The remaining members of evil disco metal heavyweights Static-X are honouring the legacy of their classic breakout album, Wisconsin Death Trip, by reuniting the original line-up and performing music from the album. Joining Static-X on the Australia tour will be the prince of horror punk Wednesday 13 and industrial-esque, hard rocking veterans Dope. We talk to Tony Campos, original bassist for Static-X and also currently with Fear Factory to find out how the return of Static-X started and the 20th anniversary of the band’s debut album.
Andrew: Thanks for your time, really appreciated. So hows things? You guys getting ready for the tour?
Tony: Yeah we just finished up rehearsal about an hour ago so yeah we’ve been good. We’ve been rehearsing for about 3 weeks now, we got another week to go before we hit the road for this first US tour and things are coming along man, things are sounding good.
Andrew: I just spoke to Dez from Devildriver just the other day and he seemed pretty excited about going on this run with you guys so things seem to be going pretty well with everyone at the moment.
Tony: Yeah it’s going to be really cool man.
Andrew: Well we are looking forward to seeing you in Australia, it’s been some time since we’ve seen Static-X. Obviously we have seen you with other bands over the years as well but this Australia run is going to be very special with the 20 years of the Wisconsin Death Trip album. How do you feel about that album now 20 years later, it’s a remarkable thing to really achieve.
Tony: Yeah it’s crazy to think back, it’s been that long since we all started this adventure. It’s pretty cool, that record has touched so many people and still on people’s playlists 20 years later. It’s a really good feeling man.
Andrew: I would imagine those songs are still fun to play. When you said you were rehearsing these songs, what has it been feeling like to play these songs again?
Tony: Yeah it’s been a lot of fun man, these songs are just good fun songs to play. We hadn’t played them in such a long time, particularly the songs off Wisconsin Death Trip. It all just clicked back like muscle memory, it all just came back so quick. It was only the later songs that we were kind of like, ‘How does this go again?’ [laughs].
Andrew: [laughs] It’s a great album, I listen to it all the time. It’s aged well, it’s held up quite well over the years. But aside from that, what is the setlist looking like? Are we expecting a bit of a mix of everything or are you going to be focusing more on that album more than anything?
Tony: Yeah the majority of the set will be songs off that first record and then we’ll fill out the rest of the time with “the hits”. But yeah we will be playing the majority of that first record.
Andrew: OK cool so having this memorial to Wayne Static and bringing back Static-X to the world like this, what sparked the idea to do this? What inspired you to want to celebrate not only 20 years of the album but also the band as well?
Tony: Well it all kind of really started with these 5 demos that Wayne had done that he gave to a producer friend of ours shortly before his passing, who then gave them to me and I kind of sat on them for a few years. Then around 2015 I think, I had some down time so I started writing music and revisited these demos and that’s when I reached out to the guys and really tried to explore whether or not we could do something with this stuff and finish these songs off for Wayne. So in the process of reaching out for help with this stuff, our original producer Ulrich Wild turned me on to these 3 tracks that didn’t make the “Start A War” record and so we re-worked the music and kept Wayne’s vocal performances along with one of the demos that we originally got, we had 4 songs with Wayne’s vocals on them.
So at that point we were exploring whether or not we could do something live and so in the process of looking for the live backing tracks, we found an additional 7/8 demos that Wayne had done around the “Start A War” era and the majority of that stuff was only vocal tracks. I guess the music on the tapes with the riffs he had written were lost so we had to write all the music to go along with those vocal tracks. So now we’re at the point where the majority of the songs on this new album coming out will feature Wayne’s vocals. So as things progressed and with the anniversary coming up, it just made sense to do all this to coincide with the anniversary of our first record.
Andrew: Yeah it’s a fitting tribute obviously, were you surprised to find this material that was sort of sitting around?
Tony: Yeah absolutely, particularly the later stuff. That was stuff that none of us had ever heard before so yeah, that was really a very pleasant surprise for sure.
Andrew: Is it still called Project Regeneration or have you renamed it to something else?
Tony: Yeah we’re sticking with that title.
Andrew: Do you have a release date at all? What’s the latest with that, when do you think we might see this come out in the future?
Tony: No official release date yet. We’re in the process of finishing up all the tracks, we actually started handing stuff off to our producer Ulrich Wild, he’s going to mix the record. The plan is to finish all the tracking by the time we leave for this first tour so Ulrich can mix at his leisure and by the time we get back from this first run the record will be mixed and then we can have the record out hopefully in the Fall so that’s what we’re shooting for.
Andrew: Nice well we are looking forward to hearing these songs. Obviously we’ve heard a little taste of it, some snippets here and there and it’s got that trademark Static-X sound. I know Dez has been involved with this as well, what’s his involvement? Is he spearheading some of this stuff as well?
Tony: He’s been managing the band so he’s been helping us do all the legwork to get all the things up and running and making sure we can pull this off and actually take this out on the road. We still want him to guest vocal on one of the tracks but he’s been busy with Devildriver and such but we’ll make that happen!
Andrew: Oh cool! This whole thing seems like a bit of a nostalgia trip, at least for some of the hardcore fans like myself, a trip back in time to hear some of these songs again. Static-X was a huge band down in Australia as well back in the day, have you been thinking of some of those memories over those years and going back on these songs and thinking about all the stories and the tours that you guys were involved with?
Tony: Yeah absolutely man, that’s why we’re doing this. Remembering all the good times we had back when we started doing this and remembering Wayne for the guy he was. After rehearsals inevitably we sit around for like 15-20 minutes while we’re trying to stop sweating and we just start talking about the old days, all the goofy stuff that used to happen back in the day.
Andrew: Do you remember the first time Static-X came down to Australia?
Tony: Yeah I think that was the tour we did opening for Korn, it was Korn, Fear Factory and Static-X. That was a lot of fun man, to be able to play those big venues with Korn for the first time in Australia.
Andrew: Well it’s great to see Static-X back in Australia, it’s a great package with Wednesday 13 and Dope as well. Do you have any final words at all for the Aussie fans?
Tony: I’m just so excited that we can bring this to Australia one more time. Oz was always one of our better if not best overseas crowds to play in front of, even going out there with other bands I’ve been playing with it’s always been fun and the crowds have always been awesome so I’m glad we can bring Static-X back to Oz one more time.
STATIC-X + WEDNESDAY 13 + DOPE August 2019 Australian Tour
Thursday 22nd – Brisbane – Eatons Hill
Friday 23rd – Melbourne – Croxton
Saturday 24th – Sydney – Metro Theatre
Monday 26th – Adelaide – The Gov
Tuesday 27th – Perth – Rock Rover
Tickets from: https://metropolistouring.com/
