It is almost impossible to claim the birthplace of Static-X. However, their roots can be traced to the Midwest, where vocalist/guitarist Wayne Static grew up in Michigan and
drummer Ken Jay in Illinois. They both made the trip to Chicago, playing in many bands along the way. The two finally met in the record store where Jay worked and were introduced by Smashing Pumpkins vocalist Billy Corgan. They quickly bonded and decided to head west to California to start up a new band. Shortly after their arrival, Osaka-native Koichi Fukada responded to the duo's ad and became their new guitarist, as well as programmer. Bassist Tony Campos, the only true Californian, was the final piece of the puzzle.
Like many of their counterparts, Static-X gained a large following through numerous live shows. Their goal was to make music that would combine the effect of techno, the aggressiveness of guitar music, and the overtones of gothic and industrial music into one. Their method worked as the quartet was signed to Warner Brothers Records in February 1998. Three months later they recorded their debut album Wisconsin Death Trip, which was certified gold. The band stayed true to their roots by playing innumerable tours. However, the road took its toll on guitarist Fukada, who left the band to spend more time with his family. The group quickly replaced him with former Dope guitarist Tripp Eisen and picked up where they had left off. ~ Josh Loehr
The roots of Static-X lie in the Midwest, specifically in two rural towns: Shelby, Michigan (vocalist Wayne Static's hometown), Jamaica and Illinois (drummer Ken Jay's birthplace). As many Midwesterners do, these two made their pilgrimage to the Mecca of Chicago. Ken played in metal bands, worked in a record store and made his introductions in the Chicago underground. Wayne immediately started up the gothic band, Deep Blue Dream. Sharing a practice space with an unsigned Smashing Pumpkins, Wayne was introduced to Billy Corgan's record store co-worker, Ken. Ken subsequently joined Deep Blue Dream, but with a constantly changing cast of characters, a dying music scene and subzero temperatures, the two decided change was in order. They moved west to sunny Los Angeles.
Shortly after their arrival, Osaka-native Koichi Fukuda found an ad the duo had posted. "He came into our rehearsal room holding the ad he had ripped off the wall and said, with conviction, I am your new guitarist" - recalls Wayne. Tony Campos, the only true Californian in the band, had been playing in local death metal bands. "He just sort of appeared and never left" - Ken says. "We keep him around for entertainment on the road".
Since forming, Static-X has developed a following through playing countless shows around Southern California on their own and with local heavyweights, building a reputation and an extensive fan club one that even includes doctors. "When I got into a car accident, the ambulance took me to the emergency" - begins Wayne. "I was on a stretcher, my head bloody, and the doctor was asking me what I do for a living, trying to keep me from passing out. I told him I was in a band called Static-X and he said that he was on our mailing list and comes to our shows! He gets in free now."
Static-X's goal since then has been simple: to make music that could take the effect of techno, the aggressiveness of a guitar-laden frenzy and the moody overtones common to the goth-industrial underground and mold it into something unique creating a sound the band calls rhythmic trancecore. Their method worked and the quartet signed with Warner Bros Records in February 1998. Within three months they were recording their debut album in a Los Angeles studio "where they haven't done any remodeling or fixed anything, since 1971" - bassist Tony Campos asserts. Completed in just under four weeks with Ulrich Wild (Deftones, Pantera) producing, Wisconsin Death Trip echoes the energy of the band's live sound. "It's always been very important to us that we be able to replicate the sound we use in the studio in front of an audience" - explains Wayne. "There is nothing worse than going to see a band who can't make you feel as if the show is an extension of their recorded music" - adds Ken. "Our shows are like mini-raves an unrelenting and intense experience that affects all of the audience's senses". Wisconsin Death Trip was inspired by a near 100-year-old story. "The title comes from a book I found at a flea market 15 years ago" - explains Wayne Static. "It is a collection of turn-of-the-century photographs and news articles detailing life in a small Wisconsin town. There were pictures of babies in coffins, reports from mental hospitals, details of murder scenes... All very haunting. It made a huge impression on me."
Wisconsin Death Trip reflects the book that inspired it, with picture-filled chapters being replaced by twelve haunting songs. Melodic, dark and heavy the lyrical team of Wayne and Ken paint intriguing pictures with dark humor and imagery, creating songs that are more impressionistic than literal. Emotion-based and derived from or inspired by true stories, the songs remain abstract so don't expect the guys personal lives in sonic splendor. Avoiding the stereotypical story lines that accompany many heavy bands, there are no songs about drugs and satan. And while there may be a song about love, don't expect a standard proclamation of unabashed ardor.
Tours with the likes of Slayer, Fear Factory and System Of A Down and the national awareness level of Static-X has been rising moment by moment. "We believe in the old-fashioned work ethic of touring day-in and day-out, handing out flyers to our shows, bringing copies of our record to record stores, meeting our fans and everything else that could possibly help" - explains Ken. "We never wanted to be a band that signed with a million dollar advance and disappeared a year later." "We're just regular guys, normal guys playing music we love" - admits Ken. "I don't have any grand stories about John Bonham handing his drum sticks off to me or anything like that. We're just four people reared on Kiss albums that decided to come together, play music and have fun while doing it. I think that's why we have been able to connect with so many people". In 2001 Static-X, with new guitarist - Tripp Rex Eisen (form Dope), recorded Machine, which was released in May 2001. In 2003 Ken Jay left the band. Nick Oshiro joined the band and Static-X recorded the third album - Shadow Zone, which was huge step in evolution of the band.
"Evolution can be a scary thing."
It seems like just yesterday that Static-X were the venerable newcomers on the heavy metal block, the release of Wisconsin Death Trip in 1999 serving as a coming-out party for the Los Angeles quartet's molten hybrid. Equal parts heavy metal, industrial thunder, and hook-laden, songwriting savvy, they scraped the senses with the untempered energy of digital screams and mosh pit mayhem. The debut went platinum, and it's follow-up, Machine, has been certified gold as the band toured side-by-side with the biggest names in music, from Reinventing The Steel alongside Pantera and Slayer, to Family Values with Linkin Park, Staind and Stone Temple Pilots, and amongst Black Sabbath, Godsmack, P.O.D. and Queens Of The Stone Age on OZZfest 2000.
Now, with the release of Shadow Zone, frontman Wayne Static, guitarist Tripp Eisen, bassist Tony Campos and drummer Nick Oshiro stand armed and dangerous, equipped with an album that bleeds with the conviction we've come to expect, and slams with the crushing fury of a monster truck run amok. While it may sound cliché to call the release their strongest effort to date, anything less wouldn't do the band justice, as the songs have evolved from brute slabs of sonic fury, to fine-tuned acts of musical misanthropy. "I can't compare this to the other two albums at all, because it was an entirely different experience this time," says Static of the new release. "Tripp was in there this time, and it was the first time I ever had a songwriting partner. It was a very refreshing experience, because he wrote some of the songs, and all I had to deal with was putting the vocals to them. I try to look at music as a challenge, and in a way I think this record sounds a lot more well-rounded."
Granted, it was Eisen's first time in the studio with Static-X, he joined the band immediately following the recording of Machine, but it's Static who was most responsible for Shadow Zone's jagged depths. "The funny thing is, most of the traditional Static-X style songs on the record are the ones that Tripp wrote," he says when asked about the vocal melodies that manifest themselves throughout the album. "I mean, you always want to push yourself and stretch—it gets kind of boring if you do the same shit over and over again-and I think that when I did 'Not Meant for Me' for the Queen Of The Damned soundtrack, that was real singing, and I had never done that with Static-X. People responded really well to it, and it was a lot of fun, so I figure that I might as well go for it"
The results are an album with vocal hues as colorful as the music that carries them. Lead single "The Only" introduces a crisper, cleaner sounding Static, industrial-strength bites and barks replaced by a melodic texture that makes the music even more impacting. From crisper and cleaner, to downright eerie on "So," where emotion and distress take center stage on one of the most haunting songs of the band's catalog. It's that variety, though, that makes Shadow Zone such an inviting place. "In past bands, I have done everything from acoustic songs to speed metal/death metal stuff, and I think this new album is a culmination of every type of genre I have ever done," says the frontman. "Before, we were trying to be a little different, trying everything we could to try to differentiate ourselves, and I spent more time disguising my lyrics and trying to not sound too personal. Now, I don't really care about that anymore. Now, Static-X are who we are, and I just want to write great songs and see what we can build upon."
So in addition to the savagery of "Destroy All" and the pulverizing effect of "Kill Your Idols," you've got the somber aura of the album's closer, "Invincible," a headfirst dive into a twisted psyche. And Static isn't the only one with a conscience, as Eisen's political savvy shines through the mirth on "Dead World." "That's a song that has some of my lyrics," says the guitarist, reciting "Sometimes I wish I could see beyond this dead world" "The verses, the lyrics that I wrote, are philosophical; describing how this world and our culture has been brought down because of governmental policies that are just destroying the free market system - We are living in a dead world and it's just going to get worse unless we realize how to turn it around."
"Writing with Tripp was kind of strange at first, because I'd never really written with anyone before," admits Static, "but we really got into a rhythm with things and figured out how to communicate" "And we communicate really well," Eisen adds of the quartet. "We all worked on these songs - There are thirteen songs on the new album, and each song has its own history and way it was written. There are a couple of songs where I wrote all the music and Wayne wrote the lyrics, some of them were full band efforts, and there's even one song from a few years ago that we re-worked. We wrote a couple songs all together, jamming, like the first single, "The Only" - That was the first one we all wrote together as a full band."
The newest addition to the Static-X camp is drummer Nick Oshiro, who quickly established himself as the perfect successor to departed drummer Ken Jay, and the ideal player to fill the parts laid down by Josh Freese (A Perfect Circle) in the studio. Despite the fact that Static and Campos are the only two remaining original members of Static-X, the band's namesake feels more confident than ever with their present lineup. "The chemistry is actually better than it ever was," he says. "It's weird, because Koichi came in right before we got signed, did the record, toured, and he quit. In my mind, it's like, 'Was he even in the band?' He was in the band for like two years, and Tripp has been with us for more than three years now We are all laidback, and with Nick, we made sure that we got someone in the band that fits in, that we will like touring with, and it feels good, really good. The old songs still sound the same, maybe even better.
"There are always going to be a few people who say, 'I miss Ken, I miss Koichi.' But you know what? Life goes on, and I feel our show is still one of the most high-energy shows out there, and people can't deny it. I think it's because offstage, we all get along, we are like family, and everyone is a really good player and we love what we do. We are performing, not acting, and we're not trying to be any certain thing, we just go out and rock and kick everyone's ass. I think we will continue to evolve while keeping some of the elements that make us who we are. That's what we've done with Shadow Zone. This is the next step in our evolution."
In July, 2004 came out a remix and rarities disc Beneath... Between... Beyond..., featuring the band's soundtrack releases as well as early demos, exclusive remixes and never released material.
In October, 2004 Static-X entered the studio in Los Angeles with producer Ulrich Wild to begin recording the album, the group's first with new drummer Nick Oshiro. In early March, 2005 Koichi Fukuda rejoined Static-X as the replacement for Tripp Rex Eisen, who was dismissed from the group following reports that Eisen was arrested by authorities in two states on charges that include kidnapping, sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child. The charges stem from two separate incidents involving sexual relations with minors. Koichi Fukuda handled the programming and keyboard duties during the recording process.
The roots of Static-X lie in the Midwest, specifically in two rural towns: Shelby, Michigan (vocalist Wayne Static's hometown), Jamaica and Illinois (drummer Ken Jay's birthplace). As many Midwesterners do, these two made their pilgrimage to the Mecca of Chicago. Ken played in metal bands, worked in a record store and made his introductions in the Chicago underground. Wayne immediately started up the gothic band, Deep Blue Dream. Sharing a practice space with an unsigned Smashing Pumpkins, Wayne was introduced to Billy Corgan's record store co-worker, Ken. Ken subsequently joined Deep Blue Dream, but with a constantly changing cast of characters, a dying music scene and subzero temperatures, the two decided change was in order. They moved west to sunny Los Angeles.
Shortly after their arrival, Osaka-native Koichi Fukuda found an ad the duo had posted. "He came into our rehearsal room holding the ad he had ripped off the wall and said, with conviction, I am your new guitarist" - recalls Wayne. Tony Campos, the only true Californian in the band, had been playing in local death metal bands. "He just sort of appeared and never left" - Ken says. "We keep him around for entertainment on the road".
Since forming, Static-X has developed a following through playing countless shows around Southern California on their own and with local heavyweights, building a reputation and an extensive fan club one that even includes doctors. "When I got into a car accident, the ambulance took me to the emergency" - begins Wayne. "I was on a stretcher, my head bloody, and the doctor was asking me what I do for a living, trying to keep me from passing out. I told him I was in a band called Static-X and he said that he was on our mailing list and comes to our shows! He gets in free now."
Static-X's goal since then has been simple: to make music that could take the effect of techno, the aggressiveness of a guitar-laden frenzy and the moody overtones common to the goth-industrial underground and mold it into something unique creating a sound the band calls rhythmic trancecore. Their method worked and the quartet signed with Warner Bros Records in February 1998. Within three months they were recording their debut album in a Los Angeles studio "where they haven't done any remodeling or fixed anything, since 1971" - bassist Tony Campos asserts. Completed in just under four weeks with Ulrich Wild (Deftones, Pantera) producing, Wisconsin Death Trip echoes the energy of the band's live sound. "It's always been very important to us that we be able to replicate the sound we use in the studio in front of an audience" - explains Wayne. "There is nothing worse than going to see a band who can't make you feel as if the show is an extension of their recorded music" - adds Ken. "Our shows are like mini-raves an unrelenting and intense experience that affects all of the audience's senses". Wisconsin Death Trip was inspired by a near 100-year-old story. "The title comes from a book I found at a flea market 15 years ago" - explains Wayne Static. "It is a collection of turn-of-the-century photographs and news articles detailing life in a small Wisconsin town. There were pictures of babies in coffins, reports from mental hospitals, details of murder scenes... All very haunting. It made a huge impression on me."
Wisconsin Death Trip reflects the book that inspired it, with picture-filled chapters being replaced by twelve haunting songs. Melodic, dark and heavy the lyrical team of Wayne and Ken paint intriguing pictures with dark humor and imagery, creating songs that are more impressionistic than literal. Emotion-based and derived from or inspired by true stories, the songs remain abstract so don't expect the guys personal lives in sonic splendor. Avoiding the stereotypical story lines that accompany many heavy bands, there are no songs about drugs and satan. And while there may be a song about love, don't expect a standard proclamation of unabashed ardor.
Tours with the likes of Slayer, Fear Factory and System Of A Down and the national awareness level of Static-X has been rising moment by moment. "We believe in the old-fashioned work ethic of touring day-in and day-out, handing out flyers to our shows, bringing copies of our record to record stores, meeting our fans and everything else that could possibly help" - explains Ken. "We never wanted to be a band that signed with a million dollar advance and disappeared a year later." "We're just regular guys, normal guys playing music we love" - admits Ken. "I don't have any grand stories about John Bonham handing his drum sticks off to me or anything like that. We're just four people reared on Kiss albums that decided to come together, play music and have fun while doing it. I think that's why we have been able to connect with so many people". In 2001 Static-X, with new guitarist - Tripp Rex Eisen (form Dope), recorded Machine, which was released in May 2001. In 2003 Ken Jay left the band. Nick Oshiro joined the band and Static-X recorded the third album - Shadow Zone, which was huge step in evolution of the band.
"Evolution can be a scary thing."
It seems like just yesterday that Static-X were the venerable newcomers on the heavy metal block, the release of Wisconsin Death Trip in 1999 serving as a coming-out party for the Los Angeles quartet's molten hybrid. Equal parts heavy metal, industrial thunder, and hook-laden, songwriting savvy, they scraped the senses with the untempered energy of digital screams and mosh pit mayhem. The debut went platinum, and it's follow-up, Machine, has been certified gold as the band toured side-by-side with the biggest names in music, from Reinventing The Steel alongside Pantera and Slayer, to Family Values with Linkin Park, Staind and Stone Temple Pilots, and amongst Black Sabbath, Godsmack, P.O.D. and Queens Of The Stone Age on OZZfest 2000.
Now, with the release of Shadow Zone, frontman Wayne Static, guitarist Tripp Eisen, bassist Tony Campos and drummer Nick Oshiro stand armed and dangerous, equipped with an album that bleeds with the conviction we've come to expect, and slams with the crushing fury of a monster truck run amok. While it may sound cliché to call the release their strongest effort to date, anything less wouldn't do the band justice, as the songs have evolved from brute slabs of sonic fury, to fine-tuned acts of musical misanthropy. "I can't compare this to the other two albums at all, because it was an entirely different experience this time," says Static of the new release. "Tripp was in there this time, and it was the first time I ever had a songwriting partner. It was a very refreshing experience, because he wrote some of the songs, and all I had to deal with was putting the vocals to them. I try to look at music as a challenge, and in a way I think this record sounds a lot more well-rounded."
Granted, it was Eisen's first time in the studio with Static-X, he joined the band immediately following the recording of Machine, but it's Static who was most responsible for Shadow Zone's jagged depths. "The funny thing is, most of the traditional Static-X style songs on the record are the ones that Tripp wrote," he says when asked about the vocal melodies that manifest themselves throughout the album. "I mean, you always want to push yourself and stretch—it gets kind of boring if you do the same shit over and over again-and I think that when I did 'Not Meant for Me' for the Queen Of The Damned soundtrack, that was real singing, and I had never done that with Static-X. People responded really well to it, and it was a lot of fun, so I figure that I might as well go for it"
The results are an album with vocal hues as colorful as the music that carries them. Lead single "The Only" introduces a crisper, cleaner sounding Static, industrial-strength bites and barks replaced by a melodic texture that makes the music even more impacting. From crisper and cleaner, to downright eerie on "So," where emotion and distress take center stage on one of the most haunting songs of the band's catalog. It's that variety, though, that makes Shadow Zone such an inviting place. "In past bands, I have done everything from acoustic songs to speed metal/death metal stuff, and I think this new album is a culmination of every type of genre I have ever done," says the frontman. "Before, we were trying to be a little different, trying everything we could to try to differentiate ourselves, and I spent more time disguising my lyrics and trying to not sound too personal. Now, I don't really care about that anymore. Now, Static-X are who we are, and I just want to write great songs and see what we can build upon."
So in addition to the savagery of "Destroy All" and the pulverizing effect of "Kill Your Idols," you've got the somber aura of the album's closer, "Invincible," a headfirst dive into a twisted psyche. And Static isn't the only one with a conscience, as Eisen's political savvy shines through the mirth on "Dead World." "That's a song that has some of my lyrics," says the guitarist, reciting "Sometimes I wish I could see beyond this dead world" "The verses, the lyrics that I wrote, are philosophical; describing how this world and our culture has been brought down because of governmental policies that are just destroying the free market system - We are living in a dead world and it's just going to get worse unless we realize how to turn it around."
"Writing with Tripp was kind of strange at first, because I'd never really written with anyone before," admits Static, "but we really got into a rhythm with things and figured out how to communicate" "And we communicate really well," Eisen adds of the quartet. "We all worked on these songs - There are thirteen songs on the new album, and each song has its own history and way it was written. There are a couple of songs where I wrote all the music and Wayne wrote the lyrics, some of them were full band efforts, and there's even one song from a few years ago that we re-worked. We wrote a couple songs all together, jamming, like the first single, "The Only" - That was the first one we all wrote together as a full band."
The newest addition to the Static-X camp is drummer Nick Oshiro, who quickly established himself as the perfect successor to departed drummer Ken Jay, and the ideal player to fill the parts laid down by Josh Freese (A Perfect Circle) in the studio. Despite the fact that Static and Campos are the only two remaining original members of Static-X, the band's namesake feels more confident than ever with their present lineup. "The chemistry is actually better than it ever was," he says. "It's weird, because Koichi came in right before we got signed, did the record, toured, and he quit. In my mind, it's like, 'Was he even in the band?' He was in the band for like two years, and Tripp has been with us for more than three years now We are all laidback, and with Nick, we made sure that we got someone in the band that fits in, that we will like touring with, and it feels good, really good. The old songs still sound the same, maybe even better.
"There are always going to be a few people who say, 'I miss Ken, I miss Koichi.' But you know what? Life goes on, and I feel our show is still one of the most high-energy shows out there, and people can't deny it. I think it's because offstage, we all get along, we are like family, and everyone is a really good player and we love what we do. We are performing, not acting, and we're not trying to be any certain thing, we just go out and rock and kick everyone's ass. I think we will continue to evolve while keeping some of the elements that make us who we are. That's what we've done with Shadow Zone. This is the next step in our evolution."
In July, 2004 came out a remix and rarities disc Beneath... Between... Beyond..., featuring the band's soundtrack releases as well as early demos, exclusive remixes and never released material.
In October, 2004 Static-X entered the studio in Los Angeles with producer Ulrich Wild to begin recording the album, the group's first with new drummer Nick Oshiro. In early March, 2005 Koichi Fukuda rejoined Static-X as the replacement for Tripp Rex Eisen, who was dismissed from the group following reports that Eisen was arrested by authorities in two states on charges that include kidnapping, sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child. The charges stem from two separate incidents involving sexual relations with minors. Koichi Fukuda handled the programming and keyboard duties during the recording process.
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Beneath, Between, Beyond
