up the vocal tracks, I'm laughing
- goofing off. It sounded so great to hear that song, and I remembered how much fun it was - it was so freeing because
it was absolutely not going to be on radio - I never had to worry about that kind of stuff. And I need that sense of
humor; I need that thing in the music that I'm doing now. There's a song that I did just a couple weeks ago
called "Drug Boy", "Drug Boy" is a return to kind of like "Under"... kind of a return to the
free spirited, drunken, craziness of my youth without having to go back and drink or do anything like that. On this
record I'm trying to get back to this really youthful, drunken, fun person that I was... and not take it so seriously
like I did with 'Anthems...'. Just getting back to that sense of humor and enjoying it... and being reckless
and belligerent... like the beginning of "Welcome to the Fold", [starts singing] "You take my money....."
--- you know, it's just this total fingers in the air -- I don't care if you get this or dig this - I don't give
a shit - I don't care if it's on radio. I think that's kind of what I miss in Filter; we've been playing
shows for a long time this last year... and you know what? The heavy songs and the more reckless songs are the most
fun to play, and htat's what the audience likes the best. I mean, we all love "Take A Picture"; it's
a beatiful song... I love it every time it's on the radio... it's a big huge hit for me... I love that song... but,
really... live "So I Quit" is so much more fun. This record is going to have some "Take A Picture",
but I kind of want to make sure that I load it up front with some "Under" and some "Hey Man, Nice Shot"...
some mean / fun kind of... you know what I mean? I think it's important to remember that youthful craziness.
Going back to your Nine Inch Nails days; your nickname was Piggy - where did that name come from?
Well, I went down to Columbus, Ohio to see Skinny Puppy play. It was 1988... 1989 - and I had just joined Nine
Inch Nails; we were just about ready to go on tour with Peter Murphy or Jesus and Mary Chain - and I had seen Skinny Puppy;
they did a song and Ogre came on during sound check; I kind of snuck into the venue... I snuck into the venue and just sat
down and watched the sound check. He just started singing this new song they had and it was about [starts singing] "White
piggy... white piggy... you paint your face white". It was about death-rock girls or punk rock girls or goth girls;
I'm guessing that he was picking on these girls who go out of their way to completely make themselves look like porcelain
crazy white faced goth girls. I remember just going [starts singing], "White piggy" - so I went back to the
Nine Inch Nails rehearsals the next day and I was like, "I saw Skinny Puppy and they were doing this crazy song and I
saw them in sound check - he was going 'White, white piggy... white piggy'". Trent looked at me and said,
"Alright, piggy... I got it... piggy, piggy, let's start rehearsal". I enjoyed just being loud and crazy;
grab the mic and just be annoying as shit to Trent. From then on; every person in the band and crew... everyone called
me Piggy.
So does your nickname and the Nine Inch Nails song called "Piggy" have any connections?
I'm sure it does. It was written right when I left; he's really about putting... I remember he did records
about the record president, Steve; the song "Happiness in Slavery"... Steve pulled one over on those guys and just
signed them for some incredibly one-sided deal; Trent lost a lot of publishing - it was a hugely massive bad record contract.
I don't know if that's public knowledge or not, but he just made some really bad decisions business wise, and he wrote
about everybody in his life. It wouldn't surprise me; I mean, I would assume that it would be about me.
Yeah, you can't talk for Trent....
Yeah, I would assume that it was about me, but he probably
wouldn't want to give me credit for that. But whatever. I was nicknamed Piggy for the entire time I was in
Nine Inch Nails; I look back at Nine Inch Nails --- it was a lot of fun.
Besides Filer, you've been
a part of other projects - what have you taken from those experiences?
Army of Anyone was the other big
thing that I did; that kind of taught me a couple of things... it's great to collaborate; it's great to kind of rely
on other people and just show up and have this incredible bed of music, but it was also kind of like an experience... this
is why you have your own project, Filter. You'd find yourself debating someone on a band name for like eight months:
in Filter I just named it Filter. And if you wanted to do some artwork it took a long time to narrow it down; whereas
in Filter... in "Anthems for the Damned" the record was done in two weeks when I started with Josh Abraham... "Who
do you want to play drums? Oh, cool Josh Freese". Josh Freese came in and in three days he just absolutely
destroyed the drum set... just incredible. He lived up to his reputation at being this amazing studio drummer; he really
is incredible. He came - and you know, when you're in 'your' band and it's your band and you're
kind of the dictator over the entire thing - you listen to everybody and you want to be as educated on every decision as you
possibly can... it's really wonderful to be able to say, "Hey, get Josh to do it - hey, I want to work with John
5". John doesn't go on tour with me; he's a great guitar player that I've always respected... and I
want him to work with me. You don't have to bounce stuff off the drummer; "Hey man, do you think this song
is cool?" There's good and bad to that, and it's great to have collaboration, but it's also --- you're
kind of imprisoned; you're married to all these guys. With Army of Anyone; I remembered the freedom that I had with
Filter... so, good and bad -- everything's got good and bad. So that is what I learned with all the other projects;
that it's nice to be the boss.
What other pland do you have for Filter this year?
I put records out and I tour on them; it's been an amazing year... working with Mich Marlow and John Spiker; we've
written a bunch of stuff. Getting enough material for a record was really easy this past year; you get home from touring
and you think you're burnt but you're not - you're inspired. So, releasing a new record sometime in
the next six months. I've got a lot of work to do by picking producers; there's a lot of labels that are looking
at us. I love being independent, but we entertain every idea and every offer that comes before us. Now having
said that, I have no entanglements with anybody - everything's been on my own terms, which is a huge deal. That's
a great thing because a lot of bands get themselves in these record contracts and the recrod company goes, "Well, we
want you to work with this producer..." - so I say "Well, ok how much does he charge?" --- "He charges
$200,000, and then you have to pay for the studio... that's $50,000... and we want you to do a video... and we want you..."
So they get you in these situations where you're paying for all of this stuff; let's say your record doesn't do
well... then you're stuck with the bill and they own you. And if you want your band to do anything else you've
got to pay for all this other crap. So, nine times out of ten... it's sad to say... the bands have to break up -
they're gone, you'll never see them again because they didn't have a massive hit on their first single.
There's a lot of bonuses at being where I'm at right now, and those things take time to iron out -- and I want to
make sure I do everything right this time if I go back to a label situation - because I love being on my own. You sell
100,000 records -- you get 100% of the money after you pay yourself back -- it gives you so much freedom because why would
I want to sign with a label that wants me to sound like this or wants me to work with this guy. Labels make mistakes
too; they make bad decisions sometimes -- not all of them, but there have been situations where it's been like, "Ah
man, I wish I wasn't on this thing." I loved Warner Bros. that's for sure, but I got out of that.
So that's kind of what I'm doing right now, I'm sifting through things - working on new music and picking producers
for my next big, big, big, big musical journey.
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