Static-X(plosive)
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Static-X's beautiful story began with the encounter of Wayne Static and Ken Jay, both escaping their
home Midwest to play in goth and metal bands, respectively. The twosome then decides to move to LA, where
they are joined by Koichi Fukuda and Tony Campos, the latter having been through several local death
metal bands. The band are signed up by Warner Bros. in February 1998 and record their debut album, "Wisconsin
Death Trip", which reconciles mad headbangers, tough ravers and goth aficionados and is directly inspired
by a century-old book full of pictures of dead babies and murder scenes. Trance is the motion! Interview: Stéphane Hervé, photos : JP Coillard |
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- How has it been since that record's been out and you've been touring? Wayne Static - It's getting better. The album's only been out for about 3 weeks. At each show, you can tell a few more people know the songs, so it's more fun. We'd already been playing some new songs live for a while before we did the record. They were well club-tested. - Why did you choose to work with Ulrich Wild? Ken Jay - We did a dream list of producers. Terry Dave was the n°1 choice, but he's very expensive and he was out of our budget, so our manager decided to call Ulrich and I think he did a great job. W - I didn't really want anybody else. All the records I think sound the best, like Prong, Pantera, etc., Terry Dave did all that stuff. They are some of the best-sounding records in my collection. - Were you hoping for some inputs from him into some of the songs? W - No. We'd pretty much already demo-ed everything ourselves and we knew what we wanted to sound like, but Ulrich did have some suggestions that we took, mostly things like arrangements. He helped me with the vocal performance, he had some sample ideas there. So he did contribute, he was completely proactive, he's a good remixer. - Some of the references you name for the record, like Zombie and Prong are pretty definitive, is it not too difficult for a guitar player, for example, to come after a guy like Tommy Victor, who imposed a certain way to play riffs and stuff like that? W - I don't claim to be like Tommy Victor or James Hetfield, who are my two main rhythm guitar influences, I just do what I do and I worry about writing good songs, that is my main focus. K - None of us tries to be a real flashy player, but I'd like to say, being a drummer who's kind of a wannabe guitarist, Tommy Victor and James Hetfield are really two of my favourite players because they almost make it a percussion instrument and I love that. I think if we really wanted to be flashy, we could do it, but, as far as it goes, the four of us together work really well. W - The main things is the song, what gets done. - When did you arrive in LA? W - Ken and I moved there in '94, we met Tony a couple of months after that. We met Koichi just a couple of years after, we had put an ad, he came to our practice place and announced he was our new guitarist. (Laughs) - Do you think you all have different mentalities because of the different places you come from, or is it something specific about some of you? W - I don't know, but we all definitely have different influences. I still listen to a lot of 80s, goth stuff, like the Sisters of Mercy, Joy Division and death metal, grindcore, old-school thrash. - Who's got the worst taste in the band? W - Tony. (Laughs) He still listens to Bolt Thrower, the most awful grindcore band ever! K - He's also gotten us into some very good death metal, stuff that we wouldn't have heard. I can look at all the bands that we thank on the CD, there's a very wide range. Probably Joy Division would be everybody's choice. - I think that's kind of predictable. A lot of people think of Joy Division as a definitive influence. K - You can see it in our music, because we have a certain dark, goth side. - Do people talk to you a lot about the lyrics of the record? W - People ask me what certain songs mean, but none of the songs has a certain story to it. I choose words that fit the rhythms that I want to sing. That's the most important thing. I write the words to fit that. - Can this be a point of disagreement between you? Tony Campos - I really don't care about lyrics. To me, it's more about the delivery of the words, like some really stupid, corny love song, but if you sing it with balls and aggression, it's good. Kids in Japan love it, even though they don't understand the lyrics. It's just emotion. - What do you think of the LA scene right now? W - It's definitely not what it was when we were still a local band. All of the bands in that 1st wave are gone on the road. Some unsigned bands in LA are doing good, they'll probably get deals. K - I really feel that when we have the first post-Korn bands, everyone will try to sound the same way. W - Yes, you're starting to see some of that in LA now. K - The new wave in LA are doing what we did, which is draw from your influences, make them your own and add your own flavour to it. Nobody claims to do something groundbreaking or completely new. The next album for us is probably gonna be very different, but we don't want to talk about it right now. - What's the strangest thing about having a Japanese guy in the band? K - He's taught us all how to swear or ask for a blow-job in Japanese. (Laughs) |
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| Exclusive live photos - Copyright JP Coillard |
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