Static-X is a Los Angeles-based industrial metal band formed in 1994 by guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist Wayne Static (born Wayne Wells) and drummer Ken Jay (born Kenneth Lacey). The two had met at a Virgin Records store in Chicago in 1987 and had been in a blues band, named Deep Blue Dream, with bassist Eric Harris. After Billy Corgan joined the band, it became clear that Billy was more focused on his side project The Smashing Pumpkins and Deep Blue Dream disbanded in the early 1990’s.
In 1994, Wayne and Ken would be convinced by Corgan to move to Los Angeles in order to recruit a lead guitarist, who they found in Emerson Swinford. The band would initially go by the name Battery and released a demo album later that year. Afterwards, Tony Campos would join as Battery’s bassist and they would subsequently be renamed to Drill. Drill would release one demo tape before Swinford would depart to focus on touring and session work. He would be replaced by Koichi Fukuda and the band would go through another rename, this time to Static. After realizing there were several other bands with the same name, they quickly added an X in order to distinguish themselves. The band would release a demo album shortly after in 1997.
After being signed to Warner Bros. Records in February 1998, Static-X would get to work and released their debut album, Wisconsin Death Trip, on March 23, 1999. The album was the band’s breakthrough hit, selling more than a million copies in the United States and reaching #107 on the Billboard 200. Three singles would be released for the album: “Push It” on June 10, 1999, “I’m with Stupid” on February 11, 2000, and “Bled for Days” on April 5, 2000. Static-X would tour in support of the album and was asked to appear twice at Ozzfest to support fellow industrial metal band Fear Factory.
Wayne would begin writing for their sophomore effort in 2000 while on tour. Due to the uneven relationship in songwriting, he would tell the rest of the band that royalties for the next album wouldn’t be split evenly. This caused tension in the band as Wayne resented his bandmates for not helping with songwriting while the rest of the band felt Wayne was pushing them out of the band. This caused Fukuda to leave the band during the early stages of recording. While Tripp Eisen would be hired as his replacement, he did not perform any guitar work for the album which was done solely by Wayne. The album, titled Machine, released on May 22, 2001 and spawned three singles: 2001’s “Black and White”, 2001’s “This is Not”, and 2002’s “Cold”. Despite receiving mixed reviews, Machine sold 500,000 copies in the US.
Work for the band’s third album, Shadow Zone, began in March 2002. During the demoing process, Warner Bros. told the band they would not be allowed to work with Ulrich Wild, who had produced their previous albums. The label insisted on having Josh Abraham as the album’s producer. This along with both the label and Wayne insisting that the album go in a more melodic direction caused tension in the band. Ken Jay left the band for unknown reasons two days before recording was set to begin. Josh Freese would be credited as the drummer for Shadow Zone. Wild would also work on the album as a mixing engineer. Recording was finished by June 2003 and the album itself released on October 7, 2003. The album would be supported by two singles, 2003’s “The Only” and 2004’s “So”. Shadow Zone peaked at #20 on the Billboard 200 and sold more than 175,000 copies. This showed an increasing decline in sales between albums.
After recording finished for Shadow Zone, the band was still without a drummer and so Nick Oshiro was recruited to be the permanent replacement for Ken Jay. After the release of compilation album Beneath… Between… Beyond… in July 2004, work began on the band’s next album. On February 10, 2005, Eisen would be arrested for statutory sexual contact with a minor in Orange County, California before being released later that day on bail. After another arrest on the 24th in New Jersey for luring with a motor vehicle, he was subsequently fired from the band and Koichi Fukuda returned to fill in on guitar work. Start a War released on June 14, 2005 with “I’m the One” and “Dirthouse” being the album’s singles, both released in 2005. “I’m the One” would be featured in the soundtrack for American sports video game Greg Hastings' Tournament Paintball while “Skinnyman” would be featured in 2005 American racing video game Need for Speed: Most Wanted and “Start a War would be featured in video games Project Gotham Racing 3 and WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw 2006. After touring was completed, Static-X signed with Reprise Records.
The first hint of new material from the band came in 2006 when the song “No Submission” was featured on the soundtrack for American horror mystery film Saw III. On January 18, 2007, the band revealed the track listing for a new album, titled Cannibal, on their MySpace page. Two singles would be released in February 2007, “Cannibal” and “Destroyer”, before the album released on April 3, 2007. The album peaked at #36 on the Billboard 200.
Work began on the band’s sixth album in January 2008. The first new material, “Lunatic”, would be released in November 2008 in the soundtrack for American action film Punisher: War Zone. On December 11, 2008, Wayne Static revealed the album was going to be named Cult of Static as well as both the track listing and a release date. The sole single for the album, “Stingwray”, was released on February 17, 2009 and the album released a month later on March 17. Shortly before touring began, Nick Oshiro left the band due to clashes with Wayne over Wayne’s substance abuse and was replaced by Will Hunt.
By 2010, the cracks were starting to show in the band’s makeup due to rising tensions causing a toxic work environment. Wayne announced that he would be focusing on a solo project, titled Pighammer. On June 22, 2010, Wayne announced that Tony Campos had left the band although he denied that the band was on the verge of breaking up. Instead, he claimed the band was taking the time to work on solo projects. Tony would deny leaving the band although he would become part of the lineup for Brazilian metal band Soulfly in June 2011. The band was deemed on hiatus at that point and Wayne would release a solo album titled Pighammer on October 4, 2011.
In 2012, Wayne decided to reform the band without any of the other members' involvement. In June 2013, Wayne announced that Static-X was officially breaking up, claiming the reason to be a rights dispute between him and Campos. Tour manager Eric Dinkelman denied the claim in 2019, saying the real reason for the breakup was due to a drug bust. Despite the breakup, Wayne would continue to perform Static-X material under his own name. On November 1, 2014, Wayne died at the age of 48 at his home. While his wife Tera Wray denied that drugs were involved, the cause of death was concluded to be an overdose of prescription drugs and alcohol.
On October 23, 2018, Tony and Ken Jay announced the return of Static-X in honor of Wayne along with a new album, Project Regeneration. The album includes vocals Wayne recorded for songs he wrote with the band over the years that had previously gone unreleased and was split up into two parts. During this reunion, the band also touted a mysterious vocalist in face paint who was only known as Xer0. While his identity has never been officially revealed by the band, fans began to speculate that Xer0 was Dope vocalist Edsel Dope. Dope initially denied these claims, but would later admit to his role and said he views Xer0 as completely separate from his work with Dope. Part 1 of the Project Regeneration series released on July 15, 2020 and Part 2 released on January 26, 2024. In March 2024, the band announced a documentary was being produced titled Evil Disco: The Rise, Fall, and Regeneration of Static-X. When asked if there would be any all-new material from the band, Tony Campos responded that it was up to the fans.
