KAOS2000 Magazine interview with Wayne Static & Ken Jay of Static-X



Wayne Static / Ken Jay - Static-X

OzzFest 2000 - Shoreline Amphitheater - Mt. View, CA - July 2000

Bands from Los Angeles come and go as do many of the bands from the industrial driven heavy metal scene. Only the rare few really survive as viable commercial outfits who can play what they want and still scare up the bigger audience. Amongst those type of bands comes a new player on the block, Static-X. Playing hard and fierce, although not always at breakneck speeds, Static-X offers up a fresh sound in the industrial tinged metal scene. Melding some repetitious rhyme for rhythmic challenges along with some deadly crushing guitar and programming, Static-X leads the way for some new sounds while picking up where past bands such as Helmet left off.

We had the chance to meet with singer/guitarist Wayne Static [Wayne Richard Wells] and drummer/programmer Ken Jay at the recent OzzFest 2000 show to chat with them about what makes them tick. Although they seemed to have just woken up, or were getting the sleep out of their eyes, at 3 p.m., they were nice enough to share their history and some witty banter along the way.

K2KJ: When did you guys actually form?
WS: Uh, actually when I was conceived. That was the actual formation part.
KJ: Me too, actually, in the formation of me.

K2KJ: OK, that takes care of the personal history, now as far as the band...
WS: Well, Ken and I started playing together around 1989 or 90. We go back a long ways. This band actually started in 1994. We didn't get [guitarist] Koichi until 1996 or 97 really. Ken and Tony and I have been playing together since 1994.

K2KJ: As far as the videos and your look and all, are you guys serious or are you parodying metal in a way?
WS: We just like to joke around and have fun. My whole thing is that I wanted to get noticed from the beginning and that was just one way how to do it. I like to try to look interesting onstage, to give people something to look at.
KJ: For us, onstage, it's kind of interesting but it's also, we're all about comfort. It's Southern California clothes.
WS: We got tired of trying to look like fashion plates.

K2KJ: [In reference to Wayne's eccentric "scared to death" hairstyle] Where did you get the "Slim Jim" look from?
(In reference to the Slim Jim TV commercial - ed.)
WS: They copied me. We should sue. I've been doing this for 15 years.

K2KJ: What do you use to keep it up?
WS: Viagra works pretty good. Cock rings work pretty good.

K2KJ: What do you use for your hair as well?
WS: Yes.

K2KJ: Yes and yes?
WS: Yes.

K2KJ: What are the background vocals saying in the song "I'm With Stupid"?
WS: Oh, that's the Shovel Lady. "I grab my shovel." "I beat him in the skull and took him down."

K2KJ: This is a real person? Where is it from?
WS: This is real. It was sampled off of the news. Her neighbor had left on vacation. Her and her husband, I don't know the details but somebody broke into the neighbor's house while they were on vacation. So these two went over there and literally creased the guy's skull with a shovel.
KJ: They actually showed it on the news. The guy was hamburger. It was really nasty.
WS: This was somewhere out in the backwoods of Southern California. The lady was on the news and they were interviewing her as though she was a hero. She lived in a trailer.

K2KJ: That is what the video is based on?
WS: Yeah. She was telling the story, "I grabbed my shovel, beat him in the skull and took him down."

K2KJ: What's with the title being "I'm With Stupid" as opposed to the more obvious "Loser"?
WS: I don't know. It just turned out that way.
KJ: The song was about, well part of the song...
WS: He wrote part of the song and I wrote part of the song, so we each have different ideas of what it means.
KJ: It's kind of about the same thing. It's just about this stupid guy who people tell him that he's stupid so he doesn't make any effort to be anything else than stupid.
WS: For me, it's about myself being called a loser by other people.

K2KJ: What is the book that inspired the title of the CD?
KJ: It's called "Wisconsin Death Trip". It was published in 1974. It was from the 1800's. It's a historical book about people who died and what went on in this Wisconsin town.

K2KJ: Are you guys originally from Chicago, as mentioned in your bio?
WS: We lived there for a while. We're based in L.A. I lived in Chicago for 8 years but I grew up in Michigan. So, Chicago was my home for a while.

K2KJ: What's it like playing there?
WS: The first couple of times playing there was kind of weird, but now it's just like any other stop.

K2KJ: According to your bio, Ken, did you and Billy Corgan [of Smashing Pumpkins] work together in a record store?
KJ: No. Billy was a mutual friend of ours. It was different record stores, different everything. This is the easiest thing. Billy and I were friends and Billy and Wayne were friends, but Wayne and I didn't know each other.
WS: Billy introduced us, that was the whole connection. That was a long time ago before he was a rock star. He's a good guy.

K2KJ: Since Koichi is from Japan, have you guys ever played in Japan?
KJ: We're going after OzzFest. We get about five days off and then go. We've only got a couple of shows there. It's kind of weird.

K2KJ: How did you guys hook up with Koichi?
KJ: He was in the practice space across the hall from us. We put and ad up and he was the only one who answered.

K2KJ: Have you played Europe yet?
KJ: Yeah. Three times. England, France, Germany, Holland, Scotland, and.... Canada. That's a foreign country.

K2KJ: How did that go over?
WS: It was good. Europeans still like metal. They speak weird.
KJ: They talk different.
WS: That's about it.
KJ: The rest of the culture is different but the shows are amazing.

K2KJ: I like the idea of your lyrics not being "industry standard".
WS: We try not to write too cliche and we don't get preachy or anything like that. We just want to entertain people. We're not here to teach a lesson.

K2KJ: What do you generally write about?
WS: Generally just about whatever.
KJ: He [Wayne] tends to write more imagery-oriented stuff and I write more psychologically-oriented stuff. It's also that we are four really different guys, politically in our background, so it's kind of got to fit that. The other guys, we never told them that they couldn't write lyrics. It's always been where they just never submitted anything.

K2KJ: How does the songwriting work?
KJ: Whatever works. He [Wayne] comes in with the basic idea and we throw in our two cents from there.
WS: You know, I was thinking about this the other day. In just about every interview, they always ask us how we write our songs but yet I've never read an interview about any other band where they are asked about how they write their songs.

K2KJ: Well, I come from playing in a band so it's interesting to me how others write as well.
WS: I've never read an interview anywhere where they talk about how they write their songs.

K2KJ: You will now. I like the way your songs are structured. Actually, I listen to your stuff maybe a bit much and will end up hating it before too long.
KJ: (laughing)
WS: We start off with the programming first and that's what gives the song its structure.
KJ: He'll come in with the main riff which generally ends up as the chorus riff.

K2KJ: Is anything ever lyric-based to start with or is it always music-based?
KJ: No, always [music]. There's been a couple of times where it has been, but not on this record.

K2KJ: How do you figure on forming the lyrics around what you come up with?
WS: I have rhythmic ideas. We write the lyrics to fit what you want to sing.

K2KJ: You tend to do a lot of repetition in your lyrics. Is that for a rhythmic rhyming purpose or just the way it comes out?
WS: I have a really poor memory. I can't remember very much. That kind of stuff, simplicity is what this band is all about. I think that it has more of an impact and stays in your head better.

K2KJ: You guys did this album in 1998 and then it came out in 1999? Why did it take so long to catch on?
WS: That's a good question. I don't know. It took a while, but it's like with any band. We're not a pop band. It's not like Papa Roach or something. Their record came out and they were huge. We're not that kind of band. We had to rely on touring and touring is a very slow process.
KJ: It's going to be the same probably with the next album too. We don't expect the next album to come out and go gold. It will take a little faster than this one.
WS: You understand what I'm saying though, we're not a radio band.

K2KJ: It depends, they play some wild stuff up here in the Bay Area sometimes.
WS: Yeah, but that's not the norm.
KJ: There are very few radio stations like that. It's so weird too because all these bands that have come around that are from L.A. and there's no station like that in L.A. Up here there's two or three stations that play this. It's wild.

K2KJ: Where did you get your publishing company name - Buttmunch?
WS: We each get our own publishing name. That one is Tony's. Mine is just Static-X Music and Ken's is AK41.

K2KJ: It seemed as though Warner Bros. had some of your publishing. Do they?
KJ: No.

K2KJ: So, back to the "I'm With Stupid" video, that was all about the Shovel Lady story then?
WS: Yeah. We thought it would be funny to do it with all the disco suits and all.

K2KJ: Now, you have two others on the CD-Extra?
KJ: One's just a live one with some old live footage. The other one, "Push It", is with animated stuff. It's really cool.

K2KJ: Who did the animation?
WS: Nick Olololowitz (mumbling) or something.
KJ: We can't say his name. Olowitz?

K2KJ: Nick O then?
KJ: Yeah, Nick O.

K2KJ: Are you going to be releasing a home video for the fans of live or MTV stuff?
KJ: It's going to be a rockumentary. Actually, not a rockumentary but a doc. It goes from when the band was signed to clear until now. I'd like to have one after the second album too.

K2KJ: Are you going to be playing any new songs or anything today?
WS: Nothing new. No surprises really.
KJ: We're doing a Ministry cover. "Burning Inside". We recorded that for The Crow: Salvation movie soundtrack.

K2KJ: Did you see that movie?
KJ: Did it come out?

K2KJ: It sucked!
KJ: Was it worse than the second one?

K2KJ: It makes me want to go out and get the second one.
KJ: Ouch!

K2KJ: Plus, with the exception of you and maybe one other band, the soundtrack is weak.
WS: Yeah, the soundtrack is all right. I'm not a big soundtrack fan anyway though. Usually soundtracks have a lot of filler.
KJ: Well, it's been great for us to get the music out there.

From there we went on to talking about The Crow and some other films before they had to get ready for their set coming up.

Written by and Photos © 2000 Philip Anderson

Philip Anderson is a musician, in addition to being a writer/photographer. He has performed as a guitarist/vocalist, as well as songwriter, in several bands over the past 20 years. As a writer and photographer, he has been published by several magazines and in several books, and had his works appear on television.

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