IPOD
RADIO
Filter For The Damned
By Nicole Powers
Sep 13, 2008
Richard Patrick, Filter’s (hybrid) driving force, is frustrated. With one man down (the Webmaster of a fan site), and an ex-band member currently on the frontline in Iraq, what’s going on in the Middle East is less remote for him than for most. So, while supporting our troops, he’s speaking out against the war, but feels his cries of protest on Filter's May 2008 album release Anthems For The Damned are lost on a nation that downloads everything and values little.
In 2002 General Motors ironically launched their gas-guzzling H2 to the sounds of Filter’s “The Only Way (Is The Wrong Way).” In 2003, to fuel a hunger for democracy –– and oil ––America invaded Iraq. With our government, economy, environment –– and music industry –– in crisis, Richard talks about how he reconciles his need to make a living with his own value system. But let’s take care of the prerequisite business first:
Nicole Powers: You have The Pulse Sessions coming out later this year. That’s a live album right?
Richard Patrick: Yeah. We’re going to do a live record that’s recorded in the studio. We’ll just jump in a studio and set up our gear and play live.
NP:
And later on you’ve got a remix album coming out?
RP:
Yes, that looks like November 4th. It’s going to be Remix For The Dammed.
NP:
Have you got any favorite remixes you’d like to talk about?
RP:
I’d say my favorite remix is by one of my original programmers, Rae DiLeo. It’s one of his last parting things that he’s going to be doing with us for a little while because he’s going off and doing different things. John Spiker’s going to be the new sound design guy.
NP:
In the early days you were known for combining electronica with rock, but Anthems is a very non-electronic, organic rock sound? Is that the direction you’re going in musically?
RP:
Actually the stuff I’m writing right now for a record that I’m going to release sometime next year is actually way more heavy industrial, more electronic. There’s probably not going to be that many live drums on it.
NP:
So it’s back full circle to your early Nine Inch Nails days?
RP:
Well, Nine Inch Nails was influenced by Skinny Puppy and Ministry… But the reality is, yeah, I miss those old days. I feel that Filter needs to return to the “Hey Man, Nice Shot” era. I was a young angry man when I did that, and then I kind of went of into different worlds musically and I think I’m coming full circle because now I just want to do heavier, darker music. I thought Anthems was darker, but I grow more and more frustrated with the state of affairs in the world and I think my music should reflect that kind of anger.
NP:
Recently you did a Huffington Post. In one of the opening paragraphs you talk about your idols, Bono and John Lennon, and say they taught you to speak your mind. Do you get frustrated that more people don’t?
RP:
Neil Young even said it, back in the day, that rock and roll could change things. Rock and roll can’t do anything anymore. It’s true. I literally released an anti-war, pro-troops record and it was almost like falling upon deaf ears. Right now the audience seem like they’re OK with talking about bling and G5s and money, they’re totally happy with that. As a human being that lives on this little planet and knows how fragile the world is, I had to say something…
People heard my record and they heard I’m bitching about my commander-in-chief. I’m bitching about things that need to be said. On every song on the record I’m talking about issues and I have to say, I didn’t want to just close my mouth and go ‘OK, here’s another song about love. Or here’s another song about being hurt.’ I had to actually talk about some real facts.
NP:
I love the lyrics of your song “Lie After Lie.” The lies we’re talking about aren’t little ones, and there’s been so many of them, yet Obama and McCain are so close in the polls. How many lies will it take before people will see the writing on the wall?
RP:
Well, this country, they voted a guy into office who they could have a beer with. It’s like Bill Maher said, this country voted in a fucking retard because they wanted to be able to have a beer with him. And now look at us, we’re all fucking paying the price.
NP:
It’s almost like half of America is happy with their heads in the sand, and actually wants to be lied to so they can avoid the truth.
RP:
There’s more talk about Palin’s eye-glasses and her naughty librarian hair cut –– the Democrats are talking about universal healthcare –– does anyone care about that? Most of my friends don’t have fucking insurance. Now I’ve turned forty, things go wrong in your body. I have an issue with my back all of a sudden. And I go to a doctor and I spend tens of thousands of dollars, but I’m insured and I’m, quote unquote, successful, and I do really well and so I have money…
I like hanging out with young people, and they can’t even afford medicine if they got sick. And the funny thing is you know they’re not spending any money on education. This country would rather spend a trillion dollars on a fucking war for oil…We’re pouring money into this thing, and yet where does the country stand on education? If you want a good one you have to spend your own money and put your kids in private school.
NP:
Well I think part of it is that they want to keep the country dumb.
RP:
Yes, exactly. They want kids in public school so they’re not educated, so they don’t talk about stuff. I don’t have my head in the sand. I live in a world where I wake up every day, if I feel like making some music I can. If I don’t want to, I don’t have to. So if I want to sit in front of three newspapers and three or four TiVoed news shows, PBS, Fox News, just trying to get a general viewpoint, I can sit around and I can watch show after show after show on TV about the environment being fucked up. Most people fucking get in a car and then they drive for two hours on the fucking freeways, then they get to a job and work their asses off and they come home and they’re exhausted. Then they’ve got to hang out with their kids for a little while, and they’re in bed by nine o’ clock. Done. They don’t have time to think. They don’t have time to complain.
I’ve woken up. I got sober like five years ago. I’ve had all this time to sit back and watch what they’re doing. Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney, they’re oil men –– they’re fucking oil men. So what do they do? Need more oil. Invade country that’s got oil. Now it’s their answer to the huge crisis, the gasoline shortage. What’s their huge answer? Drill! They want to drill in Alaska. That’s only going to affect our oil supplies at like 7 per cent. Where do we get the rest of it? We get it from fucking Saudi Arabia.
NP:
I think the masses aren’t getting angry because it’s not affecting them enough. It’s not like Vietnam where everyone had friends and loved ones that were being called up.
RP:
People are being drafted...
NP:
That’s what I wanted to talk to you about, because the cover of Anthems for the Damned, that’s a pretty powerful statement. It features the dog tags and rifle of Justin Eyerly who ran one of your fan sites. I understand he signed up for the reserves to pay for college, got called up and died a couple of weeks after he was deployed. What do his family think of the cover?
RP:
I talk to them once a year right around Thanksgiving, and I haven’t really talked to them about him. I know his friend Meghan Darney was so honored to supply the picture. She took the picture of the inverted rifle. But I have to call them and find out what they think. A friend of ours left a CD on his grave.
NP:
And your former bass player, Frank Cavanagh, recently enlisted and is in Iraq right now. Did he share his reasons for enlisting with you?
RP:
He comes from a military background. His brother’s in the army, and his uncles were in the army, and his dad was in the army, and it’s like if you’re at war you join the army in some families. He was thirty-five and he said ‘I missed the cut-off age and I can never be in the army.’…And then they changed the cut-off age to thirty-seven, ‘cause they need more troops, and he went in...It’s a calling. It’s something that you do in certain families. He just wanted to see it for himself, and I’m dying to get back over there.
NP:
You played a benefit concert for the troops in Kuwait in March of this year just before Frank shipped off to Iraq in April. How was that?
RP:
Yes, I played the Operation MySpace concert with Disturbed, and DJ Z-Trip and Jessica Simpson, and it was amazing. It’s a twenty-seven hour flight and I’m sitting there and I’m in Business Class looking down…When you’re flying over the United States it’s just a grid of lights. Even the smaller cities are well lit. Everything looks like it’s really neat, clean and taken care of…When you fly over Iraq it’s just dismal. There’s one naked little light down there…
You land, and you’re looking around and there’s a row of thirty Black Hawk helicopters, and you’re like ‘wow, each one of those is worth forty million bucks.’ So you look at it and think that’s a whole town’s library – it’s a fleet of libraries…You look over and see a guard tower and you’re like wow, that’s a bridge in Minnesota. It’s astounding what we're wasting our money on there.
NP:
Obviously you now drive a hybrid car, but in 2002 your song “The Only Way (Is The Wrong Way)” was used to promote the then new H2 vehicle. If you knew then what you know now, would you still have allowed that to happen?
RP:
I probably would have allowed a lot more. I probably would have done that JC Penny commercial they asked me to do. Here’s why: The music industry is under attack by theft…In this day and age, you’ve got to do whatever you’ve got to do. Humvee, yes. Someone’s going to use a song. If he doesn’t use my song, he’s going to use someone else’s song. I want to put my kids through college. And the reality is, when people talk about selling out and stuff like that, it’s a whole different ball game when people are constantly ripping artists off –– constantly on the internet. The internet is a big, huge, evil thing. It’s got a lot of good, but it’s got a lot of bad…
People aren’t paying for music. So all this time, effort and money that we spent sitting in studios making music –– people aren’t paying for that. It's destroying the music industry. So when I saw Snoop Dogg selling Taco Bell I was like get it, ‘get in there and get you some money. Do what you gotta do.’ Our industry has been anally raped in the last eight years by technology and by people who just don’t get it. They’re like ‘Filter doesn’t need any money, I’m just going to download this off allmp3.com and get the thing for free.’ They just don’t care. They don’t know right from wrong anymore. So Humvee, that’s how I make my living… That’s how I’m going to put my kids through school.
NP:
Isn’t there some implied endorsement though? I guess that’s the other side of it, the responsibility and implied endorsement. Isn’t there a danger there?
RP:
I’m not sure what you’re asking.
NP:
When someone hears a band’s song promoting a product, there’s an implied endorsement of that product.
RP:
Yes. Or it’s just a song they use in the background. It’s not an endorsement. It’s just music. “Hey Man, Nice Shot” was in the Iron Man soundtrack. Do I endorse Iron Man the character? No. It’s just music in the background…
All that endorsement stuff, all that’s off the table. I mean I’ll endorse Barack Obama, and he could use my song, and stuff like that. I think I’d be bummed out if McCain used my song.
NP:
Would you sue like Jackson Browne?
RP:
All these old guys have tons of money, they made money back in the 70s, 80s and 90s, you know what I mean. It’s like rap artists. Rap artists get in there and they do everything. They sell their songs on the radio. They’ll sell their songs through beer commercials. They’ll put out a clothing line. They'll take their name and turn it into a brand, and divvy it up, and just make money. When a rock artist does it all of sudden it’s oh, he’s endorsing, he’s evil…
Yeah, Humvee baby, H2, it’s a well designed machine. Yes, it’s an SUV. It’s a car. It’s a product. Do I endorse that? No. What I endorse is ‘yes, you want some music, I’ll give you some music.’ I don’t sit around and hold up a sign outside of my house saying I want you to go buy an H3. It’s not the same. That’s making a living….It’s like a free bit of advertising for your band at this point in time. It’s like I saw a commercial, I heard this really cool song, I’m going to find that song. ‘Cause MTV’s not going to play your video.
NP:
Commercials do work like radio these days. But you talk about branding and rap artists; I think it’s gone too far. It saddens me when you hear these guys aspiring to be a brand, because I think the artistry has to come first, and then if you can exploit it commercially that’s great.
RP:
Artistry does have to come first and you do have to be an artist at the same time, but the reality is everybody’s on this planet to make a living…Back in the day during the grunge era we could sit there and say no to a lot of things, but you can’t say no to those things anymore. You can’t call up Reebok and tell them ‘no, don’t use my song,’ because, literally, if you’re going to compete in a world with 900 channels on Direct TV. There’s room for 900 channels on Direct TV. Think of that. Think of the internet. You know it’s so funny because I keep doing these dot com magazines; I didn’t even know half of them existed. There are so many dot comes out there. There are so many places a person can go, you have to say yes to a beer commercial.
Think of my music being used for an alcohol ad. I mean I’m a recovering alcoholic, but in this day and age it’s like I can’t be pissed at Bud Light for being Bud Light just because I’m an alcoholic. People like to drink beer, and if they’re going to use my song and pay me a million dollars, then why not me as opposed to the other guy that doesn’t give a fuck. I get what you’re saying. It’s a bit of a double-edged sword, but at the same time, take a look what’s happening to the entertainment dollar.
NP:
It’s also a question of value. I mean people will think nothing of dropping twenty bucks on a meal out which takes fifteen minutes to prepare, but they won’t pay twenty bucks for an album that maybe took two years to prepare.
RP:
Exactly. Exactly. That’s my point. People are literally like, how can I get this for free on the internet…This is the Wild West at this point in time. I’ve sold fifty thousand records this time, and because I’m independent, I’m actually doing better than when I was signed to a major. It’s like you’re living in opposite land. I’m actually going to see more money from my independent record that sold fifty thousand copies, than my zillion selling major label record. My video cost less than twenty thousand dollars to make –– for “Soldiers of Misfortune.” My last video cost four hundred thousand dollars at a major.
NP:
Ouch. Imagine recouping that.
RP:
I’m probably not going to go gold on Anthems, but I’m going to make more money on Anthems. So, everything’s off the table. It’s a whole new world.
NP:
The upside of the internet is that it takes the record labels out of the picture, and you now have a direct relationship with your fans.
RP:
Yes. If I want to get online and tell three hundred thousand people that have signed up to a mailing list or whatever on OfficialFilter.com, I can do that. I guess to go back to that earlier statement when we were kind of talking about the SUV, it is a fine line, you do have to be careful as far as licensing your songs. But at the same time everybody’s got to put their kids through school, and you just hope that you pick the right things to be a part of. Believe it or not, the H3 ads were award winning. That particular advertising campaign was pretty cool looking. It was pretty slick. Would I sell my song for a tampon commercial? I probably wouldn’t. So it is a double-edged sword, and you do have to be careful, but you just have to hope that you make the right decision, and that your fans can deal witt those decisions. That’s my statement on that.
Filter kick-off a seven date mini tour in Reno, NV on September 17. Click HERE for more info.
Richard Patrick, Filter’s (hybrid) driving force, is frustrated. With one man down (the Webmaster of a fan site), and an ex-band member currently on the frontline in Iraq, what’s going on in the Middle East is less remote for him than for most. So, while supporting our troops, he’s speaking out against the war, but feels his cries of protest on Filter's May 2008 album release Anthems For The Damned are lost on a nation that downloads everything and values little.
In 2002 General Motors ironically launched their gas-guzzling H2 to the sounds of Filter’s “The Only Way (Is The Wrong Way).” In 2003, to fuel a hunger for democracy –– and oil ––America invaded Iraq. With our government, economy, environment –– and music industry –– in crisis, Richard talks about how he reconciles his need to make a living with his own value system. But let’s take care of the prerequisite business first:
Nicole Powers: You have The Pulse Sessions coming out later this year. That’s a live album right?
Richard Patrick: Yeah. We’re going to do a live record that’s recorded in the studio. We’ll just jump in a studio and set up our gear and play live.
NP:
And later on you’ve got a remix album coming out?
RP:
Yes, that looks like November 4th. It’s going to be Remix For The Dammed.
NP:
Have you got any favorite remixes you’d like to talk about?
RP:
I’d say my favorite remix is by one of my original programmers, Rae DiLeo. It’s one of his last parting things that he’s going to be doing with us for a little while because he’s going off and doing different things. John Spiker’s going to be the new sound design guy.
NP:
In the early days you were known for combining electronica with rock, but Anthems is a very non-electronic, organic rock sound? Is that the direction you’re going in musically?
RP:
Actually the stuff I’m writing right now for a record that I’m going to release sometime next year is actually way more heavy industrial, more electronic. There’s probably not going to be that many live drums on it.
NP:
So it’s back full circle to your early Nine Inch Nails days?
RP:
Well, Nine Inch Nails was influenced by Skinny Puppy and Ministry… But the reality is, yeah, I miss those old days. I feel that Filter needs to return to the “Hey Man, Nice Shot” era. I was a young angry man when I did that, and then I kind of went of into different worlds musically and I think I’m coming full circle because now I just want to do heavier, darker music. I thought Anthems was darker, but I grow more and more frustrated with the state of affairs in the world and I think my music should reflect that kind of anger.
NP:
Recently you did a Huffington Post. In one of the opening paragraphs you talk about your idols, Bono and John Lennon, and say they taught you to speak your mind. Do you get frustrated that more people don’t?
RP:
Neil Young even said it, back in the day, that rock and roll could change things. Rock and roll can’t do anything anymore. It’s true. I literally released an anti-war, pro-troops record and it was almost like falling upon deaf ears. Right now the audience seem like they’re OK with talking about bling and G5s and money, they’re totally happy with that. As a human being that lives on this little planet and knows how fragile the world is, I had to say something…
People heard my record and they heard I’m bitching about my commander-in-chief. I’m bitching about things that need to be said. On every song on the record I’m talking about issues and I have to say, I didn’t want to just close my mouth and go ‘OK, here’s another song about love. Or here’s another song about being hurt.’ I had to actually talk about some real facts.
People heard my record and they heard I’m bitching about my commander-in-chief. I’m bitching about things that need to be said. On every song on the record I’m talking about issues and I have to say, I didn’t want to just close my mouth and go ‘OK, here’s another song about love. Or here’s another song about being hurt.’ I had to actually talk about some real facts.
NP:
I love the lyrics of your song “Lie After Lie.” The lies we’re talking about aren’t little ones, and there’s been so many of them, yet Obama and McCain are so close in the polls. How many lies will it take before people will see the writing on the wall?
RP:
Well, this country, they voted a guy into office who they could have a beer with. It’s like Bill Maher said, this country voted in a fucking retard because they wanted to be able to have a beer with him. And now look at us, we’re all fucking paying the price.
NP:
It’s almost like half of America is happy with their heads in the sand, and actually wants to be lied to so they can avoid the truth.
RP:
There’s more talk about Palin’s eye-glasses and her naughty librarian hair cut –– the Democrats are talking about universal healthcare –– does anyone care about that? Most of my friends don’t have fucking insurance. Now I’ve turned forty, things go wrong in your body. I have an issue with my back all of a sudden. And I go to a doctor and I spend tens of thousands of dollars, but I’m insured and I’m, quote unquote, successful, and I do really well and so I have money…
I like hanging out with young people, and they can’t even afford medicine if they got sick. And the funny thing is you know they’re not spending any money on education. This country would rather spend a trillion dollars on a fucking war for oil…We’re pouring money into this thing, and yet where does the country stand on education? If you want a good one you have to spend your own money and put your kids in private school.
I like hanging out with young people, and they can’t even afford medicine if they got sick. And the funny thing is you know they’re not spending any money on education. This country would rather spend a trillion dollars on a fucking war for oil…We’re pouring money into this thing, and yet where does the country stand on education? If you want a good one you have to spend your own money and put your kids in private school.
NP:
Well I think part of it is that they want to keep the country dumb.
RP:
Yes, exactly. They want kids in public school so they’re not educated, so they don’t talk about stuff. I don’t have my head in the sand. I live in a world where I wake up every day, if I feel like making some music I can. If I don’t want to, I don’t have to. So if I want to sit in front of three newspapers and three or four TiVoed news shows, PBS, Fox News, just trying to get a general viewpoint, I can sit around and I can watch show after show after show on TV about the environment being fucked up. Most people fucking get in a car and then they drive for two hours on the fucking freeways, then they get to a job and work their asses off and they come home and they’re exhausted. Then they’ve got to hang out with their kids for a little while, and they’re in bed by nine o’ clock. Done. They don’t have time to think. They don’t have time to complain.
I’ve woken up. I got sober like five years ago. I’ve had all this time to sit back and watch what they’re doing. Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney, they’re oil men –– they’re fucking oil men. So what do they do? Need more oil. Invade country that’s got oil. Now it’s their answer to the huge crisis, the gasoline shortage. What’s their huge answer? Drill! They want to drill in Alaska. That’s only going to affect our oil supplies at like 7 per cent. Where do we get the rest of it? We get it from fucking Saudi Arabia.
I’ve woken up. I got sober like five years ago. I’ve had all this time to sit back and watch what they’re doing. Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney, they’re oil men –– they’re fucking oil men. So what do they do? Need more oil. Invade country that’s got oil. Now it’s their answer to the huge crisis, the gasoline shortage. What’s their huge answer? Drill! They want to drill in Alaska. That’s only going to affect our oil supplies at like 7 per cent. Where do we get the rest of it? We get it from fucking Saudi Arabia.
NP:
I think the masses aren’t getting angry because it’s not affecting them enough. It’s not like Vietnam where everyone had friends and loved ones that were being called up.
RP:
People are being drafted...
NP:
That’s what I wanted to talk to you about, because the cover of Anthems for the Damned, that’s a pretty powerful statement. It features the dog tags and rifle of Justin Eyerly who ran one of your fan sites. I understand he signed up for the reserves to pay for college, got called up and died a couple of weeks after he was deployed. What do his family think of the cover?
RP:
I talk to them once a year right around Thanksgiving, and I haven’t really talked to them about him. I know his friend Meghan Darney was so honored to supply the picture. She took the picture of the inverted rifle. But I have to call them and find out what they think. A friend of ours left a CD on his grave.
NP:
And your former bass player, Frank Cavanagh, recently enlisted and is in Iraq right now. Did he share his reasons for enlisting with you?
RP:
He comes from a military background. His brother’s in the army, and his uncles were in the army, and his dad was in the army, and it’s like if you’re at war you join the army in some families. He was thirty-five and he said ‘I missed the cut-off age and I can never be in the army.’…And then they changed the cut-off age to thirty-seven, ‘cause they need more troops, and he went in...It’s a calling. It’s something that you do in certain families. He just wanted to see it for himself, and I’m dying to get back over there.
NP:
You played a benefit concert for the troops in Kuwait in March of this year just before Frank shipped off to Iraq in April. How was that?
RP:
Yes, I played the Operation MySpace concert with Disturbed, and DJ Z-Trip and Jessica Simpson, and it was amazing. It’s a twenty-seven hour flight and I’m sitting there and I’m in Business Class looking down…When you’re flying over the United States it’s just a grid of lights. Even the smaller cities are well lit. Everything looks like it’s really neat, clean and taken care of…When you fly over Iraq it’s just dismal. There’s one naked little light down there…
You land, and you’re looking around and there’s a row of thirty Black Hawk helicopters, and you’re like ‘wow, each one of those is worth forty million bucks.’ So you look at it and think that’s a whole town’s library – it’s a fleet of libraries…You look over and see a guard tower and you’re like wow, that’s a bridge in Minnesota. It’s astounding what we're wasting our money on there.
You land, and you’re looking around and there’s a row of thirty Black Hawk helicopters, and you’re like ‘wow, each one of those is worth forty million bucks.’ So you look at it and think that’s a whole town’s library – it’s a fleet of libraries…You look over and see a guard tower and you’re like wow, that’s a bridge in Minnesota. It’s astounding what we're wasting our money on there.
NP:
Obviously you now drive a hybrid car, but in 2002 your song “The Only Way (Is The Wrong Way)” was used to promote the then new H2 vehicle. If you knew then what you know now, would you still have allowed that to happen?
RP:
I probably would have allowed a lot more. I probably would have done that JC Penny commercial they asked me to do. Here’s why: The music industry is under attack by theft…In this day and age, you’ve got to do whatever you’ve got to do. Humvee, yes. Someone’s going to use a song. If he doesn’t use my song, he’s going to use someone else’s song. I want to put my kids through college. And the reality is, when people talk about selling out and stuff like that, it’s a whole different ball game when people are constantly ripping artists off –– constantly on the internet. The internet is a big, huge, evil thing. It’s got a lot of good, but it’s got a lot of bad…
People aren’t paying for music. So all this time, effort and money that we spent sitting in studios making music –– people aren’t paying for that. It's destroying the music industry. So when I saw Snoop Dogg selling Taco Bell I was like get it, ‘get in there and get you some money. Do what you gotta do.’ Our industry has been anally raped in the last eight years by technology and by people who just don’t get it. They’re like ‘Filter doesn’t need any money, I’m just going to download this off allmp3.com and get the thing for free.’ They just don’t care. They don’t know right from wrong anymore. So Humvee, that’s how I make my living… That’s how I’m going to put my kids through school.
People aren’t paying for music. So all this time, effort and money that we spent sitting in studios making music –– people aren’t paying for that. It's destroying the music industry. So when I saw Snoop Dogg selling Taco Bell I was like get it, ‘get in there and get you some money. Do what you gotta do.’ Our industry has been anally raped in the last eight years by technology and by people who just don’t get it. They’re like ‘Filter doesn’t need any money, I’m just going to download this off allmp3.com and get the thing for free.’ They just don’t care. They don’t know right from wrong anymore. So Humvee, that’s how I make my living… That’s how I’m going to put my kids through school.
NP:
Isn’t there some implied endorsement though? I guess that’s the other side of it, the responsibility and implied endorsement. Isn’t there a danger there?
RP:
I’m not sure what you’re asking.
NP:
When someone hears a band’s song promoting a product, there’s an implied endorsement of that product.
RP:
Yes. Or it’s just a song they use in the background. It’s not an endorsement. It’s just music. “Hey Man, Nice Shot” was in the Iron Man soundtrack. Do I endorse Iron Man the character? No. It’s just music in the background…
All that endorsement stuff, all that’s off the table. I mean I’ll endorse Barack Obama, and he could use my song, and stuff like that. I think I’d be bummed out if McCain used my song.
All that endorsement stuff, all that’s off the table. I mean I’ll endorse Barack Obama, and he could use my song, and stuff like that. I think I’d be bummed out if McCain used my song.
NP:
Would you sue like Jackson Browne?
RP:
All these old guys have tons of money, they made money back in the 70s, 80s and 90s, you know what I mean. It’s like rap artists. Rap artists get in there and they do everything. They sell their songs on the radio. They’ll sell their songs through beer commercials. They’ll put out a clothing line. They'll take their name and turn it into a brand, and divvy it up, and just make money. When a rock artist does it all of sudden it’s oh, he’s endorsing, he’s evil…
Yeah, Humvee baby, H2, it’s a well designed machine. Yes, it’s an SUV. It’s a car. It’s a product. Do I endorse that? No. What I endorse is ‘yes, you want some music, I’ll give you some music.’ I don’t sit around and hold up a sign outside of my house saying I want you to go buy an H3. It’s not the same. That’s making a living….It’s like a free bit of advertising for your band at this point in time. It’s like I saw a commercial, I heard this really cool song, I’m going to find that song. ‘Cause MTV’s not going to play your video.
Yeah, Humvee baby, H2, it’s a well designed machine. Yes, it’s an SUV. It’s a car. It’s a product. Do I endorse that? No. What I endorse is ‘yes, you want some music, I’ll give you some music.’ I don’t sit around and hold up a sign outside of my house saying I want you to go buy an H3. It’s not the same. That’s making a living….It’s like a free bit of advertising for your band at this point in time. It’s like I saw a commercial, I heard this really cool song, I’m going to find that song. ‘Cause MTV’s not going to play your video.
NP:
Commercials do work like radio these days. But you talk about branding and rap artists; I think it’s gone too far. It saddens me when you hear these guys aspiring to be a brand, because I think the artistry has to come first, and then if you can exploit it commercially that’s great.
RP:
Artistry does have to come first and you do have to be an artist at the same time, but the reality is everybody’s on this planet to make a living…Back in the day during the grunge era we could sit there and say no to a lot of things, but you can’t say no to those things anymore. You can’t call up Reebok and tell them ‘no, don’t use my song,’ because, literally, if you’re going to compete in a world with 900 channels on Direct TV. There’s room for 900 channels on Direct TV. Think of that. Think of the internet. You know it’s so funny because I keep doing these dot com magazines; I didn’t even know half of them existed. There are so many dot comes out there. There are so many places a person can go, you have to say yes to a beer commercial.
Think of my music being used for an alcohol ad. I mean I’m a recovering alcoholic, but in this day and age it’s like I can’t be pissed at Bud Light for being Bud Light just because I’m an alcoholic. People like to drink beer, and if they’re going to use my song and pay me a million dollars, then why not me as opposed to the other guy that doesn’t give a fuck. I get what you’re saying. It’s a bit of a double-edged sword, but at the same time, take a look what’s happening to the entertainment dollar.
Think of my music being used for an alcohol ad. I mean I’m a recovering alcoholic, but in this day and age it’s like I can’t be pissed at Bud Light for being Bud Light just because I’m an alcoholic. People like to drink beer, and if they’re going to use my song and pay me a million dollars, then why not me as opposed to the other guy that doesn’t give a fuck. I get what you’re saying. It’s a bit of a double-edged sword, but at the same time, take a look what’s happening to the entertainment dollar.
NP:
It’s also a question of value. I mean people will think nothing of dropping twenty bucks on a meal out which takes fifteen minutes to prepare, but they won’t pay twenty bucks for an album that maybe took two years to prepare.
RP:
Exactly. Exactly. That’s my point. People are literally like, how can I get this for free on the internet…This is the Wild West at this point in time. I’ve sold fifty thousand records this time, and because I’m independent, I’m actually doing better than when I was signed to a major. It’s like you’re living in opposite land. I’m actually going to see more money from my independent record that sold fifty thousand copies, than my zillion selling major label record. My video cost less than twenty thousand dollars to make –– for “Soldiers of Misfortune.” My last video cost four hundred thousand dollars at a major.
NP:
Ouch. Imagine recouping that.
RP:
I’m probably not going to go gold on Anthems, but I’m going to make more money on Anthems. So, everything’s off the table. It’s a whole new world.
NP:
The upside of the internet is that it takes the record labels out of the picture, and you now have a direct relationship with your fans.
RP:
Yes. If I want to get online and tell three hundred thousand people that have signed up to a mailing list or whatever on OfficialFilter.com, I can do that. I guess to go back to that earlier statement when we were kind of talking about the SUV, it is a fine line, you do have to be careful as far as licensing your songs. But at the same time everybody’s got to put their kids through school, and you just hope that you pick the right things to be a part of. Believe it or not, the H3 ads were award winning. That particular advertising campaign was pretty cool looking. It was pretty slick. Would I sell my song for a tampon commercial? I probably wouldn’t. So it is a double-edged sword, and you do have to be careful, but you just have to hope that you make the right decision, and that your fans can deal witt those decisions. That’s my statement on that.
Filter kick-off a seven date mini tour in Reno, NV on September 17. Click HERE for more info.
Filter kick-off a seven date mini tour in Reno, NV on September 17. Click HERE for more info.
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