Static-X fans - - you followed them through the Wisconsin Death Trip and even took a ride on the Machine. Now it’s time to jump into the Shadow Zone and discover a whole new realm of extreme metal.
So I hear you are headed for Australia with Fear Factory. Are you excited about that?
Definitely. We’re good friends with Fear Factory. We haven’t toured with them in a few years. We are also excited about going out on the road with KoRn again, and we’ve never been to Australia so it should be fun.
Is it the original Fear Factory line-up?
Well, Dino is not with them anymore. So it is Raymond and Christian is playing guitar and Burton is singing, obviously, and the bass player from Strapping Young Lad is also in the group.
That should be interesting. Since we are on the subject of line-up changes can I ask what happened with Ken?
He decided to quit, so we let him go and wished him well.
Did he decide to quit in order to join Godhead or did he quit and the Godhead gig came up later?
He just quit at the time. We are all friends with Godhead. We’ve been friends with them for a while. So, it just turned out that they needed a drummer at the same time.
I noticed that you made an appearance on Godhead’s latest album, so does that mean Ken left on good terms?
Obviously, there was some tension and everyone wasn’t happy with the situation, which is why he left. But, I don’t have anything bad to say about him. It’s all cool. We’re all friends.
And what is the scoop on Nick Oshiro.
Nick toured with Seether for about a year before he joined us. He was their touring drummer for a while, but we didn’t know that when he auditioned. We just auditioned about thirty drummers, and he won the whole process. Then we found out that he had toured with Seether, so it was a bonus that he had been on tour before.
So, is everything gelling nicely?
Yeah, it’s really good. It feels really good. We have a great chemistry. I think this is the strongest line-up we’ve had. Everyone has a common goal and no one is mad or upset about anything and there is no drama and everyone is just working hard towards kicking ass every night. I think this is the way it is going to stay. I don’t think we are going to have any more changes.
I hope it all works out.
I hope so too. It’s hard changing members, plus the fans don’t like it. It’s very disruptive to the flow of things. But, sometimes people grow apart and they need to leave, so that is what happened. I think this line-up is going to stick for the rest of our career. We are all really happy with what is going on.
Well Tony (Campos) has been with you since day one, and Tripp (Eisen) has been around for a while now…
I’m not too concerned about it.
Aside from the new members, what was different with the making of Shadow Zone in comparison to past releases?
We took a different approach and we brought in a new team—Josh Abraham (producer) and Ryan Williams (engineer)—to help us take it to a different level and point out things that we might not see. Ulrich and I have worked together so much that we kind of see things the same now. So, we thought Josh could come in and point out some different things, which he did. We took a different approach to the recording as well. We all jammed in the studio together and recorded the drums live as opposed to recording them on the computer. We wanted to sound more like a live band and less of an industrial programmed unit.
I did notice that there was a different flow and feel to this album.
Plus, “you’re” always growing as a songwriter and challenging “yourself” and we did. We tried to put new things and new elements into it. Having Tripp in the band as a co-writer brought a lot to it as well.
Yeah, what was that experience like. I know this is really your first time working with someone else.
We really write in the same style anyway, so it didn’t really change the style of the record so much. But, it was beneficial because I had someone to bounce ideas off of. It was nice to have someone bring ideas into the situation, so it was not all on me to write all the guitar parts. I think the collaboration made for a better record and better songs.
So, having Tripp as a collaborative partner helped free your mind so you could concentrate on other things?
Yeah. Tripp wrote all the music for half of the songs on the record and I just wrote the vocals. That really gave me the opportunity to just focus on getting the vocals right, so I didn’t have to worry about the big picture quite as much.
What has the response been like to the new material?
It’s been very good. Everyone’s digging it. We played five new songs on the last tour, so we played five songs from each record just so we could keep it even and keep everyone happy.
I’m sure it was hard to pick “the five”.
Yeah, it was really hard. Especially from the new record. With the old records, it is kind of obvious. We have to play “Push It” and “Get to the Gone”. There are certain songs that you have to play.
Yup, you have to play them because we all want to hear them.
But in regards to material from the new record, we rotated the songs around. We didn’t play the same new songs every night. There was one slot where we would switch from “Monster” to “Kill Your Idols” to “Control It”.
Did you do it that way in order to see which songs got the best response or just to get the fans used to the new material?
It was some of both. We were kind of feeling things out to see what worked live and what didn’t work so well.
Is there a significant story behind any of the songs?
They all have stories behind them. There really isn’t one in particular that I feel strongly about any more than the rest of them. They were all inspired by things that happened to us through out the year, such as relationships and things that may have pissed us off.
What were some of the highlights of 2003?
Getting this record out because it took a long time. We spent 8 months just writing songs and demo-ing songs at our studio. It just took forever. We wrote 20 songs and we wanted to make sure that every song on the record was absolutely as strong as it could be. Then we spent about three or four months recording, so it was a really long process. Now that the record is finally out, I am really proud of it and it is everything that I had hoped it would be.
Were you really relieved when it was finally complete. Like, “I can’t believe it is finally finished.”
Yeah. With the other records it seemed like we did them so fast that we didn’t really have time to think about them.
Was there any low points last year?
There was a point where I was getting really burned out on writing. I was getting tired of it, and I felt like I needed a break. But, the label was pushing me to write more songs, which wasn’t very fun.
I can understand. They were pushing you to be creative but you couldn’t be, which I’m sure was very frustrating.
Yeah.
What did you do to get over that slump?
We took a couple of weeks off and I went out to the desert and went four wheelin’. You have to step away from it every once in a while – just live a little bit and get some creativity flowing.
How did you spend New Year’s Eve?
I just hung out and went to a friend’s house. Nothing too spectacular.
Low-key and local.
Yup.
Does the band have any specific goals for 2004?
We’re just going to keep on pushing ahead. I don’t have any unrealistic goals of being the biggest band in the world. We’re just going to do what we do. We have some good tours coming up. We’re going to stay on tour for the rest of this year and just keep on pushing ahead.
So aside from the KoRn tour, do you know what else is lined up, or can you say what else is lined up?
We have a couple of really big tours planned in the U.S. in the spring and in the summer, which are not 100% confirmed so I don’t want to give anything away. But there’s some really good stuff coming up, and we’ll be heading out to Europe in the summertime to play some festivals.
So it looks like everyone will have a chance to see you guys live this year.
I’m sure we’ll probably play the U.S. at least three more times this year.
What was one of your most memorable run-ins with a fan.
I don’t know. I meet so many people. When we are on tour we meet hundreds of people every day.
Has anyone done anything really strange just to get your attention?
People actually ask me weird things all the time. Guys ask me if they can kiss me – just weird things like that. People will hug me and won’t let go, which also gets weird.
A quick hug is fine.
Yeah. But, I guess if people are not used to meeting people that they listen to or have posters up on their walls of they tend to get caught up in the moment.
Regardless of how many albums you sell – be it 10,000 or a million – you are still a celebrity to them because they are fans of your art. You may not consider your band the biggest band in the world, but to your fans your band is the biggest band in the world.
Yeah.
I was checking out the message boards on your site and Tripp seems to be very involved. Do you ever go on there and post?
I look on there and check it out every once in awhile just to get a vibe of what our hardcore fans are feeling about things. Each of us in the band takes turns periodically in regards to answering questions from the fans. Tripp is just obsessive-compulsive. He does everything to the absolute limit.
I noticed that he has his own “20 questions for the fans” section.
He is on there 24/7 non-stop.
I guess it’s good to have at least one person who is overly motivated.
It’s really good. Tripp has brought a lot of energy to the band and has really helped to revitalize things.
Is there any one thing that you can’t tour without.
I don’t know. We have it pretty cushy these days. It’s pretty comfortable. We have a nice bus with a shower. We have two buses, so everyone is not crammed onto one bus anymore. So, it’s pretty cushy these days.
Sounds like you pretty much have everything you need.
Yeah. People bring us food all the time. It’s not like the ‘Death Trip’ days when we were driving ourselves around in an RV and sleeping on top of each other.
I remember you used to have this beat up ole’ white truck. My first interview with you was in that truck behind the Roxy.
That was probably my Blazer. We used to haul all our gear around in it. But it got totaled when a drunk driver hit me.
So what is your current bling-bling ride.
(laughs) I have a ’68 Bronco that I take off-road and Vanessa has a ’72 Bronco. I also have an ’88 Blazer like my old one, but this one has Monster truck style tires. I also have a new Silverado pick-up with air-conditioning for the hot days.
You need that in Los Angeles. I don’t know how anyone can drive a car without air-conditioning out here.
This is the first vehicle that I have ever had that has air-conditioning. I like really old trucks and stuff and they never have A.C.
I have a classic Mustang and it didn’t have A.C. I used to die in the summer time, so I finally broke down and got an air-conditioning unit put in.
Oh cool.
Are there any bands out there that you would like to turn our reader’s on to?
There is one band that I have been trying to sell to everyone for a while called Deadsy. And, there are a couple of local bands that are cool as well. One is called The Ambulance. They are not signed yet, but people should definitely check them out. Tripp’s brother is the drummer of the band. There is another cool band that I actually just found out about. You may have heard of them. They are called Diminished. Those are three bands that I would like to try to help out at this point.
You probably don’t get to watch T.V. very often, but you may have heard about “Simple Life” with Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie.
Yeah, I watched about five minutes of it.
Nicole has worn a Deadsy shirt a couple of times on the show, so she is giving them a little push there too.
I think I saw that.
If you had the opportunity to interview anyone who would it be?
I’d like to interview Paul Stanley.
Really?
Yeah. I might get the opportunity at some point.
Is there anything special that you want to ask, or would it just be cool to interview him?
I would probably sit down and spend some time with him. I am really curious about the first few years when they were trying to get their act together and all the changes that they went trough and all that.
I think that would be a very good interview because he would have a different perspective about how things were back then.
Yeah.
I have to ask you this question. Do you think your fans would be disappointed if you cut your hair?
I think they would.
You think so?
Yeah. I’ve considered it from time to time because I get bored with it. But, I think it is a part of the band and a part of the stage show and I think people would be disappointed. I don’t think we would lose any fans over it, but I think some people would be disappointed.
I remember when Wisconsin Death Trip came out a lot of fans copied your hairstyle. Do they still do that?
I still see it. It’s not an easy thing to do, but there are always a few people in the crowd.
Well, that’s about it. Is there anything that you would like to add? Did I miss anything?
I have my signature guitar coming out. It’s in Guitar Player, if you want to get a cool
Flying-V.
Awesome. Who is the manufacturer?
It is coming out through Epiphone, and it is based on the Gothic Flying-V. I’ve made some changes to it and kind of simplified a few things. It’s the same guitar that I have been playing for the last year now. It should be available in a few months.
Is that the guitar that you were giving away on the Static-X website?
The Circus magazine giveaway.
Yeah. I thought about entering the contest. But now I can just buy the guitar along with the rest of your fans.
Yeah, it will be available soon.
Anything else?
I think that is it.
Be sure to say “Hi” to Wayne and the rest of the Static-X crew at www.static-x.com
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