Take a picture: Filter?s back

Rock group Filter, best known for successful radio singles like “Take a Picture” and “Hey Man Nice Shot,” broke up in 2002 when Patrick checked himself into rehab for alcohol addiction. Now, Patrick is back for more, reforming Filter and dropping its first new album in six years.

Q You?ve suspended performances with your other band, Army of Anyone, in order to regroup Filter. How did you come to that decision?

I love Army of Anyone. I had a great time, but when I was on tour, we would play Filter songs, and it was just like, I would liven up a bit more, get a bit more jump in my step while singing the Filter stuff.

Filter is my legacy, my baby. I want to rekindle and restart.

Q How are your live performances different now that you?ve been sober for nearly six years?

I?m doing a lot of stuff that I haven?t done before. I was very unhealthy, and I couldn?t sing “Skinny” or “Where Do We Go From Here” because I was so ill.

My voice is my instrument, and I couldn?t hit those notes. Now, almost six years later, I?m singing better than I have in my life. It?s just so great.

Q Was the making of the new album, “Anthems for the Damned,” difficult after six years away?

[Producer] Josh Abraham is my hero, because he just made sense of everything I had written. I wrote “Soldiers” in 2003, “Cold” in 2002, and “Kill The Day” was the first thing I wrote when I got out of rehab.

So I had this hard drive that I had been compiling for years before, and I took it to Josh and said, “What do I need to do to get this done?” and he said, “Leave it to me.”

He suggested collaborations with drummer Josh Freese, former Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie guitarist John 5 and Limp Bizkit?s Wes Bourlan.

Fourteen days later, we were done.

IF YOU GO

Filter with Ours and Opiate for the Masses

WHERE: Rams Head Live, 20 Market Place, Baltimore

WHEN: 7 p.m. Monday

TICKETS: $20 to $22

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