Features
Static-X
“LET’S MOVE TO L.A.” It’s been suggested countless times by countless bands searching for that big break. For the metal mavens in Static-X, the gamble paid off.
“We tried the Chicago thing,” frontman Wayne Static recalled of his Windy City days. “You know, had like three different bands there over a period of like five years, and just couldn’t really get anything happening, couldn’t find people that we wanted to play with. Stuff like that.”
Frustrated by the fruitlessness of their musical determination, Static and friend/drummer Ken Jay set their sights on a westerly course. “In ’94, we decided to move to L.A. and start all over. I didn’t have any idea what the scene would be like. We just picked L.A. because it was,” Static said before taking a brief pause, “nice and warm there, you know?”
Temperature aside, the Los Angeles music community couldn’t have been a better birthplace for Static-X, a synthesis of electronic drum beats, monster guitar riffs and growling vocals. The group, completed by bassist Tony Campos and guitarist Koichi Fukuda, found the scene nurturing and befriended numerous local acts that have since outgrown their up-and-coming titles, much like Static-X.
Last year, more than any other year in the outfit’s short history, generated some healthy results for the band. Its Warner Bros. debut, Wisconsin Death Trip, hit the streets in March and is rapidly approaching the gold mark. On the touring front, well, Static summed it up best: “From March 3rd to December 23rd, we had a total of about 10 days off at home, maybe two or three days at a time.”
These days are looking good for the guys in Static-X. Busy but good. Between recently ending an opening slot on the nearly sold-out Powerman 5000 tour and commencing the group’s first official headlining tour April 14th in San Francisco, Static, who dons the unmistakable skyscraper hairdo, talked with POLLSTAR about what his group does best – performing.
“Starting out, we were playing heavy stuff, like Sabbath-style riffing – slow, heavy kind of stuff,” he said. “We tried all kinds of stuff and eventually sort of hit upon this electronic thing, which I had never done in a band before but have always been a fan of that style of music. Some old Ministry records got me thinking in that direction, and we started building from there.”
Static-X’s heavy rock with an industrial edge carved itself a niche in the region’s club scene. “We just played the L.A. scene, whatever shows we could get, and got some help from other up-and-coming bands around there – Coal Chamber, System Of A Down, Snot. They let us open for them.”
Another SoCal band that helped Static-X is Fear Factory, which invited the group on a tour in early 1999 – Static-X’s first touring experience. “It was just an opening slot but it really helped us out because [Fear Factory has] some really crazy fans that show up really early, so the room was always full when we went on. And we got a lot of their fans right off the bat.”
The band’s weeklong jaunt with Slayer was another memorable outing. “That gig was a little hard after the Fear Factory thing because Slayer fans are just brutal,” Static admitted. “I mean, we would have people just standing there with their backs to us, flipping us off for the whole set. We never actually got physically booed, but I like to say their fans were very polite to us.”
(Credit: Lisa Johnson)
Koichi Fukuda
Tony Campos
As if that wasn’t enough of a learning experience, Static-X launched its own unofficial headlining tour called the Butthole of America. “The record had only been out for weeks and nobody knew who the hell we were and no promoters wanted to buy the shows. So we were doing a lot of free shows,” he said. “It’s a good reality check. We played some of the crappiest places in the world, which Detroit is the butthole of America or maybe the world, for that matter. We played this place … and they had this monsterlike P.A. system from 1983 with chrome around the edges of the speakers and all these huge posters of ’80s bands like Poison and all that crap… That was definitely one of the worst shows of our career.”
Static-X’s whirlwind 1999 touring schedule also included European dates with System Of A Down, an opening slot for Megadeth and another outing with Fear Factory. The band was also a second-stage performer during last summer’s OZZfest tour.
“What can I say? OZZfest is the tour (to be on) every year,” he said. “I know by the end of OZZfest last year, I was kind of ready to get back into the club thing. And now that I’ve been doing the club thing for a while, I’m ready to get back into the outdoor festival thing.” Look for Static-X on the moshing fiesta’s main stage this summer.
While last year’s tours provided the group with valuable on-the-road experience, they also taught an important lesson to the contrary. “We decided that this year, we would pace ourselves a little more,” Static said. “Now that it’s easier for us to get a tour than it was last year, we decided to make sure to take two-week breaks between tours to sort of chill out.”