Patrick has stated that he began working on his own music, and attempted to secure a record deal, during the 80s. He briefly met Reznor in Cleveland in 1985 when his band, The Akt, was invited to open for the [[Exotic Birds]]. They later met again at Pi Keyboards and Audio, where Reznor worked. [https://vwmusicrocks.com/an-interview-with-richard-patrick-of-filter/] He was then briefly in a band called [[Kollaps]], prior to NIN, which also included Reznor.[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDT4UWJ14s4] After The Akt disbanded in 1989, Reznor asked him to listen to some of the songs he'd recorded including "Head Like A Hole" and "Down In It" and asked him to become the touring guitarist in NIN, which he did for two and half years. [https://vwmusicrocks.com/an-interview-with-richard-patrick-of-filter/] He can be seen in the [[Nine Inch Nails music videos|music videos]] for "[[Down In It (song)|Down In It]]," "[[Head Like A Hole (song)|Head Like A Hole]]," "[[Wish (song)|Wish]]," and "[[Gave Up]]." His only recorded contribution—a droning guitar sound—can be heard at the end of "[[Sanctified]]" on ''[[Pretty Hate Machine]].'' He chose to leave the band during the recording of ''[[The Downward Spiral (halo)|The Downward Spiral]]'' in 1993 due in part to Reznor not allowing him any creative input or musical contributions, as well as often taking a lot of onstage physical abuse from Reznor.
Patrick went on to form his own industrial rock band, [[Filter]], with fellow NIN collaborator Brian Liesegang, though Liesegang left in 1997. He was later considered by Trent Reznor to contribute to the [[Tapeworm]] project.[http://shoutengine.com/UnderneathItAllANineInchNailsPodcast/episode-05-surprise-an-interview-with-richard-patr-1078] In 2005 , with both Filter and Stone Temple Pilots on hiatus, Patrick also formed joined with the DeLeo brothers to form the supergroup band Army of Anyone with the DeLeo brothers of Stone Temple Pilots , and in late 2006 the band released their eponymous album. The band split a year later , and Patrick returned to working on Filter, who and continued releasing to release albums. Brian Liesegang rejoined Filter in 2018 and, utilizing the PledgeMusic platform, the pair began working on a musical sequel to ''Short Bus'' entitled ''reBus''. This was shelved in the wake of the PledgeMusic bankruptcy, Liesegang left Filter, and Patrick stated that he was working on another new Filter album. It was eventually released as ''The Algorithm'' in 2023 and contained two songs written with Liesegang.
Since 2016, Patrick has been composing film scores alongside his work for Filter. His credits include ''Dark Crimes'' (2016), ''The Last Rampage'' (2017), ''Breathe, Nolan, Breathe'' (2019), ''The 2nd'' (2020), and ''Chariot'' (2022). In 2022, Patrick began a side project with Jim Louvau called A Place To Kill.