{"id":1723,"date":"2014-02-23T21:33:41","date_gmt":"2014-02-23T21:33:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.altwire.net\/?p=1723"},"modified":"2023-12-06T06:35:57","modified_gmt":"2023-12-06T11:35:57","slug":"altwire-interview-filter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/altwire.net\/es\/filtro-de-entrevistas-de-altwire\/","title":{"rendered":"Entrevista de Filter: una charla con Richard Patrick"},"content":{"rendered":"

The year was 1995. A shocked nation watched as  OJ Simpson was put on trial for murder, Forrest Gump had just won Best Picture at the 67th Academy Awards and in Los Angeles, a young guitarist by the name of Richard Patrick (formerly of Nine Inch Nails) was stepping out on his own for the first time as Filter<\/a> to release an album titled Short Bus<\/em> that would change his life forever and pull him in directions he never thought possible.<\/h4>\n

Featuring the smash hit “Hey Man Nice Shot” (written in response to the  1987 public suicide of Pennsylvania Treasurer R.Budd Dwyer), the album sold over a million copies and gave birth to a long-lasting career that has resulted in six albums, a top 20 single (“Take a Picture”), and multiple side projects in the band’s two decades of existence.<\/p>\n

After catching Filter live on tour with the newly reformed Stone Temple Pilots<\/a>, and via their own Self-Inflicted tour late last year, we here at AltWire reached out to Richard to ask him a few questions and learn more about what we can expect in the year ahead.<\/p>\n

What followed was a nearly hour-long conversation in which Richard fondly recollected the band’s formative years, candidly spoke about the new album The Sun Comes Out Tonight<\/em>, his career, addiction and his thoughts on the current issues at home and abroad. The interview proved to be very insightful and honest while also opening a window into the mind of Richard Patrick.<\/p>\n

Continue on below to read our exclusive interview with Richard, and don’t forget to watch their new video for “Surprise” and catch them live in a town near you when they go on tour this summer!<\/p>\n

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AltWire [Derek]: First off, great work on the new album! To me, it’s one of your finest works, and I really love how you managed to reinvent your earlier sound for modern times. How did the recording of this album differ from previous projects and what was it like recording with the new lineup?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Richard Patrick \/ Filter:<\/strong> Thank you! The difference between this album and the last two records is that we did everything with fake drums. We purposely went back to a drum machine for everything just to kind of get that Short Bus vibe. Johnny and I pretty much did the record with Bob Marlette, and so we went back to the two-man kind of configuration where one guy is kind of there to bounce ideas off of me and I\u2019m here to bounce ideas off of him. I like having that two-man collaboration where someone I trust is at the helms with me.<\/p>\n

So that was a huge thing having Johnny work with me. He did a good portion, and he co-wrote everything with me. It was really cool.<\/p>\n

AW: Definitely! I love how you used the drum machines on the record, as I feel it gave the album a unique sound. Given your industrial background, would you like to dabble even further with electronic elements on the next record?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Richard Patrick \/ Filter:<\/strong> I think that this record kind of, you know, established us again as being able to go back to our roots. However, I think in future records I\u2019m definitely going to go more electronic for sure.<\/p>\n

AW: Since you brought up Short Bus, next year is the 20th anniversary of your debut record. Do you have any special plans yet for the 20th anniversary next year? Such as a special tour or concert?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Richard Patrick \/ Filter: <\/strong>I\u2019d have to see what Warner Brothers would think about a re-release. But I don\u2019t know, you know? I kind of like where I\u2019m at right now with my band, and we\u2019ve each grown really close together. I think that we could go back and revisit those files, and you know, play more from Short Bus. But honestly, I feel kind of like I\u2019ve been there, done that. The whole first tour of Short Bus was pretty fun, and we played the entire record every night but maybe it would be cool! Maybe I could do something around LA where I do it, or maybe just do the entire record and then do some hits at the end, and go through some other songs that we\u2019ve done throughout the years. It\u2019s always a possibility! I\u2019d be willing to think that over for sure!<\/p>\n

\"Filter1995\"<\/a><\/p>\n

AW: It’s crazy to think that your band has been recording and touring for 20 years. I remember hearing “Hey Man, Nice Shot” for the first time on my dad’s car radio back in 95 and going absolutely nuts. How do you feel you’ve changed as an artist in those 20 years? What are you the proudest of in your career?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Richard Patrick \/ Filter:<\/strong> I think my proudest achievement is our development. Being able to go play “Take a Picture”, being able to do new songs like “Surprise” and “It’s My Time” and you know, growing as an artist and developing as a singer.<\/p>\n

In all honesty, I think that our last record is our best record. Now I always think that ‘Man! My last record is the best!\u2019 but you always feel proud about what you\u2019re doing at the moment.<\/p>\n

Short Bus was an amazing time, I had just quit Nine Inch Nails. I was in a “band relationship” with Trent and I felt like \u2018man I don\u2019t know if I can just keep doing this’, you know? I wanted to be in NIN but I didn\u2019t think that I was ever going to have the chance to really try to step out on my own. So I took the song “Hey Man, Nice Shot” to a couple of record companies, and they were like \u2018Man this is a fucking slam dunk hit, you should release this!\u2019 and I was like ‘You know what? Maybe my time to step out is right now’.<\/p>\n

I had a crummy little studio off of Highland Ave right above a pizzeria. It had a little reel-to-reel consumer-level 8-track, and a little crappy board that I loved. I slept there and someone had given me a stack of fucking pornos as a joke. So I had all these pornos lying around (*laughs*), and here comes Mike Austin the head of Warner Brothers A&R and he\u2019s on his way to a Bar Mitzvah and he\u2019s probably wearing about a $3,000 fucking suit and tie. He comes in, he\u2019s like \u2018I was going to a Bar Mitzvah and I was on my way to that, but I wanted to stop by and just see your studio and see where you work and talk to you, and run something by you\u2019. So he looks at my little rig and I\u2019ve got a little Mac SE Classic and I\u2019ve got a sampler, and I\u2019m sitting there all humble and then he looks at my speaker and he goes \u2018So this is where you did all this stuff?\u2019 and I said \u2018well I recorded some stuff with Trent, but I did the last bunch of songs right here\u2019.<\/p>\n

(I recorded “Hey Man, Nice Shot” in Trent\u2019s studio and he just kind of let me have the studio for a day, and I took all my elements out of there and remixed it with Ben Grosse later for the record. But a lot of that stuff was from my 8-track demo that I had done. I had done songs like \u201cSpent\u201d and \u201cUnder\u201d and \u201cDose\u201d and a good portion of the record right there.)<\/p>\n

So you know\u2026I\u2019m sitting there and he goes \u2018What\u2019s going on with that speaker?\u2019 and he looks down and I go \u2018well this is my dad\u2019s Realistic speaker that he bought like back in 1980, and uh\u2026my cat from Cleveland ate out the woofer\u2026he chewed it up.\u2019 So the woofer\u2019s just sitting there and he\u2019s like \u2018so you did all the last demos right here with this equipment?\u2019 and I\u2019m like \u2018yeah\u2019 and he goes \u2018so this doesn\u2019t happen much, but I want to sign you right now.\u2019 And I was like \u201cwell\u2026okay\u2026um.\u201d<\/p>\n

My manager\u2019s like, ‘Well Rich, he just offered you a multi-million dollar record contract, how do you feel about that?’ and the only thing I said as I looked down, I was about to tear up. It was fucking-a man! you know?<\/p>\n

They\u2019re like, ‘go back to Cleveland and go to where you live and make the industrial music that you want to make’. And I said ‘ok well I\u2019m going to need a ton of gear’ and then the next day it shows up and it\u2019s all in road cases like ‘there you go!’ and I\u2019m like, ‘Well can I ship it back to Cleveland?’ and they\u2019re all like, ‘Yes go! Do you want me to buy you a car?’<\/p>\n

and I\u2019m like, “I\u2019ve got one.”<\/p>\n

‘Well then let me help you with gas, and here\u2019s living money\u2026just go, be an artist!’<\/p>\n

And so I dove into it and wrote music like \u201cSo Cool\u201d and \u201cStuck in Here\u201d that I knew was important because I wanted to expose that underbelly in music, as well as have songs that had that big anthem-like chorus like \u201cConsider This\u201d. It was really important to me to have those elements on the record, as well as the heavy elements, from that grunge place that I was at least kind of sympathizing with.<\/p>\n

On this new record, The Sun Comes out Tonight<\/i>, it\u2019s very much from the same place [as Short Bus]. I come from an angry place. In these last couple of years, my family has gone through a lot. There\u2019s this feeling of anger and animosity that I have, I want to let that back into my music and be angry and be pissed off. So the subject matter is really heavy, and deals with school shootings like \u201cSelf Inflicted\u201d, a song that I literally think is as heavy and as emotional as “Hey Man, Nice Shot”. With that song, I went out on a mission to make a song as powerful and as intense as that, and then I wrote \u201cWhat Do You Say\u201d about how everyone\u2019s screaming and yet nobody\u2019s listening. With \u201cSurprise\u201d you have that \u201cTake a Picture\u201d moment where I wanted to think about women and I wanted to think about their rights. With a lot of single mothers out there and a lot of women, it doesn\u2019t feel like they\u2019re getting a fair shot in this country. And yeah things are changing here, but then look at Saudi (Arabia), look at the Middle East entirely, or look at China, you know?<\/p>\n

With my lyrics, there\u2019s so much to draw from the drug years and my crazy years as there is from where I\u2019m at now. When you mature you see things from a totally different light, and now that I have kids it\u2019s like the world is worth fighting for. There are things worth fighting for. There are things that I still want to talk about.<\/p>\n

For example, R. Budd Dwyer held a press conference and blew his brains out, and someone from his family came to a show in New York and said ‘I\u2019m related to R. Budd Dwyer and I understand why you wrote the song [Hey Man, Nice Shot]’. And I said \u2018look, at the end of the day it\u2019s an anti-suicide song.\u2019 And she goes \u2018and I get that, and I understand that, but some of the family members think that you just made a bunch of money off of his death\u2019. And I went \u2018But he held a press conference! I can\u2019t help it if my song got big. It wasn\u2019t supposed to be that way; I never even thought I was going to meet anybody!\u2019<\/p>\n

When I wrote it I was like \u2018This is a really good song, I wanna play it on my car stereo. Yay!\u2019 I didn\u2019t think it was going to do anything, you know what I mean? You never really believe you\u2019ll do anything. I mean you hope, and you think \u2018Wouldn\u2019t it be cool if that song was a hit? But it\u2019s not gonna\u2019. It\u2019s “too heavy”, and it\u2019s “too mean”, and I didn\u2019t even tell people it was about R. Budd Dwyer until they started thinking it was about Kurt Cobain. It was written in 1993 way before he even did anything, even before his first attempt a month earlier. So when I met Dave Grohl and I could look into his eyes I went \u2018Dave, I just wanted you to know\u2026and I swear to everything in my soul that the song was written before he killed himself, and I just don\u2019t want you to think that I\u2019m here trouncing on his grave\u2019. And he goes \u2018you know dude, people think I write songs about Kurt, and I wrote them way before too. So I totally hear you.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"Richard_Patrick\"<\/a><\/p>\n

AW: Thematically TSCOT deals a lot with your feelings of frustration over the current state of things in this country. We’ve recently passed the 1 year anniversary of the Sandy Hook shooting. Do you feel that mental health<\/a> problems, as well as gun and safety laws, are not being taken seriously enough in this country and what steps do you think need to be taken to fix this?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Richard Patrick \/ Filter:<\/strong> Well I agree with the President\u2019s gun act that he wanted to proceed with. As you know, Vice President Biden went through and talked to all the gun manufacturers and then talked to mental health experts and they came up with a list of suggestions. There was the first one which was to do universal background checks, and that would\u2019ve least looked for a person\u2019s mental illness<\/a> record before they were allowed to go out and buy a bunch of weapons (which unfortunately wouldn\u2019t have helped with Sandy Hook). And then there was another that was concerning Sandy Hook and these 30 round clips. When he reloaded\u2026ten kids ran out of the room while he was reloading, and those kids are allowed to play, and they\u2019re outside playing right now, while the other 28 people are not. And that was because he had these 30 round clips.<\/p>\n

I was in a van going out to the Sturgis Bike Festival for a show, and the runner was like \u201cMan ain\u2019t nobody gonna take my guns. Especially not some Islamic Kenyan-born president who\u2019s gonna bring the whole damn country down!\u201d and it\u2019s like these are the people who want to fight for guns<\/i>. Not all of them, <\/i>but I had a \u2018ban assault weapons\u2019 bumper sticker on my car and my wife had the two kids, and she went to drop them off at school on a Friday morning. And here comes this huge white Ford F-15\u2026whatever the fuck it is, with I shit you not, silver fucking bullhorns on it. He pulls up next to her, takes a water bottle, and starts throwing water bottles on her\u2026gets too close to the car at one point, and she almost drives off the side of the road.<\/p>\n

Now here\u2019s my beautiful wife and two kids (my 4 year old and my 5-year-old) driven off the road by some fucking gun nut, who\u2026well you know how they have those \u201cbaby on board\u201d signs? He literally had on his car a \u201cgun on board\u201d sign. And he\u2019s just reacting to my bumper sticker! And it\u2019s like, these are the people\u2026like fucking Ted Nugent, who I know (and I\u2019ve had friends who have hung out with that guy) uses the N-Word every other word\u2026and not in a kidding way. There\u2019s no joke behind what he was saying. The reality is this: There are freaky people out there who really, really want their guns and believe conspiracy theories that are so fucking outrageous. That\u2019s what really bothers me about all this.<\/p>\n

[Editorial Note: A few days after this interview was conducted; and before we published this article, Ted Nugent made headlines by referring to Obama as a “chimpanzee” and a “Chicago, Communist- raised, Communist-educated, Communist-nurtured, subhuman mongrel”.<\/em> ]<\/p>\n

And so I was near Sandy Hook, I was on stage, and I go \u2018I don\u2019t want to get in trouble\u2026because I get in trouble when I open my mouth on stage, but I want to say something. Because we\u2019re very close to a place where an incident occurred, and I want to, with all due respect, just let you know that our hearts are with you, our thoughts are with you, and if there\u2019s anybody here that was affected by the tragedy\u2026I want you to know that we know, and we love you and that we\u2019re against assault weapons and that we stand behind the President on just a few limitations on that stuff.\u2019<\/p>\n

And after the show, I go back and sign some autographs and the gentleman that walked me from the stage to the tent was a navy seal.  He said ‘When I walked in I was the first responder to that. I had never seen anything like it and I\u2019m a navy seal and have been there for years, and now I\u2019m a police officer. When I responded I had never seen something as horrific and so tragic, and I wanted to thank you for saying that because we don\u2019t want the rest of the country to forget about Sandy Hook.’<\/p>\n

And to me when you look at the gun argument, you can listen to Ted Nugent talk about how he needs to hunt and kill deer and how there\u2019s some kind of spiritual thing that he gets from killing the deer and eating it with his family and all that. Guns are a part of his life, I get that. But not mine! I\u2019ve never had a gun. My father\u2019s never had a gun but my great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather Captain Matthew Patrick used a musket in the Revolutionary War and he fought tyranny from Great Britain in the Revolutionary War. So that\u2019s how far, and how many generations. Six generations later here I am. I haven\u2019t had a gun. No one else has had a gun. The only people who have had guns are military people and one of the wars he was in is complete bullshit! So that guy is in the military and he\u2019s in my family. But I don\u2019t need a gun, and you know.. I\u2019m living fine.<\/p>\n

Now if the apocalypse happens, and listen\u2026one big solar flare could take out all the electronics from all of the Midwest and it would be a big huge deal. Two weeks after the loss of electricity, there would be roving gangs looking for food.  People have to eat, as they\u2019re going to get hungry and all of the food is going to be gone instantly, and it\u2019s going to become a serious deal. So having a shotgun in your house, I get it. I understand that. But 30 round clips, reduced to 10? Sounds like a great idea. Especially when you\u2019re having mall, school, and theater shootings. I mean look at Gabrielle Giffords, right? That guy had 30 round clips and a handgun!<\/p>\n

Now here\u2019s the thing: This is the stuff that not all of my fans want to hear, but many of my fans applaud me for having a stance. I mean the President\u2019s actually a decent guy! The Tea Party is scary. Why don\u2019t we pass a bill that limits magazine sizes and authorizes universal background checks for psychiatric patients? I don\u2019t think I\u2019d even be allowed to have a gun. I\u2019m a recovering alcoholic!<\/p>\n

I mean look what happened to Philip Seymour Hoffman, one of the greatest actors ever, and people don\u2019t even understand that death! \u2018Well he chose to do it\u2019, no he didn\u2019t! It\u2019s a disease! It\u2019s like being mad at a cancer patient. It\u2019s a disease and you have to live with it every day and you have to treat it with meetings, and by surrounding yourself with people in sobriety. That\u2019s why half the band is sober, you know what I mean? Or normal!<\/p>\n