An Interview with Tony Campos + Ken Jay

Written by: Tom Wilson - Sense Music Media

Time has been kinder to STATIC-X than it has been to other bands of the nu-metal explosion at the turn of the millennium. Forming in 1994 and releasing their debut Wisconsin Death Trip in 1999, the band – drummer Ken Jay, bassist Tony Campos, guitarist Koichi Fukuda and guitarist/vocalist Wayne Wells – combined simple, chunky riffs and economic drumming with futuristic electronics and samples to create a unique blend of industrial metal, which they dubbed “Evil Disco”. Freakish heavy music that you could dance to (think THE CRYSTAL METHOD remixing PANTERA), they would go on to outlast the trappings of the nu metal tag. Hearing STATIC-X in 2020 isn’t merely an exercise in nostalgia – they don’t sound nearly as dated as some of their peers. 

Sadly, one element of STATIC-X is forever in the past – singer Wayne, who died in 2014 of a toxic combination of prescription drugs and alcohol, estranged from his former bandmates. As famous for his hoarse vocals and sense of humour as he was for his gravity-defying hair, moving on without him was never going to be easy.

“It was cathartic,” Ken tells us. “It was three guys who were still coming to terms with the fact that Wayne died.”

“Some people were like, “No Wayne Static, no Static-X.” But I’m like, “Well, you might want to tell THE ROLLING STONES, ALICE IN CHAINS, LED ZEPPELIN…”

While that’s a fair point, just how STATIC-X paid tribute to their late frontman was controversial to say the least. Known only as “Xero”, the anonymous singer-guitarist is like a spectral apparition of Wayne, complete with spiked-up hair and a ghostly white mask. He sounds like Wayne. He plays like Wayne. He holds his guitar like Wayne. Imagine, for a second, if Brian Johnson had played his first AC/DC show dressed up as Bon Scott, wearing a wig and a mask that looked like a skull. Some called it a fitting tribute. Others decried it as sick. However you feel, the band insists that they have his family’s blessing, and Campos thinks Wayne would’ve seen the funny side.

“He would’ve laughed his ass off. All those images of skulls with Wayne’s hair and beard, they were all his idea, you know?” He laughs. “Wayne just had this really dry, morbid sense of humour. When I first met him, I couldn’t figure out when he was joking and when he was being serious. It took me about a year to figure it out. Add that to his overall quiet demeanour, it just made it really difficult to figure out when he was joking and when he wasn’t. That was Wayne!”

When Project Regeneration was announced, several big name guests were attached to it – Burton C. Bell from FEAR FACTORY and Al Jourgenson from MINISTRY, among others. “When we first started this, we only had one song with Wayne’s vocals on it, so we had all these holes to fill. We were like, “Well, if we’re going to do this, it would be cool to have a bunch of our friends and people that Wayne admired come in and fill those gaps for Wayne.” But I guess Wayne, from The Netherworld, said, “Fuck that! I’m filling those holes!”” He laughs.

The band had uncovered a treasure trove of DA-88 tapes of vocal tracks from Wayne, some from the Start A War sessions in 2005, others recorded closer to his death. The surviving members of STATIC-X had a lot of work ahead of them, and as more and more material was discovered, they announced last June that the proposed Project Regeneration release date was being pushed back. Building songs around vocal demos was, Ken notes, like building a house backwards. It has been a long, painstaking process, but it has paid off. Terminator Oscillator starts with a sample from the opening of The Six Million Dollar Man – “Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology.” It feels like a sly dig at those who have voiced their objections to this endeavour. However you feel about it, it’s hard not to appreciate the quality on display. The vocals on Project Regeneration sound like they were recorded yesterday. As a lifelong STATIC-X fan, hearing Wayne on a track like All These Years was like the first time this writer heard NIRVANA’s You Know You’re Right, when it was finally released some six years after Kurt Cobain’s suicide.

When Sense Music Media video calls Campos in his Los Angeles home, the wall behind him is adorned with video game paraphernalia, almost like a cyberpunk version of a hunter’s cabin – controllers and peripherals hanging up like rifles. He talks excitedly about gaming, and when I bring up the Doom poster on the door behind him, I mention that Brisbane-based composer Mick Gordon was at last year’s STATIC-X show at Eaton’s Hill. “I know! I didn’t get to see him! I was going to hit him up, and I totally spaced. But he was cool enough to invite me to be part of the Choir of Hell that he did for Doom Eternal. That was an awesome experience, man. Mick’s awesome. That first soundtrack [for Doom in 2016] … one of the best things I’ve heard in years. Just so incredible.”

Sense Music Media was front and centre for STATIC-X’s Brisbane Show at Eaton’s Hill last year, and fondly remembers Campos’ grin as he shouted the I’m With Stupid chorus with the audience. What was it like revisiting Wisconsin Death Trip?

“It was cool, man! I hadn’t listened to or played any of those songs in over a decade, and just getting to play that stuff again with Ken and Koichi … I had forgotten how much fun that stuff is, you know? It’s heavy, bouncy … [you just] don’t take shit seriously and have a good time! It was awesome.”

What about the future of STATIC-X as a band? Are they going to continue?

“It’s really up to the fans,” Campos answers, “if they want to see us continue. I’m not opposed to it … It’s been awesome working with Ken and Koichi again. I’d love to continue to do that … The only reason we exist is because of the fans. It’s up to them.”

What’s the plan once all the Wayne material has been released? What role will Xero have? “I think there will have to be some kind of evolution of Xero,” Ken Jay says, but it’s clear that, with Project Regeneration Volume One only just released, Volume Two still in the works, and the spectre of COVID looming over everything, they aren’t looking that far ahead.

The band recently played their first gig in support of Project Regeneration, at a socially distant outdoor concert in Ringle, Wisconsin. “It went pretty good, considering everything. They had all the social distancing/mask things. They had our backstage closed off, and basically we got there an hour before the show, did our set, and got the fuck out of there! [Laughs]”

Covid-19 has screwed us all over in one way or another. For STATIC-X, however, it isn’t just that they can’t tour to support their new release. Earlier this year they revealed that thieves had used the cover of the lockdown to break into the band’s L.A. rehearsal space and steal everything that wasn’t nailed down – over $200,000 worth of equipment. “It was pretty much all of our touring gear,” Campos explains. “Our sound guy managed to track down his mixing console on eBay … Unfortunately, the cops found the guy, but they didn’t want to press charges for some reason. I was just like, “Fine! Give me his address! I’ll take care of it. I’ll spend a few days in jail. I don’t care!”” He manages to laugh about it, but you can tell it was a hell of a blow. This was gear the band had spent years investing in. “We replaced just enough to be able to do fly-away shows now. We still don’t have our LED walls. We’ve still got to get Kenny a new drumkit.”

Adversity is nothing new to this band. To say that STATIC-X didn’t end amicably would be putting it mildly (Campos is the longest-serving member, and even he wasn’t there at the end). A lot of things were said in the press that should have been said privately, if said at all. But time and growth can heal a lot, and you get the feeling that the surviving members of the WDT lineup are a lot older and wiser. How did they come to patch things up?

“I had never really lost touch with Koichi,” Campos tells me. “I reconnected with Kenny around 2012. I was out with Soulfly, and we were in Illinois. He came down to a show, and I remember I was on the phone and Kenny walked into the dressing room. I was like, “Hey, I’ve got to let you go. Kenny just got here.” They were like, “Kenny? Are you guys good now?” And at that point he was standing right next to me, and I looked up and I was like, “We’re good now, right?” And he was like, “Yeah, we’re good!”” [Laughs]

“We had played five-and-three-quarter [years] worth of shows [in] six years,” Ken explained. “If you put four people on a bus for that period of time … the relationships were strained. Koichi had left after Death Trip, really when we started rehearsing and working on Machine, and that was a huge blow, you know? Just losing that was rough. In retrospect … when we started touring last year, I felt that it was really important to apologise to him, because I said some things in the press. I was so mad at him … I felt abandoned a little bit, I guess, so I kind of took it out on him in the press … We should’ve taken some time off, and just got away from each other for a little bit. I think, quite possibly, we could have survived.”

Another hurdle was Jay’s hearing. Prior to his return to STATIC-X, he had ended up in the emergency room due to complications from Influenza B, which ended up costing him over 90% of the hearing in his right ear. During our interview, Ken turns his head to show me a small black implant in the side of his skull, which he can connect to via BluTooth. I mention that he’s just given me a great idea for a headline – “Ken Jay – Part Man, Part Machine.”

“There was a joke … Wayne said for years, “Man, we should just get a plug in your head, and instead of using headphones or in-ears or anything, we’ll just hook you up to the click track.” Now here I am … and he missed it! Can you believe it?”

“It’s funny,” Tony adds, “For the photoshoot for Wisconsin Death Trip, there’s a shot of him in the liner notes where he’s got a whole metal faceplate on the side of his head, and I think it’s on the same side that he’s got that implant. So he’s slowly turning into that!”

Download

Project: Regeneration Volume One is out now!

Social Media

Check out STATIC-X on Facebook and Instagram

STATIC-X on Spotify