I don't know much about Matt Walker except that he left Filter in 1998 to join the Smashing Pumpkins, in the absence of Jimmy Chamberlin. He played drums for the record, Adore, and played live drums on tours. He then left to form The Cupcakes, and he appeared on the Pumpkins' James Iha's solo album, Let It Come Down.
 

Q. Can you relate any cool/funny/whacked out tour stories from your experiences touring with Filter? How about with the Pumpkins? Think hard. Everyone loves good tour stories.

I don't want to set a bad example but there was a night in Milan when Filter was opening up for the Pumpkins.....Both bands went out to treat ourselves to a nice Italian dinner. We were introduced to the Italian liqueur grappa. Maybe it was a cultural experiment, but the waiter kept the shots of grappa coming all night. He described the drink as Rocket Fuel. By the time we got back to the hotel we had been reduced to a family of apes Soon, half our clothes were off  and we were basically beating the hell out of each other. Then the destruction turned to the hotel. We went from room to room trying to evade security in our inexplicable need to pillage. The next morning the Italian police spared us a stay in jail in exchange for a five thousand dollar bill. Money well spent.

One night during the Mellon Collie tour, we received a bomb threat. The show was only half an hour away, and the arena was filling up with people. After what we hoped was an extensive search by authorities, we were told that there were "probably" no real explosives. We decided to do the show. Two hours later, just as we were about to begin our encore, there was a huge crash from behind me. My drum riser actually pushed forward from the shock. I thought for sure it was a bomb. What had really happened was two massive fans (part of the lighting rig) had collapsed. Luckily, none of the crew was hurt.

Billy can be extremely demanding and difficult. He may be the most intense artistic person I've ever worked with. But the fact of the matter is, you can put four of the nicest most talented musicians in a room together and end up with some of the most boring music. Billy strives to really capture the emotional core of his songs, live and in recordings. And, for better or worse, there is a lot of pain in the music.

His criteria [for recording] was based entirely around finding the language of the song. There might be a transitional fill that I thought was really interesting but [that] he would think was out of context: Everything to him was about being within the context of the song. Technical precision and even production were secondary to an emotive performance.

Working with him wasn't always pleasurable, but I wouldn't trade the experience for anything. And to be honest, we would always come out the other side [as] friends. He even took my daughter for a shopping spree at Toys' R 'Us. At the end of the day he is full of contradictions and complexities like anyone else I've ever known.
 

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