Richard Patrick of FILTER

MAGX: How’s it going?

RP: Things are Good, We’re playing at a battleship tonight. One of the oddest gigs of my life. We’re playing The battleship New Jersey.

MAGX: Are you going to get a chance to go see Starwars?

RP: I’m going to see it when I get back to Los Angeles, I’m very excited about seeing Starwars actually. I’m not sure when it takes place. Its obviously in between movies 2 and 3. But, what does it have to do with the 2D?

MAGX:  I think it takes place right after the 2D cartoon on Cartoon Network. I was told you are a big Starwars fan.

RP: I have a huge Master Replica collection. My wife has asked me over the last six or seven years what I want for my birthday, and I’m like, “I have everything that I ever wanted in life.”  So I’m like “Um, I don’t know, a blaster? And she’s like alright”. So I get a blaster one year, then I get a light saber, then another blaster, then a helmet. So for my birthdays and christmas’, for the last five years I’ve gotten this huge Master Replica Collection. They stopped, the licensing got too expensive and they couldn’t build the stuff fast enough.

MAGX: Do you ever go to the Star Wars Conventions?

RP: Yeah, I went to the Starwars Celebration 3. It was great because I got to see a 10 minute trailer of the third movie(before it came out).

MAGX: Now the hard questions, the worlds falling apart, gas prices are soaring, the dollar is at an all time low, the ice shelves are melting. Where do you think we went wrong, and what can we do to change it?

RP: I think we went wrong when we got greedy, there’s still good and bad in all of us. When you make the choice to get a hot rod and talk about getting a car that smells like an effen lawn mower…No, It’s like put that car in a museum, and lets move on to solar powered cars. It has to be a conscious decision for us to make, to try to do the right thing. That’s where we are going wrong. The reality is that all of these things are linked to us being cruel to each other and to the planet. As a species were smarter than this. We know what were doing.  My idols, Nivek Ogre of Skinny Puppy, Al Jorgenson of Ministry, John Lennon of the Beatles, they put up a stank and they said something about it in their music. There was a real frivilous time in music during the 80’s. BONO would call it “NON-STICK WALL PAPER MUSIC”.  When everyone else was rocking out about 17 yr.. Old girls and getting drunk. BONO was writing about war. Today’s people just writing about how they want to be rockstars while driving monster trucks, and cribs. Man I just want to say, “You suck!!”  We could can do so much more and yet we don’t.  I want to do more with my music than just be another label making trendsetter.  I want to talk about the problems that we are having, and offer much needed solutions.  When you feel to the need to invade a country just for their oil.  Rethink it.  When you feel the urge to kill your neighbor because he cheated with your wife. Rethink it. In some way we are acting like cancer cells.  Cancer cells sometimes kill each other to take over the body.  That is exactly what we are doing.  Killing ourselves trying to take over this planet.  I know that my audience has the mind and power to listen and take action on these very problems.

MAGX:  The new album is awesome. What is the song Soldier of Misfortune on the new album about?

RP: I wrote it back into 2003.  When the war was kinda considered a good idea.  My friend Justin was killed and he was a friend of the band.  He was 23 yrs. Old and was asked to return back in the reserves.  He was a senior in college.  He was only in the reserves to get money for college.  He join back in 1998 when it was still pretty clean and thought the world was an awesome place.  Then soon 9/11 happened and war came along.  He was sent to Baghdad.  He was unfortunate and  was killed ten days after arriving there.  I just thought to myself, “I’m pro-troops but I’m anti-war…”  So I wrote kinda of an  anthem for these SOLDIERS OF MISFORTUNE.  The black water guys are making easily $300,000 a year, yet they can barely afford them to be there.  By them I mean the force that is keeping this war going, our beloved soldiers.  It’s so hard for them to keep up with the economy that I really don’t think that most of them are down with it anymore.  I’m not speaking for them in any way, shape, or form, but just thinking of their dilemma.  Can we learn from history.  Take care of the planet, be good to each other, and do the right thing.  The same message is printed though out the whole record.  So that’s how this song came about.  It is a message of hope in all this darkness.

MAGX: Speaking of the new record, You have a slew of guest talent on this album such as Wes Borland, Josh Freese & John 5. What was it like working with those guys and how did the collaboration come about?

RP: Well I really think it’s important that people know that Filter’s my baby.  Kinda the way Bruce Springstein runs his career.  After working on this I wanted to make a big change.  With different people that I’ve talked to, but never got the chance to work with.  John 5 that’s worked with Manson, came up to me at Ozz Fest. He told me that Title record was one of his favorite albums of all time.  Then about a year later he came up to me again said,” Title of Record and Amalgamate are two of my favorite records of all time.  Which I thought was just so cool.  He said,” If you ever want to work with me. I’m total available.”  That’s when I just told him,” What does it take???”  He just picked up the guitar and half an hour later, It was done.  He wrote “The Take” and “What’s next.”  “What’s next,” is the new single that we have released. Josh Freese (Drums) was another great artist.  He was just finished with NINE INCH NAILS.  He just popped up in the studio.   He can do this in just one or two takes, and it’s done.   The drums on the record were done in just a couple of  hours.
Wes Borland, which I met on family values with Limpbiskit.  He worked with me before.  He played guitar in “Dreams.”  Then I wrote about the majority of the songs.  I wrote Cold, I keep the flowers around, and Soldiers of Misfortune are just a few.  So that was my contribution.  I wanted to go kinda back to “The Short Bug” attitude, just more industrial.

MAGX: How does your experience in FILTER  compare to your experience in NIN?

RP: Oh my god, my experience with NIN?  Trent and I were pretty much drunk most of the time.  Just like Filter is my baby, NIN is Trent’s baby.  When it came down to writing with NIN there wasn’t really much room for that.  Looking back on it, It was a pretty gutsy move to leave.  I hope people understand that if your just gonna be at the first level and never grow out of that, like if you’re working in the hospital as an orderly but you want to be a doctor, and you have the education to be a doctor.  So why not do it? I did what I thought was best.  It turned out the right move.  It was the best choice for me to have ownership of what I wanted to do.  It’s always good being a BOSS.

MAGX: How has the touring experience changed or how have you changed from the first time you went out on tour?

RP: I know it’s a public that I’m a recovering alcoholic.  When I was 25 I would down a six pack and smoke a pack a day.  It was hard.  Now I’m older and I’m glad that every time now someone goes to a Filter concert they leave satisfied. People come up to me now and just let me know how much better I sound from back then.  I’m very proud that I can get up there and deliver the goods.

MAGX: Where did you get your start in music?
8 yrs. old someone had a guitar, and they told me not to touch someone’s guitar it fragile. I just remember saying, “It’s beautiful.” My dad was playing the record Hot August Nights.  All the time by Neil Diamond.  It’ll this day that’s my desert island record.  That’s where I get all my music chops from.  Music just makes me feel so good.