It has been pretty quiet on the Filter front in recent years, filled with a bunch of false starts and wrong turns for the guitar-driven industrial rock outfit best known for hits like “Hey Man Nice Shot” and “Take a Picture.” Last year, saw the release of The Algorithm, the first new studio album in seven years, and most well-received in much longer than that. They hitched a ride onto the Freaks on Parade 2023 tour, joining headliners Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper and fellow support act Ministry.
The run was so successful that the parties involved decided to do it all again this summer. on Friday night (September 6), Freaks on Parade 2024 rolls into The Xfinity Center in Mansfield, with Filter slated to kick off the proceedings, something founder and frontman Richard Patrick is amped about.
“The crowds are in for us at six o’clock and then we get to kick off the show, and my band is just super tight right now,” he tells Vanyaland. “We are rocking. I think that’s the word’s getting out about that. That Filter is really good again, and that’s why I think people are showing up early for us.”
The legacy of Filter has its roots in Nine Inch Nails. Patrick and Trent Reznor met in Cleveland and the former joined the touring band for NIN’s debut effort, Pretty Hate Machine. Somewhat acrimoniously, he split in the mid-’90s and began to carve his own musical path pairing up with fellow Nine Inch Nails alum Brian Liesegang.
Filter’s first record, 1995’s Short Bus, was critically acclaimed, but Liesegang didn’t stick around very long, and the group became Patrick’s project. Come 2018, a chance meeting at a Veruca Salt show brought the two back together, and via a crowdfunding campaign revealed they were working on Rebus, a sequel to their first union. Due in part to the collapse of the crowdfunding platform, it all fell apart, with Patrick putting all his effort into The Algorithm.
During that mess, Nine Inch Nails was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2020. Since it was peak Covid, the ceremony was done virtually. As sort of a makeup for that, Reznor held a band reunion in Cleveland in the fall of 2022, with Patrick taking part in the day one panel and then for an emotional six-song finale the following night during a concert that immediately went down as one of the most mythical of Nine Inch Nails performances.
Earlier this week, Patrick sat down with Vanyaland for a 617 Q&A (Six Questions; One Recommendation; Seven Somethings) to talk about that show, why Freaks on Parade resonates, and what some of his favorite movies are by his actor brother Robert Patrick, who famously starred as the evil terminator in Terminator 2: Judgement Day.
He also goes deep for the first time on what was one of the strangest combinations of the ‘90s, when MTV would broadcast a fashion show soundtracked live by various alternative rock bands. Filter took part in one of them in 1996 as supermodels like Kate Moss, Helena Christensen, and Naomi Campbell strutted down the catwalk. Patrick was filled with rage and disgust at having to be there at the behest of the record label, and it resulted in one of the most incendiary and ferocious performances ever associated with the channel, with the frontman drunk and howling with near primal abandon.
:: SIX QUESTIONS
Michael Christopher: This is the second go-round of Freaks on Parade with this lineup, and that usually never happens with these sorts of mini-touring festivals. Why do you think this particular group of artists has been such a draw to fans?
Richard Patrick: Straight up, I think it’s the quality of the bands. I think Rob Zombie, Alice Cooper, Ministry, and Filter are some heavy hitters. I mean, our responsibility is to get the show off and get people riled up and get ’em going, and we’re achieving that, which is really awesome. But Ministry’s legendary. If it wasn’t for Ministry, I don’t know if Filter would’ve sounded the way it sounded. And of course, the legend Alice Cooper and his professionalism, it’s just amazing. Then Rob has just the biggest, craziest, funnest show out there, and [he] is a hell of a fucking amazing a showman, and his shows are legendary and he is a great singer, and his songs are catchy as hell. I think that it’s just really attractive, the four of us. The only thing I’m doing is thanking my lucky stars, ‘cause I’m having a blast every night.
You’ve talked a lot about the inspiration Ministry has had on you. Where do Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper fit into your life, whether it’s personally or in a musical sense?
Alice Cooper inspired me to be sober, and Rob was an inspiration just in his business savvy. He’s just a really smart businessman. He’s a film director… Artistically, he’s just really connected to himself and he’s an inspiration artistically. You know what I mean? He’s more than just a singer; he’s so much more than that. He offers the world so much more.
You’ve been sober for over two decades now, and I’m always curious when a “rockstar” goes into recovery, if one of the elements you have to fight against is the expected persona, if you’re a frontman, that means you should embody the sex, drugs, and rock and roll mythos, and how can you, if you’re sober?
Well, I come from the ‘90s, so we weren’t [takes on deep voice] “sex drugs n’ rock and roll,” you know what I mean? For us, it was like we were kind of the tortured people. We were kind of the punks that got picked on in high school and then had kind of disgruntled behavior. Trent Reznor and me, a lot of the guys from the ‘90s tended to be more OK with being a loser kind of thing. Not necessarily Trent, but Beck had the song “Loser,” and then Radiohead had the song “Creep.” [sings] “I’m a creep, I’m a loser.” And we hated that rockstar shit. That rockstar shit from the ‘80s was kind of bent, played, that cock rock. That kind of shit fucking wasn’t appealing.
We’re coming up on two years since that much-discussed event in Cleveland with –
Oh, the reunion!
You’ve said how emotional it was for you in a lot of interviews since then, but have you thought about why specifically it was so meaningful? Was it the location, the history, the sense that it was a one-time event?
It was like the whole couple weeks leading to the thing. We got together and rehearsed in Los Angeles, and here’s Mr. Trent Reznor watching me sing the second chorus to “Hey Man Nice Shot” at rehearsal and just looking at me and going, “Fuck yeah! You’re killing it. Fucking amazing!” He was so supportive and sweet and amazing, and that’s the Trent that I have known. That’s the guy that is supportive and creative and amazing, and I’m just so happy that we landed on this, like, supportive… just friendship. Just this real, graceful friendship. Because we’ve been through a lot. A lot has been said, and I want people to know that’s the guy that I love. This supportive dude who was egging me on to sing more songs than I thought I could.
It was such a great thing, and all the guys in Nine Inch Nails being super supportive and having fun. And I got up there and I was crying during “Eraser”. I had to fucking conjure up the demons and kind of find the screaming part at the end and kind of hang out there, but it was just so emotional. It was so amazing, and the crowd was so amazing. Before I went on, I could hear them screaming and I realized it was because someone had a camera on me and I was on the side of the stage, like the big jumbotrons or whatever, and they were screaming for me to come out, and when I came out, I just threw a bottle of water on ’em. I was like, “Piggy’s back.” And it’s entirely because Trent fucking made it happen. He was sweet enough to invite me back to the reunion with the band, and that was amazing. And for that, I’m forever grateful.
***
I’m not sure how well you’re going to remember this, but I want to ask you about the appearance Filter made back in ‘96 on MTV’s Fashionably Loud.
Oh yeah.
Where you performed “Under” and “Hey Man Nice Shot.” What do you recall about that?
I hated it. I was really, really, really not happy that we were forced to do that. When MTV offers something and the record company says, “Hey, this is a great opportunity,” and it’s goofy. The bands play and the fashion world walks in front of you, and I just felt like an idiot. So, I was super drunk and pissed by the time we went on stage, and my rage was felt in the music. I was screaming my balls off, and it transcended the performance into like, “Man, these guys are fucking serious. I’m gonna buy the record.”
The explosion of record sales after that really made the record company happy. It’s a dangerous world when artistically you disagree with something, but it’s another thing to kind of rise to the occasion and be like, “You know what? I made it. I made this happen. This is cool. I’m going to meet some girls.” That performance was cool. I’m okay with that performance. There’s some shows [where] I’m like, “Oh God, I wish I sang better, or I wish I did this better.” But that one was pretty cool.
It was so, God, there’s so many words I could use to describe it. Just visceral and almost angry and –
Oh, super angry.
There were times the camera caught you and it looked like you were seething with disdain, whether it was at the fashion models just strutting by you or…
Well, Naomi Campbell walked up and I pretended to ejaculate on her with my water bottle, and that did not go over well because her jacket was suede and you can’t get suede wet. And she was fucking pissed. She was fucking pissed. And I was being a fucking reckless punker, you know what I mean?
And the sling you wore, was that from a rotator cuff injury that you had had?
Yeah, something got weird with my rotator cuff. It still hasn’t quite healed or something. Whenever I put my arm up, it hurts for some reason, but I just learned to live with it.
The Algorithm just had its first anniversary. Have you thought about what’s next for Filter?
We’re going to re-release The Algorithm. And it’s going to have eight new tracks on it. Well, eight tracks. It’s going to be three remixes of “Obliteration” by Charlie Clouser, Sean Beaven, and myself, and then another remix for “Burn Out the Sun” by Julian Gray. And then “Thoughts and Prayers” is going to be released when we release the vinyl, and then “Murica” [which] is going to have brand new drums. And then I did this really cool version of “A Sort Homecoming” by U2. But it’s like literally a note-for-note interpretation. It sounds like U2, but on steroids, because it’s using all this modern technology that I have.
***
Is there any chance you’re going to revisit doing something with Brian again?
No. Brian has kind of disappeared, again. He’s the kind of guy that likes to just go off into nature and never come back. I love him. He’s a weird dude. He’s a good guy and he’s a fun person, and he’s artistic, but he’s just not meant for this world. But he just kind of disappeared one day.
:: ONE RECOMMENDATION
I would hope that people would just be kind, be kind to each other. We’re living in a fucking weird world right now, especially with the folks on the right, and they’re fucking mean as shit. I was openly kind of political for a little while, and God, the hate that I received from people that are just in a cult. So, I just want people to fucking remember that they’re human beings and they need to act like human beings and be kind to each other. That was what separated us from the monkeys. We were nice to each other. We helped each other. We took care of each other. We tried to help each other, and that’s what we’re great at. So, let’s be great at it. Let’s just keep being kind to each other.
:: SEVEN OF SOMETHING
Give me seven of your favorite films your brother, Robert Patrick, has been in, in no particular order.
Well, I’m glad we did Last Rampage. I actually scored that movie, and I also did a soundtrack. I did a song for it, a soundtrack.
Obviously, Terminator 2 put him on the map. And people recognized him as an awesome actor from that.
Cop Land was good.
The Faculty.
Spy Kids.
Walk the Line. He played Johnny Cash’s father, Joaquin Phoenix’s father.
Ladder 49 was good with Joaquin Phoenix.
Yeah, I love my bro.
FREAKS ON PARADE 2024 FEAT. ROB ZOMBIE + ALICE COOPER + MINISTRY + FILTER :: Friday, September 6 at Xfinity Center, 885 S. Main St., in Mansfield MA :: 6 p.m., all ages, $48.65 to $179.50 :: Event info and tickets
