STATIC-X Bassist On Group's Comeback: 'It's Surpassed Any Expectations I've Had For It'

STATIC-X bassist Tony Campos recently spoke with Andy Hall of the Des Moines, Iowa radio station Lazer 103.3. The full conversation can be streamed below. A few excerpts follow (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On the origins of STATIC-X's resurrection:

Tony: "It started a few years ago, the idea. I felt that [late vocalist] Wayne [Static] never got the proper sendoff. I started thinking about that, and that just led to, 'Why do one show in one town? Wayne had fans everywhere. Why not bring it to all of them and give them a chance to experience the music again and pay respect to Wayne and remember the good times they all had with him and his music?' That kind of inspired the idea of, 'Let's do a tour.' With the timing as things progressed and the anniversary of 'Wisconsin Death Trip' loomed around the corner, it just made sense to do it all to coincide with the anniversary."

On whether there was still "chemistry" when the surviving members of the group's original lineup reunited:

Tony: "Yeah, actually. It was really immediate. We got in the jam room and started with 'Bled For Days', and it just came back like muscle memory. It was really natural. All the stuff off the first couple of records, that came back effortlessly. It was only some of the stuff we're doing off the later records that we were like, 'Wait, how does this go again?'"

On how he felt prior to the first "Project Regeneration" live performance:

Tony: "It was pretty intense. Sitting on the side of the stage, listening to the intro roll, listening to the audience going nuts, I haven't felt that kind of anxiety, nervousness, emotion, energy — I haven't felt that in such a long time. When we finally hit the stage, it all just exploded. It was a really awesome feeling."

On whether having a masked, unidentified vocalist performing Static's parts was always the plan:

Tony: "Not at first. [We were] just figuring out how to do it right. I knew wanted to keep it organic. Holograms are cool, but there's no energy of having someone there. We wanted to make it like the way people saw the band back in '99 when they first saw the band, and have that kind of energy. You don't get that with a hologram. I knew right away that we had to have somebody. As far as keeping the identity of the vocalist a secret, that just kind of came about to accomplish a couple of things — we didn't want the focus to be on, 'Here's STATIC-X with the new singer.' That's not what we're doing. We want to keep the focus on remembering Wayne. We don't want a 'Van Hagar' situation. Keeping the identity of the singer under wraps helps with that, and then, just the presentation – how do we represent Wayne in a cool way? We tried different things. We tried, like, a robot mask, and it looked cool, but logistically, it wasn't going to work because the guy was blind in it. There's no way he could go up and perform in that. Then we thought of other things, and we kept coming back to all these merchandise designs that we had of skulls with Wayne's hair and beard on it, and that's eventually how we came across the mask idea... It doesn't really matter who it is behind the mask. It's what it represents."

On how it feels to look across the stage at someone mimicking Static in such a manner:

Tony: "That's a really cool thing. It really makes you feel like he's there, like his vibe and spirit are there. I'll catch him out of the corner of my eye and [think], 'Wow, that's Wayne.'"

On whether the band plans to continue on with current touring vocalist "Xer0" (rumored to be Edsel Dope of DOPE):

Tony: "We haven't thought that far ahead. Right now, we're just concentrating on making sure we do this right every night. We're enjoying each other's company. We haven't played together in well over a decade, so we're just enjoying each other's company. We haven't been on tour together in forever. We're just in the moment right now. When it's all said and done, we'll see. If it's something the fans want, I'm not opposed to it. There's still other things I want to do — I'd love to go work with MINISTRY again; I'd love to play with the Cavalera brothers again. I don't know – we'll see."

On the success of the "Project Renegeration" tour:

Tony: "It's surpassed any expectations I've had for it. The turnouts have been mindblowing. Three-quarters of the shows have been sold out, and the fan reactions have been overwhelmingly positive. Even at the meet-and-greets, people will admit that they were a little skeptical, but after seeing it, they're convinced that this was the right way to do it. It feels good."

STATIC-X's forthcoming album, "Project Regeneration", will include the last recordings of Static, who passed away nearly five years ago. The album will also feature the surviving members of the band's original lineup — Campos, drummer Ken Jay and guitarist Koichi Fukuda — as well as Xer0.