Richard Patrick has been the dedicated front man of Filter for the past 30 years. After a 7-year hiatus Filter’s new album, The Algorithm, hits ears on August 25. This record includes two sonic pleasures from a previous era, “Summer Child” and “Command Z.” Both are songs that Patrick worked on with Brian Liesegang for what was supposed to be ReBus, a follow up to Short Bus. It is also an album with a message and made for an array of moods. You can find a song on it to get pumped up for a party or one to mellow out with at the end of a long night.
From Nine Inch Nails to Filter to Army of Anyone then back to Filter, Patrick has not only overcome a personal algorithm, but has fostered a specific sound for Filter. His work with other artists does not stop at this record, as he told mxdwn that he is also working on collaborations with Ho99o9, Health and We Are PIGS, among others. Patrick also talked to mxdwn about the very emotional reunion with Nine Inch Nails in Cleveland, a place that’s very special to him. Now, he is looking forward to joining his friends Rob Zombie, Alice Cooper and Ministry for their Freaks on Parade Tour.
mxdwn: Hi, my name is Eve Pierpont and I’m the editor for mxdwn’s Music Features section. I’m here today with Richard Patrick from Filter. Hi, Richard.
Richard Patrick: Hello.
mxdwn: How does it feel to release The Algorithm after a seven-year hiatus?
Richard Patrick: We’ve got a couple more weeks to go. It comes out August 25th, but I’m excited. I’m excited for everybody to hear it, especially the fans that have been around for so long, for 30 years now. Yeah, I’m excited.
mxdwn: Awesome. So, I’ve read that the album had a couple of possible titles, including They’ve Got Us Right Where They Want Us, At Each Other’s Throats, which you’ve described as being too long and divisive. What made you settle on the title The Algorithm?
RP: The Algorithm. Everybody has a math problem in their life, that’s what it’s described as – a math problem in the dictionary, that’s what they call the algorithm. Everybody has an algorithm. Everybody has a thing, an obstacle that they have to get through. Mine originally was alcohol. I was an alcoholic for a long time. Still am, I’m in recovery. That was a big algorithm in my life. So, I think it’s kind of a universal name that could apply to anything for everybody.
mxdwn: That’s awesome. I love that, and congratulations on being in recovery. I know that it’s a feat, definitely.
RP: It’s a big one.
mxdwn: Yeah.
RP: 94% of us die of alcoholism, so I’m in the 6% of people that are alive and that are doing it. I always say, you can too. Just give it a shot. Believe in yourself.
mxdwn: Awesome. That’s definitely inspirational. You collaborated with some great artists to create “Obliteration.” How was it to co-produce with Brian Virtue and co-write with Sam Tinnesz and duo Ian Scott & Mark Jackson?
RP: Yeah, Mark Jackson and Ian Scott co-produced the song with me and Brian Virtue, “Obliteration.” Sam Tinnesz did a lot of the heavy lifting. He helped me with lyrics. He came up with, I think, the main chord progression. He’s an amazingly talented kid, Sam Tinnesz, I’m good friends with him and I look forward to working with him more in the future. Mark and Ian were just amazing to work with. Plus, I worked with this kid named Zach Munowitz, who’s this genius guitar player from Berkeley. He came up with two or three songs musically, three songs on the record, “For the Beaten,” “Up Against the Wall” and “Say It Again.” All three of those songs, he just sent me musical parts that were like, here’s a verse, here’s a chorus, here’s a you know… and I arranged them into an order that I could sing over. I just added lyrics, the melody and the vocals in like an afternoon, and boom, the song was done. Then I had Elias Mallin come in and play drums on it, that was produced with Brian Virtue as well. We did it at Stag Street, a little studio down in Burbank, California. Yeah, I love collaborating with people and I would have to say that I did have a heavy, heavy hand because I was the producer of the record, the main producer of the record, but I do love to work with other people. My friend Jonny Radtke played guitar on it, he played guitar all over it. Bobby Miller played bass on several tracks. It was a collaborative effort, but it was a lot of fun to make. The record kind of reminds me of where I was when I was 25, when I was doing like, Title of Record and Amalgamut and all that kind of stuff. It has that vibe to it.
mxdwn: Yeah, definitely. That’s so fun. At one point, you were working on a record called ReBus, a follow up for Short Bus, and had written some songs for it with Brian Liesegang. How did the decision come along to include “Summer Child” and “Command Z” on The Algorithm, songs that were originally for ReBus?
RP: Brian and I had come up with probably seven or eight tracks, “Thoughts and Prayers” and “Murica” were kind of done and as a result of ReBus, since the record wasn’t going to come out, I just went ahead and released them as singles because I thought the fans deserved something from that era. Then when it came to “Summer Child” and “Command Z,” I just was like, well, I gotta use these songs, they’re too good not to be heard so I just included them on The Algorithm. ReBus just kind of died with the PledgeMusic debacle that happened that crushed everybody and robbed, literally robbed my fans. I just wanted to include as much of that record as I could on The Algorithm because the songs are so good.
mxdwn: Definitely. I’m definitely glad that you did. It’s no secret a lot of rock bands and musicians have come out of Cleveland, Ohio and the surrounding areas. This is also the city that saw your reunion with Nine Inch Nails to perform “Hey Man Nice Shot.” What was that experience like for you?
RP: In Cleveland?
mxdwn: Yeah, performing with them.
RP: Are you from Cleveland?
mxdwn: I am not from Cleveland, but my boyfriend is from Warren, which is just outside of Cleveland, a little bit away, so I’ve spent a lot of time in Cleveland.
RP: Yeah, Cleveland. It’s the home of rock and roll. They have the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I grew up there. I lived there from 1977 to like 1996 when I left. It’s a beautiful town and the people are chill, you know, they’re cool people. It was amazing. We did Short Bus there a long time ago in 1994 or 95. I lived in Rocky River, Ohio, which is just outside of Cleveland. It was fantastic. The Nine Inch Nails reunion was out of this world. It was absolutely the greatest time I ever had. It was literally, it’s up there; It’s like getting married, having babies, playing shows with Filter, and of course, Nine Inch Nails reunion is right up there. It was amazing. Trent was insanely, just generous. He had me sing “Eraser,” which I could barely do because I was crying so hard. The reception that I got when I walked out from the audience was so overwhelming that, I literally started tearing up and I could not find my pitch, so the first verse in “Eraser” is pretty crazy sounding {laughs}. But then I found my voice when we started screaming the end of the song. Then we did, I don’t know, we went into “Wish” and then “Gave Up,” “Sin” and “Hey Man Nice Shot.” He literally had Nine Inch Nails rework the song “Hey Man Nice Shot,” which is a Filter song, so he covered “Hey Man Nice Shot” and then he had me sing the second verse to “Head Like a Hole”, which is, you know, massive boots to fill. It was really amazing. It was one of the best moments of my life on stage for sure.
mxdwn: Oh, awesome. I’m sure, I can only imagine. And yeah, I saw that you were from Cleveland and lived there, I love that city. It has a special feel to it. Sorry, what were you going to say?
RP: It’s a city that gets picked on a little bit, but it shouldn’t.
mxdwn: No, it shouldn’t.
RP: It’s a great town. It’s got great people in it. Lake Erie is amazingly beautiful. I spent so much time on that lake with Wave Runners, out there in the water boating and all that kind of stuff. It’s a great place to grow up. I’m really proud I came from there.
mxdwn: Yeah, you should be. I love it there, so much. Do you have any further plans to work with or perform with Trent Reznor or Nine Inch Nails since this event took place?
RP: I am completely, absolutely open to anything he would ever wanna do. There’s no question I would do it in a heartbeat, you know. Even just to tour with him or something like that would be amazing, just to go out with Filter or something, I don’t even know, it would be awesome to just be included in any respect. But I am totally, at the same time, I’m totally satisfied. That was an amazing moment. And, you know, if it’s closure or something like that, if that’s the last time I ever get to be with Trent or whatever, so be it. I’m totally satisfied and would never complain. You know what I mean? But at the same time, I would totally do it again. Are you kidding? That was amazing. It was so much fun.
mxdwn: I’m sure. That’s awesome. I love the enthusiasm. In 1997 Spawn: The Album was released with “(Can’t You) Trip Like I Do” as the opening song, which was a collaboration with The Crystal Method. What was the process like making that song?
RP: It was very easy. They gave me their CD, Vegas, and they said, pick a song out of there and see if you can’t do something with it. I heard “(Can’t You) Trip Like I Do,” well I heard their version “Trip Like I Do” and I was like, that’s easy, let’s just do that. So, I took the song, I chopped it up in a computer and I made it work as a song structurally for singing, for vocals. I played guitar over what I thought was the chorus, I made an outro and then I just sang as many ideas as I possibly could. Then they all overlapped and there was this whole thing, but as soon as it was arranged and everything, The Crystal Method came back and we remixed it. We mixed it with Ben Grosse as the main mixer and it was a joy to make. I love those guys, Scott and Ken are amazing people. It was a lot of fun.
mxdwn: Awesome. Was there any talk about doing another song with The Crystal Method after the success of this collaboration?
RP: I don’t know. I don’t even know if they still put records out. There wasn’t really that much talk of it, I think we were both satisfied with “(Can’t You) Trip Like I Do.” I’ve been collaborating out the wazoo with so many people lately. I just did a track with Ho99o9 that I’m working on with them. I just did a track with Health that we’ve literally just finished in the last couple of days. I also worked with We Are PIGS, I did a song called “Oshi” with We Are PIGS. I know I’m forgetting a few people, but yeah, I’ve been busting ass. I’ve been working my butt off to just be a part of so many other people’s musical visions. I love working and it’s a lot of fun. It’s easy to do when you have your own little studio like this and you have a Dropbox account {laughs}.
mxdwn: Oh, yeah. Definitely sounds like you’ve been working hard lately, but that’s great. The Algorithm has a couple songs where the electronic elements seem to stand out a bit more, like on “For the Beaten,” “Be Careful What You Wish For” and “Command Z,” while the quiet parts of “Command Z” and even “Burnout the Sun” embody a trance feel. How do you decide when and where to incorporate this?
RP: What I do is I work on probably 20 ideas and if I don’t feel the idea is awesome, I just forget that I have it kind of thing and then I whittle it down to like 10 or 11 songs. I always include a ‘take a picture’ as I call it, like a “Take a Picture,” or a “God Damn Me,” or a more mellow song as a part in the record because I have that side to me. I don’t wake up and just want to scream at the top of my lungs every single day. I have different moods and different emotions I wanna convey to my fans and / or to the audience. I knew I was gonna have some moments like that on the record. I always kind of, I envision a rock record as, you know … it’s like going to a party. You’re headed in the car and you’re listening to some driving music. Then you get to the party you’re hanging out and it’s loud and there’s a lot of action. Then halfway through the party, someone like lights up a joint and puts on some more mellow music and then by the end of the night it’s fully ambient music. The lights are dimmed down really low and people are starting to fall asleep, or they’re headed out, they’re going home and that’s what I try and do. I upload the front of the record with just absolute destruction, just complete bomb bass. Then as the record kind of goes on, it chills out, and by the end of the record it’s fully just ambient weirdness, or just mellow or something. The other part of the record, I kind of envisioned an astronaut coming back to Earth and he finds it completely destroyed except for a few people. Like there’s a little girl or there’s some other person that’s on Planet Earth that somehow survived the apocalypse. At the end of the whole record, he’s kind of discovering what happened and all the different things that blew it up. But by the end of the record, he’s kind of like, fuck it, I’m just gonna get wasted. And that’s why “I just want to be high as a motherfucker” just sums up the whole human experience from my perspective. There’s been so many times in my life where I was just like, fuck it, I’m gonna get wasted. I don’t even care. I’m just gonna get drunk as hell. 25-year-old me would’ve wrote those lyrics, and that’s why I wrote those lyrics. I haven’t had a drink in 20 years, but maybe it’s carbicide or something, maybe I’ll buy a bunch of Oreo cookies. There’s always a moment where I’m like, fuck it, there’s nothing you can do about it. Might as well live and eat today because tomorrow, who knows.
mxdwn: Yes, exactly. It’s funny you say that because my boyfriend is a recovering alcoholic and when he stopped drinking, it was the full-on sugar, eating and he’s a chef now, but I was just going into the food [reference], but that’s super interesting. That kind of leads into another question I have about “Burnout the Sun,” that it is more stripped down compared to the rest of the album and I did notice that on the majority, if not all, of Filter’s albums there usually is one song like that towards the end. What does having that juxtaposition of sounds mean to you and how did the decision come along to incorporate that?
RP: Yeah.
mxdwn: I mean you kind of answered that, but if you want to expand on it anymore.
RP: Yeah, it’s like I said before, I don’t wake up every day with my distorted guitar on, you know, sometimes I find an acoustic guitar and I write on an acoustic. For Sam and I, it was just like let’s just do something mellow and weird. He actually came up with a lot of the vocal melody, but I was fully dedicated to the lyrics and the lyrics are really cool. I wish I had them in front of me because I’d recite them, I think they’re amazing. Not to toot my own horn or anything.
mxdwn: No, I completely agree. I couldn’t find lyrics online, just because it’s not out yet, obviously, but I liked the lyrics too from what I could pick up from listening to it.
RP: I have them right here. It’s like, “Oh no, what time it is / I just got fine with it / Everything we talked about, it’s all gotta change / It needs a rearrange / I like talking to you, but I lose track of the time / My heart is still cold from the other line / My soul was provoked from a different crime / I know you’ll find a way / I know you’ll get away / But will you take me with you? / I hope you take me with you.” So, that’s kind of like speaking to the needs of having a friend and trying to bury the hatchet or make something right. And then, “Oh no, we’re blind again / We just lost sight of it / Everything and all that we have ever done / We need to see again / We stop listening and that’s on all of us this time / Our hearts are still sold from a simple time / Our wants are still old as we do or die / I hope we find a way / I hope we get away / Just to rescue from a lost, lonely time.” That’s all about just finding some peace within this chunk of time that we’ve been in; the Trump administration, the War in Ukraine, Kim Jong-Un trying to achieve nuclear weapons, or attaining nuclear weapons. You know, it’s all just, I really hope it works out because as a human, it would suck if it didn’t work out. But yeah, I am proud of these songs. I’m proud of these lyrics. It’s one thing to grab a mic and just to scream and to be in the raw emotion of heaviness and stuff like that. I think it’s also very challenging to show your soft underbelly and to be a little vulnerable. Even in singing “Burnout the Sun,” it’s in a key, in a range that I’m not really used to. It’s in a lower range for me, so I had to sing it really softly just to sing the song. It’s a special piece of music. I’m really proud of it. I can’t wait to do the video for it, we’re in talks about that with the label and I think it’s gonna be really cool.
mxdwn: Yeah. Oh, I bet it will be. The song really hits home. I really enjoyed it a lot. I liked it, and I love how you end in that kind of way for the albums. I think that’s really special, truly cool. I was especially drawn to “Face Down” as well, it’s lyrics and the music behind them. What was the inspiration behind it?
RP: I bought a brand new – do you mean lyrically? I wonder what that is lyrically, let me look at it – that’s a pretty. . . I bought this new synthesizer called a Sequential Pro 3 and I came up with this bassline that was just like this rolling bassline. Then I put some drums on it and then like 15 minutes into it, or maybe it, well it felt like 15 minutes but probably a couple hours into it, I was like, I’m ready to sing on this thing without any guitar on it or anything. Then the lyrics were really fast and I jotted down the first thing that popped into my head and it’s, “I’m alive from telling the truth / I’m alive ’cause I don’t lie to you / Watching all the hate go down / Watching the mistakes go down / I’m alive ’cause I tell the truth / You left me here, face down / spilling blood on the higher ground / You left me here, face down / Spilling blood on the higher ground / Spilling blood on the higher ground / Something inspires the things I do / Something gives rise to the things I do / Watching all the hate go down / Watching the mistakes go down / Something inspires the things I do / You left me here, face down / Spilling blood on the higher ground.” It’s basically again, humans get your shit together, get your shit together. You’re lying to each other. You are lying to yourselves, misinformation abounds, you know and you’re wrecking it. Like, it’s basically the gist behind the song. Then I throw a shout out to the Beatles, I say, “Only love can see us through / Just like them Beatles say / Only love can see us through / Just like them Beatles say / You left me here, face down / Spilling blood on the higher ground.” Yeah, it was super-fast. I wrote it really quickly, I think I recorded the first take and you can even hear my voice crack a little bit on the bridge because I didn’t care. I thought it sounded authentic and the song was done. Then I sent it to Jonny Radtke and he had it for a couple days and he put a bunch of guitar parts all over it. Then we had Elias Mallin come in and play drums on it at the very end before we mixed the record. He did an amazing job, gave it that swing feel, I’m proud of that song. I like the video too. It’s fun.
mxdwn: I love that swing feel that you just mentioned. I think that’s why I was so drawn to it.
RP: The triplet, the triplet.
mxdwn: Yeah, It’s really cool. I liked it a lot. Can you also tell me the meaning behind “Threshing Floor”?
RP: “Threshing Floor?” Now, that song I co-wrote with Sam Tinnesz and this guy Seth Mosley. Let me see that one, “You got your hands around my neck / White knuckles / I’m not dead yet / You try and choke my last breath / But I’m a stubborn flame.” It’s just about survival. “If I bow down / If I cave / I’m throwing dirt on top of my grave / You got me / You got your guillotine raised / My heads under your blade.” Yeah. A lot of this was written via Seth Mosley and Sam Tinnesz, a lot of these lyrics. I think I added in. It’s all about survival. It’s all about I don’t want to give up, I don’t want to surrender. I want to survive and make it and that can be applicable to – once again – the astronaut comes back and he sees the planet’s in disarray, chaos, apocalyptic and he just wants to survive.
mxdwn: Yeah. I love the theme of the album and you definitely have it well written throughout all the songs. What are you looking forward to most on your upcoming Freaks on Parade Tour with Rob Zombie, Alice Cooper and Ministry?
RP: Oh, I just think the audience is gonna be amazing. The audience is gonna be huge and it’s been selling out everywhere and obviously, the hang is gonna be amazing. I mean, Rob Zombie, Alice Cooper, Ministry and all their bands, we’re all friends. We all know each other. So, it’s gonna be like this cool hang and we’re all gonna have fun and I’m really looking forward to it.
mxdwn: Yeah, I’m sure. With all the lineup changes Filter has undergone, what has been a constant over the last 30 years?
RP: The constant, you’re looking at ’em.
mxdwn: Yes, I am {laughs}.
RP: It’s weird because Filter, like Filter started off, it was me with a computer and a tape deck. My friend Brian Liesegang came in after I got signed, worked with me and I wanted to include him. I was like, yeah, you’re my buddy, you’re my partner. Then that kind of fell apart because he wanted to go off and do his own thing, which I completely understand because that’s what I did with Nine Inch Nails. I was in Nine Inch Nails and to a point, then I just decided, hey, I want to try my own thing and that’s what I did. Then I had Geno Lenardo and Frank and Steve Gillis come out with me on Title of Record and The Amalgamut and the constant there was Ben Grosse. Ben Grosse did Short Bus, Title of Record and Amalgamut. He was an amazing producer who helped keep … because this is back when I was drinking, so he would keep me focused on what I needed to do. I always had a real heavy hand in deciding whether or not something was deleted, you know what I mean? Like, if I heard an overdub that wasn’t cool, I would either work with Geno on replacing it or doing something or using it. But I always had this delete button in my arsenal because I figured if someone’s gonna be a tiebreaker, it’s gotta be me because, once again, I was the only signed artist to Reprise, or to my record company. Then when I got sober, a lot of the guys in Filter didn’t want to kind of join me on that battle and I couldn’t be around people that were still, kind of, using alcohol. It was bad for me to be around people like that, so I just threw up my hands and I joined the band Army of Anyone with the DeLeo brothers and Ray Luzier, did that for a record cycle. It was a lot of fun. Had a great time working with those guys. Came back to Filter in like 2008 and I had pretty much written a lot, I wrote almost a hundred percent of Anthems for the Damned. After Anthems, I worked with Bob Marlet for two records, The Trouble with Angels and The Sun Comes Out Tonight, also with Jonny Radtke all over The Sun Comes Out Tonight, that’s Jonny’s record essentially. It’s Jonny, Bob and I who wrote all the songs for The Sun Comes Out Tonight, and then for Crazy Eyes, I worked with this new kid named Oumi Kapila, Oumi was a totally different kind of vibe. He’s a great musician, we had a lot of fun working on that record and it kind of pulled me back into industrial. But after Crazy Eyes, I made a decision that like, I’m gonna go buy a computer and I’m gonna learn the software, because I relied heavily on Bob and Oumi as people that ran the software and kind of were driving. As in a studio setting there’s the guy driving, which means sitting behind the computer and operating the computer. That guy has, whether they know it or not, they have a lot of power and I decided that I had to kind of take back that power, especially for The Algorithm. I just wanted to … even when I was working with Brian, I was doing a lot of the heavy lifting and I think that’s what kind of makes a Filter record. When I’m really, really super a part of the music side as well, because it’s gotta sound like a Filter record and only I know what those things are. Sometimes, like other people, their styles get interwoven with me and it’s almost like, Filter isn’t about other people’s styles. It’s about what I did in those first three records, the landmark Reprise, Warner Brothers records, so I kind of just forced myself to learn the computer, get back into really owning it, being daring and making decisions solely on whether or not I liked it.
mxdwn: Yeah, that’s great. I mean, it’s worked out really well. That’s awesome. I like that. Stay true and just, you do it how you want to do it and it comes out amazing. So, thank you. That’s all that matters. The Algorithm will be released by Golden Robot Records. How has it been working with them?
RP: They’re great. They’re a newer company and they’re from Australia, so there’s this time delay, they’re living in the future and we’re like, you know, hey, what do you think about this, that and the other but obviously, they’re amazing. Australian people are fantastic and there’s been a lot of love. They’re super behind the record. They really love it. It’s just a matter of connecting all the dots and making sure the release goes perfect and thumbs up to Golden Robot.
mxdwn: That’s awesome. Well, that’s all that I have, but it’s really been a pleasure talking to you, so insightful. You seem like such a down to earth person. I’ve really enjoyed it, so thank you so much for your time.
RP: Oh, no problem. Thank you for having me. I appreciate the interest.
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