What Do You Say

Album: The Sun Comes Out Tonight (2013)
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Songfacts®:

  • The first single from Filter's sixth album The Sun Comes Out Tonight, this song was written by their frontman Richard Patrick along with guitarist Jon Radtke and producer Bob Marlette. In our interview with Richard Patrick, he explained that they had been listening to the British Rock band Kasabian, which was an influence on the track. "They had kind of a cool groove, so we were inspired by that and picked up on that groove, and started writing around that," he said. "Then we put it into Filter chords, which is always way down by the third, fourth fret. You know, the third, sixth, and seventh fret. All that darkness all around in there."
  • The lyrical hook on this song - "Hey, hey, what do you say?" - is a common expression said in a variety of situations, similar to "Hey Man Nice Shot," a phrase that became Filter's biggest hit.

    "I was thinking, 'Hey, hey, what do you say?' It really doesn't matter anyway, and everyone bitches and nothing gets done," Patrick told us. "Everybody spent a ton of money getting Obama into office, all the poor people, and as soon as he gets in, five guys from the Tea Party stop everything and now we can't even get the government doing anything. Everybody's screaming and yelling all at the same time and no one's listening. Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh. No one's taking the time to actually sit there and listen. They're just out there making money. Rush does it for the money. Bill O'Reilly said he loves the money, he doesn't really care about what he's saying, as long as he makes money."
  • Patrick says that this song is "A take on this constant noise level in society." The lyrics came from conversations he had with Jon Radtke and Bob Marlette about global warming, and how powerless they feel as politicians refuse to take action. "The point is: what do you say, it doesn't really matter anyways," said Patrick. "When everything goes down, it's not going to matter. What's going to happen here, we'll laugh about it all one day. When it all goes down, the only thing that you'll be able to do is laugh about it and just throw your hands up."

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