Live-Metal.Net - Interviews: Army of Anyone

After a decade of running the show in Filter, Richard Patrick was ready for a change. Enter bassist Robert DeLeo and guitarist Dean DeLeo, the brothers who were the musical machine behind Stone Temple Pilots, and veteran drummer Ray Luzier. A singer rather than a one-man band for the first time, Patrick is reveling in his first true musical collaboration, a partnership that has produced an album with four equal parts, an experience that grows richer with each listen. As Army of Anyone prepared for the launch of its first large-scale tour, Patrick checked in with Greg Maki of Live-Metal.net to discuss the band’s formation, the origin of its name, an innovative new record distribution strategy and more.

Live-Metal: I know you first started writing with Robert and Dean DeLeo for a new Filter album. How did it go from that to, “Let’s start a new band”?

Richard Patrick: I was at a crossroads in my life. I had made three records. I enjoyed it, but I felt like it was time for a change. They were chomping a bit, I think, to work with someone new, as well. They’ve got a lot more music left in them. I think they recognized that and I think that they wanted to work with someone that was different. I’m a tenor. They haven’t really worked with a tenor before. It all just kind of gelled from there. When we got together, it was just so wonderful to just sit down and just write with new people and work with such accomplished musicians. They’re really great musicians. It was a breath of fresh air. It was kind of like what music should be all about, you know? Four guys get into a room and they see what happens, and it just so happens that we really liked the outcome and it’s a band that got together for all the right reasons. It was based on that. It’s based on music. It’s not based on current trends or it wasn’t put together on TV.

When you’re in a band and you get to a certain level, you meet each other at, like, radio festivals. We had become fans, obviously, of each other’s. I’m a big STP fan and they were down with Filter, they loved Filter. And once you get done, they’re like, “Wow, you really did great.” And then you start talking and there’s a lot of similarities in your life and then you become friends.

How was the transition for you going from a band where it’s your baby and you’re the boss to collaborating with other accomplished musicians and songwriters?

Well, having had so much success on my own and everything and just kind of realizing that that was, like, satisfied for a while—do you know what I mean? Like, I’m musically satisfied with the stuff I do. I love the stuff that I’ve done in the past, but I needed something else to kind of experiment with and when you get together with guys that really have a different flavor on things—you know, I would go into the studio as one man and manufacture records by myself. Especially this last one was going to be kind of like Short Bus, with just drum machine and guitar, bass, vocal and programming. And that was what this last Filter record was gonna be. Having written, like, 30 songs and kind of experimented on that level for so long—’cause I literally worked on it for about a year—and then when I got together with Rob and Dean, it was just kind of like, “Wow, you mean I can just kind of lay off and just kind of go, ‘Hey, you got a melody in mind?’” I could turn to my bandmates, which is something I always wanted to do. I always wanted to be able to just kind of turn to my bandmates and go, “What do you got? What lyrics do you hear me singing?” Which is a breath of fresh air for someone who was completely kind of like on point the whole time for the last 10 years.

Ray Luzier is one of these guys that plays all over the place. He was a hired gun for a long time. He played with David Lee Roth. He is a fantastic drummer and he was playing a million gigs a week back when we met him. He was playing at the NAMM show when they met. I met him at a Deftones concert. They met him at the NAMM convention and they were blown away by his ability to just kind of do anything. We had an audition for him and he came in and we jammed for, like, eight hours. He didn’t even break a sweat. He’s a very, very healthy cat, which is another huge thing for us. The other big, important thing for the four of us is that everybody is in a point in their lives where they’re here to work, not fuck around after the show, party and all that bullshit. That’s done for us. It’s about the music and he was there. He’s always been like that. He just wants to make great music. So he was always looking for a band. He was always looking for a four-legged table, I think. And we were looking for him and we found each other, and the rest is history.

His performance on the album is amazing. Whose idea was the solo that he does at the end of “Goodbye”?

I think that was Robert. He was like, “Do some shit, man.” It was just one of those moments where he was like, “Just do some fuckin’ cool shit at the end of that.” Again, during the audition and everything, Ray kind of ran the show. We let him just kind of do his thing. It’s like how many people are playing guitar solos these days? And if they are, it’s like these weird, extremely white eighth-note alterno band ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding, ding-ding, ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding. It’s like everybody’s ripping off The Chameleons-type guitar solo. You know, you turn on the radio and you hear this ding-ding, ding-ding-ding. It’s like this really stiff eighth note. So when you’ve got a guitar player like Dean, you just encourage him to just play the full-blown solos over everything. It’s just like, “Dude, do it.” And so that’s kind of the philosophy of the band. It’s just like, look, if it musically makes sense, it’s fair game. When you’ve got a drummer and you want to climax a song and the drummer can climax a song and be his own musical part, let him do it. No one else is doing it. You know, that’s the thing. It’s like no one really knows how to solo anymore, apparently. There’s some people that do, but Dean is one of these guys, it’s like you’re listening to someone like David Gilmour or someone like Jimmy Page. It’s like, man, no one’s doing it. So we really encourage that kind of stuff.

How does the past success of the members of the band affect you? Is there more pressure, less pressure?

The thing is ever since I started Filter I felt like I had to kind of prove myself, having left other big bands. I don’t know. I let the success of the band speak for itself. You can get caught up in what he said or what happened or who did this, but if you take a look at our web site or our message board or our fans, no one fuckin’ makes the comparisons, no one cares. If they do, they’re kind of like, “I don’t really want to say this, but blah blah blah blah blah.” Our fans are about the music and they’re about what we do as musicians. Our fans have more in common with Radiohead and U2 than they do stuff that would be more high school—I can’t really name names, but stuff that’s like, “Hey, dude, that fuckin’ guitar player rules!” Do you know what I mean? That mentality. It’s more like people are just digging the music because it’s real.

Army of Anyone was at the tail end of about an eight-month process to find a name. It was the hardest thing that I’ve ever done in my life. It was harder than quitting drinking. Because this was the introduction to you’re in a band with three other dudes. But then it became this mission to satisfy everybody with the name. The managers didn’t care, they’re like, “It’s totally up to you. Do what you want.” But you’d listen to their opinion anyway. It was kind of one of those things where everybody had a say. You’d say a potential name of the band and it was shot down in five seconds. So finally, I started getting to a point where it’s like—see, I knew that if you’re gonna name a band, you can’t just throw something out like, “Hey, Filter” and it’s done. All those names are taken. All the one-word names are gone. So it was like you almost needed a big sentence, but it had to kind of represent who we were, and what this band about is a unification. We want to bring people together. We want to be inclusive. So we said Unify and that didn’t work. And then we were talking about Anyone and that was taken by Taylor Hawkins, the drummer from the Foo Fighters. And we were like, “Shit!” Every name we wanted was taken. And finally, I was on the phone with Ray Luzier and [producer] Bob Ezrin had sent over a list of names he’d thought and somewhere it was Army of Ants. I was on the phone with Ray Luzier, my drummer, and I was like, “I don’t know, Army of Ants? What do you think about that?” And I was like, “It sucks that Anyone’s taken.” And then my wife, actually, goes, “Army of Anyone!” And I went, “Dude, Army of Anyone!” And Ray Luzier goes, “Oh my god, that’s fuckin’ great.” ’Cause listen to the way it rolls off your tongue, Army of Anyone. I said it to some friends of mine. I was over at Joaquin’s house or something and he was like, “Yeah, Army of Anyone, I like that.” It was cool. A lot of people, like my brother heard it, people that I trusted. And then it was the hard duty of bringing it to the band. See—I’m spending way too much time on this—when I brought the name to the band, I didn’t just bring a name and like, “Well, what do you think of that?” I brought it with a presentation. I had the dot com, I had the dot net, I had the dot org, I had everything all set up, I had already put it in different fonts. I only had four names. Other guys in the band had, like, hundreds of names. But it was cool. We ended up with Army of Anyone. We’re proud of it. It represents who we are and it represents what we’re about. But it was tough. I was talking to some other friends who were like, “The hardest thing we’ve ever done is pick our name.”

Bob is the kind of guy where he comes in and he’s like, “You know, listen. I want you to explore every avenue on all these songs.” So as opposed to crossing the street and taking the path of least resistance, Bob’s like, “Well, I want you to go around the world to cross the street. I want you to go through the desert, I want you to end up in New York City, I want you to take a boat to London, I want you to get off the boat in London and then you to go to Japan and then you go to Hawaii and then you go to California and then—boom—you’ll be across the street.” It was like that. He really, really, really made us question our stuff. As far as vocals, he helped me with that in the sense that lyrically he kind of made sure that I was on point the whole time. That was a big deal for me. He would challenge you, but then he’d be like, “If you believe in what you’ve got, stay with it.” So I ended up using a lot of my original vocal tracks from the demo ’cause I’m an avid believer of location recording and spontaneity and kind of going in and writing the vocals and recording them, everything all at the same time, kind of like the way Bono did Unforgettable Fire or a lot of records have been done like that.

So did you ever sit down and kind of pick his brain for stories about working with KISS and Pink Floyd?

Yeah, he told some funny stories about KISS, he told some funny stories about Pink Floyd. It was interesting. He was on the phone with The Edge coming up with that Music Rising program that The Edge and him came up with. So that was interesting, kind of like a fly on the wall in his life. He’s an activist. He’s all sorts of stuff. He’s really cool.

What made you decide to go the route that you did in releasing the album, going through the management [The Firm] instead of a traditional record label?

Well, let’s face it: the record industry—the record industry—is in absolute shambles. We actually noticed that all the record executives were making all the money and the bands weren’t getting any of it, and if you were a band you got one shot and if you didn’t make it, you’re just gone. I’ll give you an example: U2. Boy came out. Didn’t do so well. October came out a couple years later. Didn’t do so well. War came out. They had a video on MTV, “Two Hearts Beat As One” and “New Year’s Day.” The main thing that helped them was their live video Under a Blood Red Sky. That’s a pretty fuckin’ big, long artist development right there. You’re not gonna see that ever again the way the music industry is running itself right now. Bruce Springsteen. First record, I don’t even remember the name. Second record is called Greetings from Asbury Park. Third record, Born to Run. It’s his big record that made it. It’s probably one of the greatest records ever made. But it took two records. He sat in that studio for a year and a half and worked on Born to Run. In this day and age, you gotta be fuckin’ kidding me. That would never happen. We recorded our record in six weeks. We recorded everything in six weeks and we still burnt through a lot of money.

The reality is, what I’m trying to say is, because of the Internet, because of their inability to kind of see the Internet and understand it, and the fact that people just don’t view downloading as a crime or file sharing as a crime, you’re left with an industry that’s in absolute shambles and it has to make serious adjustments. Now, people on the front lines like Jeff Kwatinetz, Peter Katsis, Marc Pollack and Michael Papale [all of The Firm]—all those folks know that if the record companies had a piece of everything, if we just use this thing as almost like it’s an advertisement—the CDs are if you can sell ’em, great, but if we can just get the word out on the band, eventually you’ll make money from all the other different areas. So you make a deal with your manager and say, hey, we need a new business mold. Obviously, major record companies, the executives are the ones who make all the money. All of those guys make the money, not the little A&R guy. Those people are all being fired. So who runs the record industry? It’s like three dudes now. It’s like three guys who have Green Day, who have U2 and they’ve got Madonna. So everybody who’s massive is staying massive, but everybody who is fighting is way down here at the bottom. It just makes it kind of crazy. So we got together with our managers and decided let’s put out the CD, let’s make a deal with EMI, let’s make a deal with all these people and put it out ourselves. This way, we actually make half of what we—the other way you make 10 percent. You make 8 percent of your fuckin’ record. This way we make 50. A gold record actually means you’re doing kick-ass. A gold record five years ago was like, whoop-dee-do, you need to go double platinum to make money on this motherfucker. So we’re adjusting. The industry is adjusting. This is how we’re doing it and for us, it’s great. We’re selling enough records now where we’re like, “Hey, this is gonna be really cool by the time we get done touring.” This is gonna be really great. We can be self-sufficient and do our own thing and enough people will know about us that when they go to the next record, if we make sure that we do our jobs and make great music, we’ll be there still. So we’re excited.

Do you think your past success has put you in a position to be able to do that? Could a new band coming out make the same sort of deal?

Yeah, our past success led us to this place. We’ve learned a lot of stuff from our past success and everything. But this isn’t something that’s just like everything’s grand because we used to be in STP and Filter. We’re still making sure that people understand it’s not just some fuckin’ cockamamie idea.

Back in the fall, you did a short tour. What was it like at the first show getting up on stage with these guys for the first time?

I tell you what, the first time we played was CD USA . We played two songs and you’re on TV and it was just kind of like, “OK, I kind of remember what the hell I was doing.” We’d been playing acoustically for a long time already, about six weeks we’d already been playing. But the first concert concert, which was in Philly, that was actually pretty amazing. That was actually like, “Wow, this is working. This is cool.” And then the second show in Boston , that really, really felt good. I remember reading the reviews, some people were saying like, “Best concert of the year.” I mean, I don’t really read reviews and I can’t really pay too much attention to it because it’ll drive you crazy if you do, but the reality is it just felt good and people dug that. You know, I used to have great concerts half-crocked on booze and, yeah, it’s great in my mind, but I don’t know if anyone else is getting into it. Now, to go out there sober and to experience it—I don’t even drink coffee before I go out. There’s nothing in my body in between me and the audience except for my ability and my talent. To rely utterly and totally on those things is pretty amazing for me. It’s the best part of the day. Concerts are the thing I look forward to. It’s the most exciting thing. There’s this great feeling after you walk off stage and then you’re kind of like, OK, back to work, get back on the bus, rest my voice, blah blah blah. I tell you what, there’s a moment where I kind of walk off stage and the DeLeos and Ray play some instrumental stuff and it’s beautiful to sit there and watch them play. I look at the band I’m in and it’s such a talented, talented bunch of guys and I’m just honored to be in it.

Did you enjoy playing the smaller venues and getting right up close with the fans?

I’m good any way. As long as people are there and they’re digging it, I’m good. I kind of like bigger crowds. I kind of like the mayhem and the loudness. I love seeing a sea of people. But then again, a small club, packed, is a fuckin’ good thing, too. You know, I’m down. I try and like everything. I try and enjoy acoustic performances in cold radio stations. There’s something very exhilarating about that, too. I’m down with performing. I’m down with singing, you know?

Uh, favorite songs … I hate to toot my own horn, but “Welcome to the Fold” is a fuckin’ blast. The DeLeos do an amazing job capturing the essence of what that song is all about. So does Ray. Ray’s fantastic. They really bent over backwards on making sure that it was really true to the record, but they put their own souls into it. I’m totally blown away with the way that they play Filter. I really enjoy singing the Stone Temple Pilots stuff. “Big Bang Baby” is a fun song to sing, “Vaseline.” But I have to say my favorite song to play live is probably “Leave It.” Looking at the whole scenario, I really love in “Leave It” when we break it down and I ask the audience how they’re doing and there’s a great reaction. So “Leave It” is my favorite song that we play live and I think it’s fun to play “Welcome to the Fold,” “Big Bang Baby.”

Well, “Welcome to the Fold,” “Take a Picture” and “Hey Man Nice Shot.” I just wanted hits. I was really adamant about like, “Look, we’re gonna play the hits.” I want to give them what they want, you know? And I love the hits. I love the big hits that we have. You know, “Welcome to the Fold” is like my favorite. “Big Bang Baby” is like my favorite. Do you know what I mean? There’s so many songs that we could play from either catalog.

Yeah. We want to bring people together. With everything going on in the world, I would hope that we could maybe put some love back into music, especially heavy music. At the risk of sounding like a soft, older guy or something, I would hope that maybe we could put a positive spin on something. Having been in Nine Inch Nails and having been in Filter and having been kind of young and crazy during the ’90s—I think that was a good place to be maybe in the ’90s, but now with the amount of hatred in the world and the amount of pain, truly. People talk about pain, these fuckin’ rock singers talk about pain like it’s like fuckin’ crossing the street. “Ah, I’m pain.” What about the fuckin’ guy that just fuckin’ lost his arm in Iraq ? How much fuckin’ pain do you think he’s in? You hear these fuckin’ lead singers talking about like, “I’m in pain. They hurt me.” I get it. I understand. I’ve been there. Hey, man, I checked myself into rehab. I must’ve been in some pain, too, do you know what I mean? But how much are you really in, like how much pain can you really be in? And when you see these guys cashing in these huge checks, I just don’t believe it. I just have a hard time buying it. When I see the reality of the world, it’s not a dress rehearsal. This is the real thing and we’re on this planet and what we do on this planet affects generations to come. If we want to, we could continue and educate ourselves and learn and learn and learn and learn and come to the final conclusion that, yeah, war doesn’t work, and compromise and patience, those are the human attributes that we should be paying attention to and let’s focus on that as opposed to “Fuck! Metal! Fuckin’ death!” That’s great, that has a place. My favorite bands are metal bands. Black Sabbath, Pantera, Deftones—I think the Deftones are one of the best bands ever. But I guess, musically, what I’m trying to say is I actually want to benefit my fellow man. That’s what I want this band to do. I want it to benefit, hopefully, the planet somehow. I don’t know how, just something positive out of this whole thing as opposed to just cashing in on pain and suffering.