Wayne Static doesn’t rely on catchy hooks to get his point across. Instead, he carves it in with the subtlety of a chainsaw, churning out sonic assaults of techno-adrenalin accompanying graphic lyrical expression. His new release and first solo album, Pighammer, follows a long and successful career as frontman for Static-X, with whom he toured the world and sold millions — literally millions — of albums, beginning with their first release, 1999’s Wisconsin Death Trip.
Static grew up in Shelby, Michigan, a small rural town. His musical inclinations surfaced when he was 7 years old, performing in a talent show with his sister. By seventh grade, he had discovered KISS and began focusing on his career goals. “With KISS, the theatrics made me want to be a rock star,” he says. “It was because of Paul Stanley, and it was more of a theatrical influence than a musical one. It stuck with me. I outgrew playing KISS covers and moved to what I call my depression phase — all the songs we did were slow and depressing — and from there I totally freaked out and got into grindcore and thrash metal. I was always searching for what I wanted to do musically.”
After high school, he attended Western Michigan University, where he studied math and computers for two years. “I went to college to appease my mom,” he says. “I had a scholarship, so it was a free ride. I did well in high school, so I thought, What the hell; I’ll go. My mother wanted me to have ‘something to fall back on.’ The reality is that you can’t go on with that mentality or you will fall back.”
Static relocated to Chicago, then moved to Los Angeles in 1994, where he laid the groundwork for Static-X in the midst of what at first looked like a dismal scene. “I thought it was terrible,” he says. “I couldn't believe this was L.A. The L.A. scene was very underground. It took me a year to find it, but once I did and we were able to play on some of these shows, things started building. I had pretty much given up on the music industry at that time. I wanted to live somewhere warm because the cold weather was adding to my depression. I got a job at a news monitoring service, managed the office in the evenings, had the 401K and was planning my retirement. I started Static-X to have fun and do something new, not thinking we’d take over the world or even the city. We didn’t try to get signed, had no demos or photos, we just played shows and had fun. Before, I spent too much time worrying about an 8x10, press kits, getting a demo in the right hands, and not enough about writing songs, getting band chemistry and attracting crowds. This time, I decided that the rest would happen if it was meant to be.”
Around that time, he also became vegetarian. “I’m comfortable not partaking of flesh for humanitarian reasons,” he says. “It’s wrong how meat is an industry and people don’t think about what they eat. Everyone who eats meat should be forced to kill it themselves. I’m not on a high horse, but I can’t in good conscience eat meat. It’s disgusting. My problem with the meat industry is that it enslaves the species for our use, and that’s not the way it was meant to be.”
Wayne Static is on tour to support Pighammer. Days prior to its release, he talked about the new album and the decision to go it alone.
Pighammer, pig fetish, pig foot, pig snouts — weren’t you vegetarian?
[laughs] I’m still a vegetarian, but I’ve always had a dark sense of humor, even back to the first album. So I’ve had this pighammer word in my head for years. My wife [Tera Wray] and I had a good time coming up with what we thought it was going to mean, everything from sexual positions to drug references to whatever, and we finally decided on this idea of the mad plastic surgeon using the pighammer. It’s really a metaphor for the theme of the album, which is transformation: going out as a solo artist, getting off drugs, moving to the desert, starting my own record label and this whole thing.
Why the decision to go solo now?
I’ve wanted to start my own label for a long time, actually as far back as 2006, before the Cannibal record came out. I was trying to get out of my deal with Warner Brothers because I think when you’re an established artist you don’t really need that big label. I have my fan base and there’s no reason why I shouldn’t own my records. It finally got to the point where I was able to do it. As far as the solo record, during the last tour cycle for Cult of Static in 2009, there was a vibe where none of us wanted to be there anymore. We wanted to go our separate ways, so it was a mutual thing. I wanted to do a solo project for a long time, but I knew I’d have to put the band on hold to do that. At the end of the tour cycle it seemed like the right time to finally do it.
As an established artist, you feel you don’t need a label. Thanks to the Internet and social media, many new and independent bands feel the same way.
The Internet has really changed things. Some people like it, some people don’t, and personally I think it ruined the music industry. It killed print too, I know. But it is what it is and now it’s the main tool that you use to get your music out there. Nobody makes any money anymore, so in my mind the world was a much better place without it, but it’s here and it looks like it’s here for a while, it’s not just a fad, so we just have to deal with a new world. I feel bad for new bands that still have the dream of getting signed and making money and all that, because even when I first got signed back in ’98, that was kind of the tail end of all that stuff and I was lucky to get in at the end of that phase.
In all of the aggression there’s still a sense of melody. Where does that come from?
I think my music is so different from other metal or hard rock because I don’t really listen to any of that. I listen to the stuff I listened to in high school and college — some classic rock, punk and industrial stuff and some of the dance music from the early 1990s, the Prodigy and that wave of music. Those are still my influences, and it just so happens that I like performing metal because I like screaming and crunchy guitars. That’s why my music is a lot more melodic than some of the bands out there as well. I’ve always said that a lot of metal bands scream because they’re pissed off. I scream because it’s fun.
How long has it been since you were onstage?
A long time. I’ve done some guest appearances here and there over the last couple of years, a Ramones tribute thing, Camp Freddy, I’ve been onstage with a couple of local bands in L.A., but as far as on tour playing my material, November 2009 was the last Static-X tour, so it’s been a long time.
How do you keep your voice strong with all that screaming?
It’s challenging at times if I’ve got a lot of shows back to back, but I know my voice. If it’s starting to get tired, I lay off and don’t push as hard. On tour, it’s important to get a lot of sleep and fluids and stay healthy, so I dedicate a lot of time on the road to staying healthy. That’s the biggest thing.
Twelve years worth of experience later, any advice?
There are two things. If you ever expect to get recognized, you need to develop your own style, and in my opinion, everything’s been done. What I’m doing isn’t 100 percent original, but I think I’m blending different things in a way that no one ever has before. So you have to come up with your own sound and be recognizable, whether that’s your singing or guitar playing or anything. The biggest advice I would have for anyone is always have a good time, because if you’re not having a good time, it’s going to show. That’s really why we all start playing music in the first place is to have a good time. Sometimes things get stressful and you get all caught up in the business aspect of everything and that can really suck. It even happens to me once in a while. When it does, you’ve got to take a step back and remember that you’ve just got to have fun with it.
Read more of Wayne Static’s interview here: http://www.guitarworld.com/interview-former-static-x-frontman-wayne-stat...
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