Filter Have ‘The Algorithm’ And Are Touring Australia This April

Platinum-selling alternative-industrial rockers FILTER are touring Australia this April as part of The Algorithm World Tour. The Australian tour, starting in April 2024, follows a six-month-long trek that crisscrossed the United States and Canada, and then is scheduled to go across the pond in March 2024 and hit such countries as The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, the Czech Republic, Austria, Poland, and the U.K.

Last year marked the thirtieth anniversary of the band’s birth. In 1993, founder and lead vocalist Richard Patrick placed an ad in Scene Magazine in Cleveland, OH, shortly after leaving Nine Inch Nails as their touring guitarist, looking to form a band that would eventually evolve into Filter. Patrick has spent three decades pushing the boundaries of musical expression. Filter’s debut album, Short Bus, achieved platinum status, propelled by Hey Man Nice Shot. The success continued with Title of Record, also going platinum thanks to crossover hit Take A Picture.

In 2023 year Patrick unleashed the new Filter album The Algorithm, which has delivered a sonic revolution for fans worldwide and has been called the band’s “best record in 20 years.” Richard Patrick talks to Hi Fi Way about the upcoming Australian tour.

It’s so good that Filter are coming back to Australia, are you looking forward to this tour?
I love Adelaide, It’s a very beautiful place. It’s been ten years since, which is insane to me. I can’t believe it’s been so long. I’ve changed. I’m grey and I’m a little heavier and older, but my voice is fucking feeling great. So that’s all that matters.

Do you feel like you are catching up for lost time?
Yeah, it’s been a while since we’ve been to Australia. I’m really looking forward to it. I know the shows are selling really well and we’re going to bring our best. We’re going to bring our A-game. We’re coming straight in from Europe. Europe’s always amazing, so we’re looking forward to continuously kicking arse and bringing our best.

What is it that you miss about touring Australia?
It’s the people. It’s the audience. The audience is amazing. Australian audiences are amazing, they’re great people, they do the homework, they know the music. We’ve given them a brand new record called The Algorithm. We’re going to be playing a lot of songs from that because the record is highly acclaimed and I’m super proud of it. I’m looking forward to playing all the hits. I love performing and I want to make sure I do it right. The last time I was really touring Australia on my own was 2000, I was drunk and I had problems with drugs and alcohol, and some of the shows were a little sloppy. This time I’m going to bring it and bring my A-game and know that I did my best.

Has the fan reaction exceeded to The Algorithm exceeded your expectations?
Yeah, it’s highly acclaimed. It’s crazy. We haven’t gotten one bad review and I have Google Alert, you know what I mean? I know what people are saying about the record and people love it. I’m stoked and I think it’s the best thing since The Amalgamut and Title Of Record.

Was it the most challenging album that you’ve made?
Nah, it was easy. It was challenging because it was done in between movie scores and I love doing movie scores. That’s why it took six years, seven years but I enjoyed it. I built myself a new studio and I run it, I’m an engineer and I learned the computer and I did it all by myself, like I used to do in the basement when I was working on Short Bus. I got too reliant on producers to do things for me. They made records that were great, but they were just different sounding than my original, what I call the original Reprise Records albums. This was a joy to make.

As these songs were starting to take shape, did you have that vibe that this is a special group of songs that you had for this album?
In my heart I loved it. I was like, I hope that’s enough. I hope that that my standards are still really high and that it makes sense to the audience, and sure enough, it made sense to the audience. So, I feel really blessed that I still have my my finger on the pulse of what’s cool.

Do you get sort of frustrated with the way that technology is heading and the use of AI?
I go off on my instincts and I just want to feel good when I hear something. I want stuff that makes me happy. I try and not anticipate what the audience needs, you know what I mean? Because I really don’t know what they need, so I better make sure that my music is making me happy. Like Bono once said, you got to blow your own mind. You have to make a song that blows your own mind. If you’re not doing that, then what are you doing? You’re just kind of servicing a record, industry kind of thing. You’re not really putting your heart into it. I just put my heart into it and I hope that everybody would like it, and sure enough they did, and that means that things are working out and I can keep going. That’s all that means.

When you say about blowing your own mind, when you put the headphones on and you listened to the album like a fan would did you get that reaction?
Yeah, I was on tour when it came out and I was wondering what it sounded like on Apple Music. When no one was looking, I went to the bus and put it into the sound system on the bus, which was terrible. We had a really bad bus this year, and I went in there and cranked it up and was like patting myself on the back. Like, this is fucking good! This is good music. You did a good job! I’m the worst critic of myself, like this part sucks. I wish I did a better job here, I didn’t have that feeling on this. I’m proud of everything we did.

Interview By Rob Lyon

Catch Filter on the following dates, tickets from Metropolis Touring…