Culture
Filter’s Richard Patrick talks technology, U2 and the band’s next chapter
By: Bradley Cunningham
Posted on:
LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (WOUB) – Richard Patrick has been making music long enough to remember when a one-gigabyte hard drive cost $4,000, but he’s hardly stuck in the past.
Patrick is the founder and frontman of Filter, the alternative rock and industrial band that broke through in the 1990s with songs including “Hey Man Nice Shot” and “Take a Picture.” More than three decades after Filter formed, Patrick continues to make new music while branching into film scoring and other projects.
WOUB Culture correspondent Bradley Cunningham caught up with Patrick at Louder Than Life 2026. The four-day festival brought more than 200 rock and metal acts to the Kentucky Exposition Center Sept. 17-20, with Filter joining a lineup that ranged from major headliners to veteran and emerging acts. Their conversation moved from the evolution of music production to film scoring, U2, new technology, and the projects Patrick is still building decades into his career.
Bradley Cunningham: How was your set?
Richard Patrick: It was hot. I always have to hydrate, and I always have to breathe a lot. I take a lot of deep breaths during the set, but, you know, I wouldn’t have it any way.
Cunningham: So, you came from a different era of music production, and I’ve always wondered how that changed in today’s musical climate. What does your creative process look like? How did that evolve?
Patrick: Believe it or not, in 1994, when we were recording Short Bus, we had an Apple computer, a Mac, and we had used Pro Tools for the first time. We bought a massive one-gigabyte hard drive for $4,000—a huge box for just one gigabyte. What could you even do with that? Still, we’ve been recording at home on laptops since then, and the process really hasn’t changed much. I would never consider using AI or any of that, so I don’t know anything about that world. But I love music production. I’ve had a lot of fun working on the last few Filter records. It’s been primarily me with my computer.
Cunningham: I think AI should fear you because you’re doing a lot more creative work with a lot less water. Where do you start with a song? Is there a mood? Is there a melody, a texture?
Patrick: It’s usually a guitar part or a bass line. For “Hey Man Nice Shot,” I played the chorus riff and figured that out. Then, like a week later, I recorded the bass. I remember thinking to myself, does this sound too much like The Chameleons? That was what I was worried about because they used a lot of half-step stuff. It’s the weird things like that that drift through your mind when you’re recording.
Cunningham: How different is your process for film compositions to Filter, and how did that expand your horizon?
Patrick: Writing for Filter is completely my world. I’m doing it for me. I’m doing it for my bandmates. I’m doing it for my fans. When you do stuff for film and TV, it’s ‘What is the story of our film?’ For instance, I did a movie called Last Rampage with my brother in it. My brother Robert Patrick. And it was all about how to communicate the story of a murderer, this murderous, crazy man. But still have sympathy for the victims and stuff like that. You have to adapt yourself to what the movie is about. You work solely for the director and the producers and anyone who has a note on the music. You are literally adhering to what the plan is in the script.
Cunningham: So the mood and the story are established, you’re working backward.
Patrick: I work backward on that. I go out of my way to make sure I know what the story is about and what we’re dealing with. For instance, I just did a documentary, it’s called 4000 Days. The key was bringing the right mood to this documentary, which is about hazing rituals—drawing attention to the accidents these kids have while staying sympathetic to the parents. You’ve got to bring your A game because you can’t represent exactly what’s happening in the film. It has to be perfect.
Cunningham: And you mentioned your brother. He’s in Peacemaker, the show. Have there been any talks with James Gunn about possibly doing something with that?
Patrick: I don’t know. He loves James Gunn. He’s a fan. That would be amazing. He’s an amazing director, and everybody wants to work with him right now.
Cunningham: In 2025, you released the ultra-edition of The Algorithm, and there were two cover songs I have to ask about. One’s a U2 song, and one is a Billie Eilish song. Two very different artists. What was that like?
Patrick: For Billie Eilish, it was a trailerized version of her song “Bad Guy.” I just thought it was really interesting that I would sing it totally differently, like from her perspective, but from an older man, you know? I made sure my voice was really gravelly. The U2 cover was absolutely 1,000 percent a tribute to U2. I didn’t mess with the arrangement. I sang it as close to Bono’s vocals as I could. I changed only one note. But I tried to be as faithful to the original as possible. I programmed the drums, but I tried to do what Larry Mullen did as a drummer, and I played Adam Clayton’s bassline. It was literally an exercise for me to learn my computer. I just bought this computer, and I was going into Logic for the first time. I thought, ‘well, I’ll just do the U2 song,’ you know? It was a love letter to U2 because I’m such a huge fan. Lo and behold, they played it on SiriusXM, which means they might have actually heard it.
Cunningham: What does the future look like? What’s on the horizon? You mentioned a documentary.
Patrick: I’ve got another documentary called Trip of a Lifetime. Yeah, that’s going to be coming out soon. I’m working on a brand-new Filter record called The Antidote, and it will come out in the first quarter of next year, in 2027. I’ve got a side project called [A Place to Kill]. It’s on Spotify. It’s industrial. It’s a tribute to all my favorite industrial bands. Bands like Skinny Puppy, Ministry. It’s with Jim Lavoe, who’s an amazing singer from There is No Us. It’s my new baby.