Static X
Static X: The Legend Is Back
Static X may have been gone, but it wasn’t forgotten. They are back and uniting old fans and new while honoring their friend. Ken Jay says that it is such a fantastic thing to do this again with an older perspective. It means so much more because of what they were trying to convey with honoring Wayne. He says that you are caught up in the moment when you are younger and doing tours and making music. You live in the now, and you are not focusing on the future. You think it will be there forever. In doing Project Regeneration, they feel like there’s a future to be had.
One reason behind this project was to deal with Wayne’s death. Ken personally hadn’t spoken about it with anyone besides his immediate family, and it was hard. He felt a deep, personal friendship with Wayne and felt saddened when the relationship came apart. It was harder for him to deal with Wayne’s death as a result. His father was the one who convinced him to rejoin the band. His advice was that it might help him be able to deal with it. He could tell that Ken missed his friends and thought that doing this would benefit his son.
Wayne’s Guitar
Ken doesn’t believe in closure. He says the concept doesn’t apply because it’s not that things get easier with time; it’s that you are more understanding of what you are facing, and you can deal with it better. A perfect example is a memory he has of Wayne’s guitar. He remembers a man at a show in Seattle that had bought one of Wayne’s guitars on eBay. It turned out that his ex-girlfriend had sold it. She emailed Ken and asked him to authenticate it. When the man bought it, Wayne autographed it for him. He brought it to a show later on so the rest of the band could sign it. When Wayne got possession of the guitar, Wayne and Ken lived together, and he remembered what Wayne traded for it.
Ken reminisces that a lot of Death Trip was spent with the pair spending time together. They would make music together and take the guitar to and from practice. Wayne loved the guitar. When the man brought it to the show, it was an emotional moment for Ken. So when people speak of closure, he doesn’t think it’s that easy.
Static X And Project Regeneration
The support from the fans for Project Regeneration has been both excellent and overwhelming. Ken continues to say that it is more than humbling, and Static X is honored by the fans. He says that they didn’t know how this would play out. Though you can feel good about recording, you never know how people will react. He continues that if you had told him in the past that this would be happening, he doesn’t think the group would have believed it. Ken loves that the record is fun. When speaking with a friend of his in a local band, the friend told him that he doesn’t know that he would want to do what Static X is doing, but he was wondering what their secret was.
Ken says the songs are fun but have an edge and twisted sense of humor. Terminator Oscillator, in particular, has a fast kick, and it’s not a typical song. It’s Ken’s favorite on Project Regeneration. He feels that there is enough new to the song to see what the band is. There is also enough old to see the fun, violent edge and dance that the song offers. In addition to that, Ken has songs that he would like to re-record and have Koichi’s touch on them and see how they would be now.
A Unique Style
Static X has their style, and it makes them want to have fun. The music reflects that, and fans rock out to their music at every show. Ken says that he’s glad that other people are having fun with the album along with the band. Hearing Wayne sing again, however, has been emotional. When he heard his voice, he was immediately taken back to the days of Goth, even after so many years had passed.
He has heard from family and friends that one of the things that set Static X apart from others is that they are a real band. It’s that quality that makes them stand out. Their music is brutal, raw, and screaming. It’s primal in a way that makes it relatable for the people watching and listening to them. It can be therapeutic and a release for those in the audience as well as the band themselves.
Though the pandemic made things a bit harder for producing, they continued to work hard to provide fans with the music and are steadily working on Project Regeneration 2. Having to push back the release dates slowed them down a little, and the shipping shut down as well. Therefore, fans were having trouble getting what they wanted as far as merchandise. They were going to limit touring so that everyone could have time for other projects, but they had huge shows lined up. That, unfortunately, is gone now. We are sure when shows open up again however, that Static X will jump on the chance to tour.
Let’s Travel The World
In particular, Ken has a strong desire to play live again and to have both the fans and the band get to experience that once more. However, he stresses the importance of doing this safely. He understands that the pandemic isn’t letting up yet and wants to make sure that if live shows do come back, we are doing it in a way that does not endanger anyone. He wants everyone to watch out for one another. In his personal life, he is cautious around his parents because they have health issues, and he doesn’t want anything to cause them harm either.
Ken enjoyed last year’s tour so much that it’s not a surprise that he wants to get back out there. He had never been to Australia before then, and he thought it was an incredible experience to get to go there when they had such a different emotional space. He says that it felt as if it was the beginning of something. Russia was a favorite of his as well and Ken said before they hadn’t done any comprehensive tours of Europe. They had played in London and Germany in the past, but now they were able to headline and had great support in what they were trying to achieve.
Ken also says he wants to go back to Japan. Ken says Japan would be incredible to experience. He admits that he would love to go to South America, New Zealand, and Brazil. He said if you throw a dart on a map, he’d be willing to do it as far as places they haven’t been.
Remembering Wayne
When asked what his favorite memory of Wayne was, he began to laugh. He remembers that they were not’ signed yet, but they had management and gained popularity. They were journeying to play a show. Wayne and Ken would rent a cargo van, and there were no seats. Therefore, they would use a futon that Ken had. They would have two people in front and four in the back sitting on the futon, with the equipment that was bungee corded. When they were going home at three am, Wayne began messing with the guitar tech driving.
He let Ken know that he would mess with the driver by tapping his knee and immediately began messing with the tech. Ken tapped the others and let them know what Wayne was up to. He knew he would do it because they had been together for about eight years, and he knew his sense of humor. Alerting the other band members, so that they would pay attention, they watched as Wayne began messing with the tech. The guitar tech was freaking out at being messed with, but Wayne kept it up for an hour and a half. Ken laughingly says that Wayne had such an odd sense of humor, and it created great memories. In this case, the band thought it was hilarious, and the tech was so flustered that Ken offered to drive.
His favorite memory of recording, however, was listening to Metallica with Wayne and making a demo. The bass player at the time wasn’t in the studio and went to work. When he found out that they had made a demo without him, he got irritated at not being involved and still teases Ken to this day.
A Message for Static X Fans
For the remainder of the year, everyone will finish their projects and maintain the secret project coming up. Unfortunately, Ken wasn’t at liberty to reveal what the project is, but we can bet that it will be worth the wait. The future of the band was something he could tell. Tony says if it’s something the fans want, they will do more because they are having a blast, and Ken wholeheartedly agrees. He states that Static X would like to finish volume 2 and then go from there.
Ken would like his fans to watch out for each other, and they hope to see them soon. He would also like to tell them that he’s humbled and honored about the fact that fans have grabbed on to Project Regeneration. When it started, it felt like it was a way to be a memorial. It was a way to mourn. One of the underlying themes was that it’s a memorial and a concert, but it’s a way to celebrate Wayne at its core.
He hopes it has done for the fans what it has done for the band. The more they did the shows, the more right it felt to them. He states that the response and support have been excellent. We can’t wait to see what the future holds for Static X. As dedicated as they are to the music and their fans, we’d bet we’re not going to have to wait long.
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