Static-X interview with Wayne Static

by Adam Warner – 2009

 

Hey Wayne.
Hey Adam.

It is ok that I call you Wayne instead of Mr Static right?
Ah, you can call me Mr Static *laughs*

How’s the tour going?
Having a good time as usual; having a party every night.

With this tour, you’re currently doing the Snocore but then in just a few more days you guys break off and get support from Bury Your Dead. Is it hard to change gears like that at all?
Not really, it doesn’t really matter for us. The only reason we’re doing it really is because Snocore was hitting all the markets that I wanted to hit. I just figured we were already out there so we might as well keep on rolling.

Pretty soon you’ll be touring along the California coast, is there anywhere in California that you are a particular fan of?
I like going home *laughs* I’m looking forward to going home for a few days. My favorite area of California is really the desert, Joshua Tree is really beautiful.

Do you ever get back to Michigan much at all?
No, not really; just when we play there pretty much. There isn’t really anything there, it’s a nice place to visit but there are no beaches there and I’m really a beach person.

Static-X has toured all over the world and I don’t think there are very many places that you haven’t been to, is there anywhere in particular that you like to vacation to when you’re not on the clock?
I would love to take a vacation to Hawaii, we played there once and it was beautiful. I like hanging out in Australia, beautiful country, Japan also. But I don’t have the time for vacations.

No rest for the wicked huh?
No, there’s no time for resting at all. We’re always performing or writing or recording or something.

A few weeks ago you had posted a personal playlist on imeem, one of the tracks that stands out was “Faithfully” by Journey.
Journey is awesome.

What is it about that song compared to the others on the list that stand out for you?
Journey is one of my all-time favorite bands, probably in my top 5 favorites. “Faithfully” just happens to be one of their best songs, it’s just a great song. Steve Perry is just absolutely incredible and he really shines in that song.

“Cult of Static” just hit the streets not long ago, how do you like the album?
It’s my favorite so far, the best work I’ve ever done. I think it’s awesome and I hope the fans like it too
.
Previous albums have been more simplified and this album seems to have a lot more sampling and layers, was that intentional?
Yeah, I really wanted to layer it up again. In the first couple records we did a lot more of that as far as building up things. I spent a lot of time on keyboards, way more than I ever have before. That was definitely a goal, to keep the rawness and heaviness of “Cannibal” but then really layer it up and make it a lot more deep.

The track “Z28” is obviously about a Camaro Z28, so is that a Z28 that you own?
I have a ’69 Camaro Z28 which is an awesome and fun car. That song was definitely inspired by it.

What color is your Z28?
It’s silver with black stripes.

The first single to hit the radio was “Stingwray” which is about the animal or the car?
It’s really about my wife. I bought her a Corvette Stingray for a wedding gift and most of the record is about my wife and having a great time. Her middle name is Wray so I just thought it would be fun to call it StingWRAY.

Speaking of Tara, you guys have been married for about a year and a half now, so how has that been going?
Oh it’s great, she travels with me, and she’s sitting right next to me right now. We’re inseparable and it’s awesome.

Is she actually performing on “Terafied”?
The vocal samples, yeah that’s her. Also in “Grind 2 Halt” I had put together a little piece as well. Some conversations we had late one night and put that in there as well.

On “Lunatic” you had Dave Mustaine do the solo. How was it working with him?
It was fine, Dave and I are really good friends and he’s a really cool, laid back guy. He’s very nice and it was a pleasure working with him. Working with him on guitar solos was frickin’ awesome.

Speaking of solos, there seems to be quite a bit more solos on “Cult of Static” than on previous albums, was that planned out as well?
Yeah, I love guitar solos, I always have. Our original intent was to work in guitar solos on the second record but Koichi [Fukuda] quit the band before we started recording. I’m not a lead player, I’m a James Hetfield kind of guy and hold down the crunch, know what I mean? So when we got Koichi back in 2005 that allowed us to start incorporating solos and that’s where we’re at now. I love great guitar solos, I consider it another great way to write a song.

Some people say that writing a guitar solo is just as difficult as writing a track itself, would you say there is truth to that?
It’s definitely harder than people would think. It’s not like you can just go up and start shredding a bunch of notes and have a guitar solo. I would say that it’s more like writing the vocal track, it has to have a beginning, a middle and an end and it all has to make sense. It has to be catchy and I think there is quite an art to writing a good solo.

After the main album was released, there were four bonus tracks available. Of the four bonus tracks three were covers, did you hand pick those covers?
Yeah, there’s actually a couple more out there that we haven’t released yet as well. We had 5 cover songs and we decided to just do a bunch of 80’s metal cover songs and just have a good time with them and just play them straight. We didn’t really worry about changing anything up. Each person in the band and producer John Travis we all picked a song and went and hammered it out. I think the Def Leppard song is the one I chose which I don’t think anyone has heard yet which is “Rock! Rock! Till you drop” so that’ll pop up someday soon. I think John Travis actually picked that one cuz I had never heard it before and he pulled it up on the internet for me and it’s fucking crazy.

I bet it sounds great too…
I think it turned out great. For me it’s really challenging vocally to try and sign that kind of stuff because that is so far removed from my regular singing. For me everything is very staccato and rhythmic oriented and a song like that has all of the laid back melodic kind of stuff, it was really different for me.

Speaking of your vocals, what kind of training do you have to do?
I just pace myself ya know, I don’t sing it all away. I know my voice pretty well and I can tell when I need to back off or if I have it in me to push a little harder. I just watch myself and pace myself all the time and get through it somehow.

What is “You Am I” all about?
Well, “You Am I” is about my wife and how we’re one. “Cult of Static” really is a tribute to our fans. When we figure out an album title, I like to wait until the end when the album is completely done and recorded and mastered. Then sit back and listen to it and figure out a great title for it. It’s been 10 years since our first record so we wanted to give a thank you to our fans with “Cult of Static”. Our fans are so loyal just like cult members.

Great, thanks very much for your time Wayne.
Thanks.