Despite the aggressive nature of most of Filter‘s music, there has always been an underlying sense of sarcasm to albums such as Short Bus and Title of Record. (Now that I think about, those album titles alone are somewhat subversively funny.) But following the hit ballad “Take a Picture” and the politically-charged tribute to the troops that was Anthems for the Damned, the common perception has been that Filter is a rather serious band. And who could argue, considering the band’s first big hit “Hey Man Nice Shot” was an abrasively catchy song about a politician who shot himself during a televised press conference. So when I sat down to interview Filter front man Richard Patrick before a recent Summerland Tour stop, I didn’t expect him to begin the conversation by making poop jokes and jovially berating a member of his crew over walkie talkie.

“That’s the way I talk to my motherfuckin’ crew. I treat ’em like shit,” says Patrick, before grinning a little to let on that he’s joking. “I have a whole thing of comedy I believe in. I believe everybody should just not take anything fucking seriously. I just want to enjoy things.”

On the band’s latest album The Sun Comes Out Tonight, it definitely sounds like Patrick is enjoying playing electronically-tinged metal anthems like “We Hate It When You Get What You Wanted,” “Self Inflicted” and “What Do You Say,” as well as more melodic offerings such as “Surprise,” “First You Break It” and “It’s Just You”. To say The Sun Comes Out Tonight is a return to form would be a clichéd misnomer, yet there’s no mistaking these songs (be they heavy rockers or piano ballads) as being Filter. That being said, here’s the part where Wrestling with Pop Culture talks to Patrick about his latest Filter collaborator Jonathan Radtke, the Summerland Tour and his other musical endeavors.

This new album of yours, it sounds very Filter-esque.

That’s good because we are Filter.

Well, I figured that was the sound you were going for. Having been a Filter fan since the first album, it’s been interesting to hear the way things have progressed from album to album. What are your thoughts on the new album?

The new one is the shit. We did it in three or four months starting in September of last year. We had a few songs we had written, but we went in and got a lion’s share of the work done before Christmas, then worked for a month after that. It wrote itself. Jonny Radtke is an amazing guitar player and musical mind. He grew up listening to all the bands I was in – Nine Inch Nails, Filter – then ended up doing a band called Kill Hannah. Then he was in a band with Billy Howerdel [Ashes Divide], so when he had the opportunity he went on tour with us and it was really just amazing to see him understand where we were coming from. So he came in and contributed to this record and I think it shows a whole new era of Filter. There are three hits off of this record that are heavy, then there are a couple of hits off of this record that are like “Take a Picture”. Then there’s this whole world in between and everything is really top notch. I think it’s the best Filter record we’ve ever done, and I mean that. I literally think it’s better than anything we’ve done. I’m really happy. We’re signed to Wind-up [Records]  and that was a big change because we did the independent thing with Anthems. Unfortunately you need the infrastructure of a big label. Actually, that is fortunate. On the independent route it was kind of a bummer learning it the hard way. But I like what Wind-up has to say. They set up these records really great, so it’s been very exciting. We’ve got a video that’s just a short film to the song – it’s daring and says a lot about our culture. It feels like it’s going to be a great year. This tour is awesome, we’re playing in front of a ton of people that want to see us.

The Summerland Tour is a somewhat odd mix of bands that were all popular at the same time, but don’t have much else in common.

Yeah. Well, the funny thing is we toured with Everclear back in ’95 when Short Bus came out. It’s kind of cool to be on a tour with all the friends you’ve known for a long time. It reminds me of Lollapalooza. When I was on the Lollapalooza tour it was extremely diverse. It was the alternative tour, so you had every band from different formats. Art [Alexakis] told us to play the hits, but it’s funny because we’re playing a song that’s currently charting. It feels good to be of the two decades.

You mentioned your new guitar player a moment ago. How did he get involved and what role did he play in the recording of the new album?

We had a guitar player named Rob Patterson who, let’s just say he needed to take a break. Then Jonny came over and auditioned and was like, “Which song do you want me to do? I know them all.” It was just instantly amazing and the next thing I know we were on tour and I was like, “Let’s write something.” We started writing something and I was like, “He’s got a lot of talent.” I’ve always wanted to have a partner. I was kind of close with Geno [Lenardo]. The first album was me: I was the guitar player and Brian [Liesegang] was the programmer. I wrote all the parts and he helped me lay sound design overdubs and stuff. And on Title of Record I was kind of working with Geno. Anthems was a variety of people: I worked with John 5, Wes Borland and others. But this was a scenario of let’s literally sit together being fans of Pantera, Ministry and Skinny Puppy and write something together. And it blended perfectly. Plus, his favorite song on the record is “Surprise,” which is like “Take a Picture” part two.

You’ve mentioned that the new album features a few “Take a Picture”-like songs. When that song became such a hit, did you feel an obligation to have an acoustic song on each album or anything like that?

No. Now I do. I was really in a “Fuck it. I’m doing whatever I want. Try and keep up with me.” phase. Because I broke the doors down on both levels – I had a huge hit with “Hey Man” that’s really heavy and dark and inspired by R. Budd Dwyer shooting himself, then there’s this whole thing with “Take a Picture” where people didn’t even realize it was the same band. Seeing as I kind of established us as being somewhat bipolar, I just have stuck within those two worlds because you can’t get any further outside of the lines than that. So by not just cashing in and going, “OK, everybody grow your hair long and let’s be heavy metal” and conforming to that kind of identity, I was from the alternative movement and I really wanted to press the boundaries. And I really wanted to do something that was truly beautiful to listen to. Now I feel like I have to live up to the standards of Short Bus and Title of Record and a little bit of The Amalgamut, except I didn’t want it to be so drunk. Amalgamut was a very drunk record, Anthems should have just been called The Tribute Record for the Soldiers, then The Trouble with Angels is kind of getting back into the sound of Short Bus and Title. This record is just completely going back to the original sound and enjoying it. Not finishing what we started, but adding to it.

Outside of Filter, you’ve been involved with a few other musical projects in recent years. The most notable of those was Army of Anyone with Dean and Robert DeLeo from Stone Temple Pilots. What did you think when you heard the recent announcement that Chester Bennington would be STP’s new front man?

It seems like Chester Bennington’s always a couple of years behind me.

I’ve never thought about that, but it sounds pretty accurate. When you worked with the DeLeo brothers, it wasn’t billed as Stone Temple Pilots with Richard Patrick from Filter.

Yeah. I didn’t want to try and sound like Scott [Weiland]. To me, Chester kind of sounds a little bit like Scott, but then he’s got the big Army of Anyone long scream notes that I was doing with “Goodbye” or “Generation”. So it seems like he’s kind of copping a little bit of Army of Anyone/STP, but still kind of being himself. But I’m happy for them. I think it’s a great idea. Bless their hearts trying to constantly depend on this guy to just show up and sing a fucking concert! It really defies logic at this point how there’s this whole amazing bunch of music and songs and entertainment that could be provided worldwide by Stone Temple Pilots and they can’t get [Scott Weiland] to show up to a gig. It’s sad. I’m a recovering drug addict, so I know what’s up. So for them to get Chester involved and have someone just get in there and get the job done and tour with them is a great thing for all of them. It’s like Chester’s side project, and they have a chance to really just live their lives as a touring band that really just wants to go play concerts. Robert and Dean are amazing professionals and I feel sad for them. We played a show with them in New Jersey and Scott was an hour and a half late. The whole crowd was sitting there, everybody was waiting and Robert and Dean are just like, “These are our fans and we’re waiting for our lead singer to wake up from his afternoon party.” It sucks having to watch them deal with this stuff. More power to them. Good luck with Chester. I think it’s great. Have fun in Japan and Australia and see the world why you can.

Speaking of tours, what does Filter have lined up after the Summerland Tour ends?

We’re going to Europe to play some festivals in later summer. We’re starting to go through offers right now to figure out what we’re doing in the fall.

Your former guitarist Geno recently contributed to David Draiman’s new industrial project Device. Any chance you might tour with them?

Yeah. I think it’s a great album. That might be cool, yeah. Geno’s actually not in the band. He co-wrote and produced the record, but he doesn’t tour with them.

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