FILTER Leader Working On 'Ambient' New Album

Richard Patrick is working on an "ambient"-based FILTER album that he will make available through all the streaming music services later in the year.

The FILTER leader revealed his plans for the disc — tentatively titled "Sounds For Sloan And Other Restless Children" — via a video message posted on the band's Facebook page. He explained: "There was a few songs that I've done at the end of records — like 'Anthems For The Damned', 'The Amalgamut' and 'Crazy Eyes' — they're at the very end of the record and they're just these weird, ambient things. I've been doing 'em since, like, 1988 or whatever, but I've never made a record fully dedicated to just ambient, kind of Brian Eno-esque… just gorgeous music. And I think one of the reasons why I did it was because my daughter loves to hear the Spa channel [on SiriusXM], and I just hear so many freaking pan flutes and just goofy… There's a lot of piano, there's a lot of… And I just think that there should be an ambient record with more guitar and more weird, FILTER-sounding guitars and strange stuff that puts you in a dreamlike state."

Patrick added that some of the inspiration for the new FILTER album came from the movie-scoring work he recently did for "True Crime", the 2016 thriller starring Jim Carrey and Charlotte Gainsbourg, and "Last Rampage: The Escape Of Gary Tison", which starts Richard's brother, Robert Patrick, and is based on the true story of murderer Gary Tison's attempted escape from prison to Mexico.

Regarding the musical direction of "Sounds For Sloan And Other Restless Children", Richard said: "It's the opposite of what you've heard with 'Crazy Eyes', but you know me — I like to keep changing everything, I like to keep developing new ideas. And I've gotta be honest with you — I've gotta keep the creativity flowing like none other, because I break at the seams, I bust if I don't constantly put out new music."

FILTER's seventh album, "Crazy Eyes", was released in April 2016 via Wind-Up Records.