Yes, it’s another feature on Filter! Why? Because we love ’em and their latest, The Sun Comes Out Tonight, is easily a contender for hard rock album of the year. The band is currently on tour as part of Art Alexakis’ Summerland tour and have just launched an Indiegogo campaign to fund their upcoming world tour. At their recent stop in Boston, frontman Richard Patrick and guitarist Jonny Radtke took some time to chat about all of that and explain that, according to Patrick: “Summerland is about bashing the fuck out of you for 30 minutes and then leaving” with Radtke adding there will be “Something for old fans, something for new, and everyone enjoys it.”. Read on for more:
What was the appeal of using Indiegogo for your recently announced crowd funding campaign and what is the appeal of sites like Indiegogo, Pledgemusic, Kickstarter, etc for an artist?
RP: What is the appeal? Well, shit, you ask people to get involved and buy the record or buy a t-shirt and they help the band get to whatever country the band is trying to get to. Our main thing with getting to South America or South Africa is that plane flights are so totally expensive and we haven’t been in a long time so it’s just a great way to get the audience a part of [the experience]. You know, there’s a lot of people that are like: “Wow, isn’t the band big enough…blah, blah, blah…” and it’s like most bands get tour support but when people aren’t paying for anything and they’re just downloading music for free then you’ve gotta figure out another way. I don’t feel like putting up my house to fucking play five shows in Australia. I mean, we don’t get paid enough to play five shows to cover the expenses and that’s just the way it is so it’s a way for audiences and real fans to just get involved. If we have 130,000 Facebook fans and we have a ton of people visiting our website and someone dumps three or four or ten bucks and gets the CD it just absolutely helps us get down there plus they also get really cool shit!
Of the rewards being offered, is there one you’re most looking forward to sharing with fans?
Well, I love coffee so I’m looking forward to the coffee ones.
Getting to the Summerland tour, how has the overall response been to such a diverse line-up of established bands so far?
It’s amazing! The main function of this entire year is to remind everybody what we’re all about and kind of refresh everybody’s memory. When you get on this tour, a lot of people are like “Oh, I finally get to see Filter!” They see 30 minutes and are, like, “Fuck! Keep playing!” and we’re like “No! Come back! (for our own headlining set in a couple months)!” It whets the whistle of the audience and really, it’s a great time for us because when you only play for 30 minutes you can just rip your voice up. If I were doing two hour shows every night, it would be one thing and I’d be pretty conservative but it’s fun just rippin’ it out and I think we should support for awhile. I think we should support bigger tours.
Is there a favorite of the new songs to play live and are you pulling out any surprises on this tour?
JR: We’re obviously playing the single, “What Do You Say”.
RP: We’ve got two brand new songs that we’re playing for the first time ever. They’re off the new record. No one’s ever heard ’em played live and eventually we’re gonna start adding some other stuff later in the tour. “What Do You Say” kicked ass tremendously last night!
JR: “We Hate It When You Get What You Want” is another one that goes over really well.
RP: It’s pretty cool. We’re up there like “This is the new shit!” and they’re like “And we like the new shit!” so we’re excited.
I had the opportunity to speak with Ogre of Skinny Puppy and with new albums from them, you, Front Line Assembly, and upcoming records coming from NIN and Ministry, I was curious what you felt about the state of industrial music in 2013?
I think it’s alive and well! Look at that! I don’t know if we’re totally an industrial band but I came from industrial…I was just listening to Skinny Puppy before you came in and they’re probably one of my all time most favorite bands just because of the artistic originality that they created. I mean without Skinny Puppy and Ministry I don’t think Trent and I would’ve been as effective by taking synthesizers and drum machines and not being happy and peppy. We kinda got dark on it especially on Broken where it was like: “Dude! Come the fuck on! Let’s make fuckin’ heavy shit!”
Have you heard of Primitive Race (Featuring Chris Kniker, Raymond Watts, Chris Vrenna, Graham Crabb of Pop Will Eat Itself to name a few) and are you a conspirator?
RP: No.
JR: We do keep in touch with Vrenna, though. That’s interesting!
RP: I like Chris. Chris is good people.
JR: That’s awesome! Pop Will Eat Itself? I was just listening to Dos Dedos Mis Amigos!
Why should fans pick up The Sun Comes Out Tonight and catch you on Summerland?
RP: ‘Cuz it’s a fucking great record!
JR: We’re really proud of it and what we did.
RP: I mean if anybody liked Title Of Record or Short Bus or Amalgamut then this is the return of that sound but it’s also of this millennium. To me, it’s the rock record that is missing out there. I just don’t know what’s going on with rock! There’s a lot of great shit but it all came from the ’90s. Deftones, Alice In Chains, Soundgarden…I don’t wanna make fun of anyone who’s new or anything but [The Sun Comes Out Tonight] is heavy and melodic without sounding like all these other storyteller country rock artists.
The Sun Comes Out Tonight is available everywhere now! Check out Filter’s Indiegogo campaign here and go here to find out where you can catch the band on the road.