FILTER Frontman: 'Fans Don't Really Want To Pay For Music'

FILTER frontman Richard Patrick tells Michael Christopher of DelcoTimes.com in a new interview that his band is about as independent as a group can get these days, despite the amount of success it's had in the past. Patrick likens it to being "the big underground band that's always been the big underground phenomenon." He is now signed through the owner of his label Pulse, producer Josh Abraham. It's a creative way to circumvent the current upheaval in the music industry.

"Fans don't really want to pay for music, and we're trying to adjust to zero record budgets," he says. "I think we're all trying to figure out a way to get the exposure that we need, and so some of us are just going and doing big huge cockamamie stunts to get press."

Patrick makes it clear he's not talking about the band where he once played guitar, NINE INCH NAILS, which recently made its new album available completely free via download.

"I'm not saying Trent did that, I'm not saying RADIOHEAD did that," he said. "The majority of my money comes from the fact that I've written some hits and those get played on the radio all the time. Everything else is apparently for free."

Comparing the way music is now to a newspaper box, Patrick says that most people put their coins in and take one newspaper, even though they could just as easily grab the whole stack.

"But nine times out of 10, with music, kids don't feel like they should have to pay for anything," he said. "You release a CD, and some kid takes it and rips it into his computer and then makes a hundred copies or digital copies for his friends. If you had a food replicator, as opposed to the CD burner, and you hit the button that would make you a Big Mac, McDonald's would go out of business, correct? So what's the difference between that and music?"

Patrick isn't someone out of touch with the change that's underway, but he's clearly frustrated that so many acts with potential may lose the chance for any sort of musical future if they don't have a hit out of the gate.

"Bruce Springsteen's first two records didn't do anything, but the record company believed in him, and they had tons of money back then," Patrick said. He would never make it now, because his first single wasn't huge."

"But those record companies are gone, and it's all because of downloading and file sharing that's the result," he continued. "And I hate to sound like the crotchety old man, but I was there. I was in the '90s. They gave me a ton of money and said, 'Go off and be your artist self.' And I said, 'I want to make a rock record with a drum machine.' And they said, 'Great; absolutely you're a nut! Here's a case of beer, go do it.' You're never going to have that anymore."

Red the entire interview at DelcoTimes.com.