Interviews

 

StatiC-X

 

Words: Rod Yates

 

Picture the CD collection of spectacularly coiffured Static-X frontman Wayne Static. Think of how his band sounds - all pounding, industrial-tinged rhythms, Neolithic, jackhammer riffing, sandpaper-esque vocals raging atop - and imagine what kind of sounds the frontman listens to for inspiration and for relaxation. Pantera? Sure, that's in there, alongside every other genre defining metal band you can think of. Pride of place, however, goes to an unlikely unit. A soft-rock band. A band who, in America at least, typify the lighters-in-the-air, arena-loving, anthemic balladeering of the '70s. A band called Journey. And as one night on Static-X's tour bus with then tour-mates Ill Ni–o proved, Static isn't the only modern day metaller who loves a sappy power ballad.

 

"There were a lot of people on our bus that night," he chuckles, "and I just thought I'd start playing some Journey to see what happened, and you'd be amazed. There were probably a dozen people on our bus and everyone was singing Journey at the top of their lungs. Everyone likes them!"

When Static-X hit Australia this week, they'll be bringing their Journey-loving compatriots Ill Ni–o along for the ride. Take a look at Ill Ni–o's tour diary from their last US run of shows together, and it sounds like one of the most drunken tours on Earth.

"Yeah, pretty much!" cackles Static. "Some bands party more than other bands, and Ill Ni–o is definitely up there with the best of them. Sevendust was another really big party band back in the day."

Surely after spending the best part of 10 years on the road, though, you must have mellowed a bit...

"I'm definitely more wild now!" laughs the frontman. "Back in the old days, it was almost torturous at times. We had all of us stuffed in an RV, none of us had any money so we were all broke, we toured constantly, and we were really burned out and not having a good time. Now we've figured out how to do it. We take breaks in between tours, we're on a nice bus and it's a lot more comfortable. We've got good crew guys, it's really a lot more fun, so it gives us more time to party."

The reasons for the band's return to Australia this week are two-fold. For starters, they had no idea how popular they were when they came down here in 2004 with Korn and so made it a priority to get back at least one more time before the touring cycle for their latest album, Start A War, was over. The second is that very album, Start A War. Eight months after its release, Static is still proud of it.

"I actually put some of it on the other day just to listen to it, and it's still exciting for me to listen to. I think that's the real test; once you give it some time and go back after six months and give it a listen and see what you really think."

You've said in the past that the point of this album was to recapture some of the fun and freedom of your earlier releases. What exactly does that mean?

"Well, I think for [previous album] Shadow Zone there was a lot of pressure on ourselves and pressure from the label to try and write better songs, and I think that pressure took some of the fun out of it. We really wanted to just get back to the old school thing of having a good time and throwing back some drinks and writing some fun songs and not worrying about radio hits."

In hindsight, do you think writing radio hits actually helped the band's popularity?

"It's hard to say. We lost some fans, we gained some fans. I don't really know. There's a lot of people who discovered us during that album, and I know some of the hardcore metalheads didn't like the album, so... I don't really know. It's out there, we did it, we made it, it is what it is and we move on."

Integral to rediscovering that sense of fun and freedom was re-hiring producer Ulrich Wild, who worked on the band's first two albums, Wisconsin Death Trip and Machine, and original guitarist Koichi Fukuda, who left the band prior to the recording of Machine. Ironically, Fukuda's re-hiring and the positivity it brought to the camp came as a result of one of the darkest events in Static-X's career, one which threatened not only to destroy the band, but have their name intrinsically linked with a heinous crime. In February last year, 39-year-old then-guitarist Tripp Eisen was arrested for allegedly meeting a 14-year-old girl in an Internet chat room, driving from Pennsylvania to New Jersey and sexually assaulting her in a shopping centre. Eisen had previously been charged with committing a lewd act with a child, but now faced the more serious charges of kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault, luring to entice a minor through the Internet and endangering the welfare of a child. The guitarist was immediately fired, but a huge shadow was immediately cast over the reputation and operation of Static-X. To this day, Static remains quick to distance the band from their former guitarist.

"There's really nothing to talk about, he made his own bed and we did what we had to do and we moved on. Now he's got his mess to deal with and we don't have anything more to do with him."

What did you think when you heard the news?

"I didn't know what to do. I thought my career was over. I thought he was going to bring down the whole band with the mess, and I was surprised at some of the circumstances. I guess I'm just lucky that we've made a lot of friends in the industry and everyone stuck by the band and helped us pull through."

When you found out what had been going on, did you start to think of certain incidents that may have seemed innocent at the time but in hindsight were in fact a little more sinister?

"Well, yeah, there are some things that when you think back, you're just like, 'Hmm... I wonder if that was related to that.' But I don't want to talk about any specifics. Honestly, we were really quite surprised about it. That's all I've got to say about it, I guess."

With Fukuda back in the band and the line-up seemingly stable for the first time in Static-X's career (drummer Nick Oshiro and bassist Tony Campos round out the unit), attention has now turned to album number five, even though there's still a good few months left in the touring cycle for Start A War. Conscious of the fact that these days bands simply can't afford to dip out of the spotlight for too long, Static has spent his time off since Christmas writing 10 songs for their next album. And by the sounds of things, hardcore fans are going to be happy.

"It'll be as heavy as the heaviest stuff on the first couple of records, more industrial and more metal," enthuses Static. "I'm getting excited by heavy stuff again. I got bored with it for a while, and we tried some other stuff for a couple of records, and it just feels right."

Though it's unlikely Australian fans will hear any of this new material on the band's upcoming tour, Static is just pleased to be getting reacquainted with the country.

"I don't really like other places in the world too much, I think Southern California's the best place in the world," he starts. "But Australia's pretty cool too. It's a lot like Southern California, it's really nice, the weather's awesome. Last time I didn't have any idea what to expect, I was quite surprised, and that's why we wanted to make it a priority to get back there and continue to come back."

 

 

 

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