Static-X with Raven Black, Wednesday 13, and Dope at the NorVa in Norfolk, Virginia October 20, 2019

MusicMattersMagazine’s contributing member, Glenn Woodell, had the opportunity to have a special interview with bassist and founding member of Static-X, Tony Campos.

MMM: How did the reunion in 2018 come about? Had this been in the works for some time?

Campos: Koichi and I never lost touch. Kenny and I reconnected back in 2012 I would say so we’d all been in touch. We didn’t seriously start talking about this until like a couple years ago. You know with the 20th anniversary of Wisconsin Death Trip coming up, we were like, if we’re going to ever do something, you know, this would be the time to do it and you know we can tie everything in, you know with the anniversary, give Wayne the send off he deserved, and ya know, make it really cool for all the fans. Yeah, the goal was to just make it cool for everybody.

MMM: Both you and Ken had some rather serious conflicts with Wayne in the past. And now, five years after his passing and now six months on this tour, which is obviously in his memory, any reflections on your relationships with him and what this tour means to you now?

Campos: The thing about memories and remembering stuff…yeah, yeah, there were some bad times, sure. But at the end of the day we’re here to remember all the good times we had with Wayne, particularly the early days ya know when we first got this thing up and running and even before that. Ya know, Kenny knew Wayne for years before they both moved to LA and I met them. For us, just remembering the guy he was for his bouts with addiction. So that’s the focus for us. I don’t want to dwell on the negative stuff that happened. Ya know, I wanna forget that stuff and I just wanna remember the good times we had. Getting together with Kenny and Koichi again after all this time and just getting out here and playing all the songs again for the fans, ya know, that helps bring that stuff to the forefront as opposed to all the negative stuff. I was in the band with Wayne for 15 years. Those years were great.

MMM: These good feelings and memories, are these reflected in the naming of the tour, Regeneration?

Yeah. It’s kinda like we’re renewing those good vibes and good feelings that we had back in the days when we first started doing this. We were all just, we were in a state of shock. Like, oh my God we’re on Ozzfest and oh my God we’re on tour bus, so yeah it’s like it’s just regenerating all those good vibes.

Campos: So, where will you go from here? Will we be seeing Koichi hanging around, and more importantly, from the fan standpoint, is there anything you want to share as far as vocals in the future?

Well, in the immediate future we’re gonna finish out this tour and go finish up this record. Once we’re done with the record, then it seems, judging by fan reaction it seems like something they’d like to see again. There’s definitely a possibility to continue doing this. I’m not opposed to it. I still wanna go do other things. Yeah, I’d love to go work with Ministry again. Go work with the Cavaleras again. I have a couple of things at the end of the year I gotta do with my side project Asesino But yeah, it sounds like the fans are really into it and want to see the band continue.

Once we get done with the record. That’s the main thing. We’ll get the record out and then we’ll figure it out from there.

MMM: Just a little trivial question. Beneath, Between and Beyond. Any connection with Beneath, Between, and Behind by Rush?

Campos: Uh, no not really [laughter]. I think once it was out we were like, oh yeah, wasn’t that a Rush thing? [laughter] At the time we kept comparing it to Bed, Bath and Beyond [laughter].