FILTER Mainman: 'The Audience Has Decided That They're Not Going To Pay For Music Anymore'

South Africa's MusicReview recently conducted an interview with FILTER mainman Richard Patrick. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

MusicReview: [The new FILTER album] "The Trouble With Angels" was initially pencilled for a 2009 release, but only got released late last month. What was the major hold-up?

Richard Patrick: When [producer] Bob [Marlette] and I were working on the record and were trying to get everything together, it just didn't feel like that was the way we could do it. When we started to realize that we had this amazing record on our hands, we decided to slow down the process. The fans have waited for another great FILTER album for so long, and although we wanted to hurry the process, we decided the quality of the album would make up for the wait. You've gotta make sure that this stuff is perfect, man. It's like making a baby, once that baby comes out, you're hoping that she is cooked and that everything is good.

MusicReview: You've mentioned in previous comments that the album has more of an industrial and electronic feel, and we can pick it up as well. What is your rationale for this? Are you as sick of modern rock as everyone else is?

Richard Patrick: I hear like 5,000 bands that want to sound like NICKELBACK and that's fine, but to me, when I heard that SOUNDGARDEN were getting back together and ALICE IN CHAINS, and that DEFTONES were releasing a new record, I got excited. That's when I thought, okay, things are going to come back to normal for a bit. For me, the problem with modern rock is that it is all starting to sound the same. Don't get me wrong, I like NICKELBACK, but just all these other bands that are trying to do the same makes me just want to say, "Guys, come on, let's do something different!" So I hope that the fans out there will latch onto "The Trouble With Angels", and get a little relief…

MusicReview: Everybody knows about the decrease in album sales and the escalation of piracy. Fact is that records don't make the money they used to and labels aren't giving artists million-dollar advances any more. Has FILTER thought about how they're going to adapt to this revolution in terms of the marketing and release of future records?

Richard Patrick: You know, the audience has decided that they're not going to pay for music anymore. I was just talking to a few friends at record companies and they spoke of this kid who left a comment, "I can't believe that the new Zakk Wylde album costs so much, you know, it only costs 5 dollars to make a record. Why are we paying 30 [Australian] dollars for it?" Well, do you know why? Because Zakk has a family. He has got to put food on the table and all the other people at the studio need to put food on the table. Fact is, Zakk went about and made something from nothing and has put it on a medium so that he can make money to sustain himself and his family. That's why. These kids, have no fucking idea what they are doing. By downloading and pirating all this music, you are taking away from an artist's livelihood. In terms of our album, the actual CD itself, which you can buy at www.officialfilter.com, comes with artwork that actually tells the rest of the story of the music. I tried to make the whole thing an experience. That's how we are trying to do it. You know, I get it, everybody has other things that they want to spend their money on; but I was at this gig, and people were like, "Damn, 10 bucks for a CD…" and I thought to myself, well, you have just spent six bucks on a beer that you are going to piss out in 10 minutes. It actually defies logic. Studios are not cheap and considering that we worked on the album for eight months, we have many costs to pay. While some artists like LADY GAGA, COLDPLAY and other heavy touring artists may stand to make a lot of money, we don't tour much, we don't get out much… so the audience needs to decide, do you want to get behind something? Or do you want to steal from it and be part of its demise?

MusicReview: How is the Richard Patrick of today different from the Richard Patrick who started out in the '80s?

Richard Patrick: When they say "youth is wasted on youth," they are right. I have learned so much. I wish I understood the world a little bit better back then because I had everything that you can imagine unfolding right before me; but I was so sick with disease and childhood scars that I couldn't see all those wonderful things in front of me. The beautiful thing, though, is that I'm 42 and I just don't look it or feel it. I'm blessed with a certain amount of youth. When you get healthy, your body starts to fix itself and regenerate, and I'm rejoicing in a second birth ever since I got sober. I have children and I live through them. It is just so beautiful and they keep me young. Then I have all my young friends, who just walk and talk and get me in trouble and I like that. So I hang out with those guys as well. In that sense I live double lives. Two consecutive births and rebirths. My sobriety today is the real peak of my life. In fact, I bring our shows way more harder today than I ever did. I am so much more of a performer at 42 than I was at 25.

Read the entire interview from MusicReview.