Static-X Considered Using a Wayne Static Hologram

There was never really a “good” way for Static-X to reunite without Wayne Static, their frontman and namesake. Having said that, I don’t think the route they chose — have Dope’s Edsel Dope do creepy Wayne Static cosplay under the name ‘Xer0’ — was the best way to go. And having said that, it could have been even worse: they could have utilized a Wayne Static hologram.

In fact, it seems, for a brief moment, they considered that very option. During a recent appearance on The SDR Show, Static-X bassist Tony Campos revealed how they settled on the whole ‘Xer0’ idea to begin with… and it grew out of ultimately not wanting to use a hologram:

 “When we were trying to figure out how we were gonna do this live, the first thing that came up was the hologram thing, and that got shot down pretty quick.

“The thing about the band for us was the energy and the vibe that we all got from the interaction the four of us had on stage, and you just don’t get that with a hologram. So that got chucked out the window pretty quickly.”

This marked the only time in history Ronnie James Dio might ever have had reason to be jealous of Wayne Static.

Campos went on:

“So we figured out it had to be somebody. Once we found Xer0 and saw and heard that he could do the job, we were, like, ‘Cool. How do we present this in a cool way that doesn’t make it about…?’ ‘Cause we didn’t wanna come out and, like, ‘Hey, here’s Static-X with their new singer.’ That’s not what we were trying to do. It was about remembering Wayne and remembering the good times we had back in the early days and remembering the fun we all had together 20 years ago touring on Wisconsin Death Trip. And so we really wanted to keep the focus on that and not on the new singer. So the idea of a mask came.”

He continued:

 “Initially, we came up with a helmet that looked like the robot from the ‘Push It’ video and even shot some video footage of Xer0 wearing that, and it looked great. Logistically, it wasn’t gonna work, though, ’cause you’re blind in the thing. And so, what are you gonna do? Have somebody walk him out to the front of the stage, make sure he doesn’t fall off the stage? So we were, like, ‘Okay, what else can we do?’ And so we thought of all these different merchandise items that we had, with skulls, with Wayne’s hair and beard, and thought, ‘Well, let’s try something like that.’ So we gave the idea to a friend of ours who designs masks for the Slipknot guys, John 5, various other people, and she came back with that Xer0 mask. And then once we put the hair up, we were, like, ‘Oh, yeah. Dude, that’s it.’ And so we went with that.”

It’s not surprising dressing Edsel up as the robot from the “Push It” video didn’t work out. Here’s what that thing looked like, in case you’ve forgotten:

So I dunno how anybody ever thought that was gonna work.

ANYWAY, Campos went on to say how he won’t confirm what we already know — that Dope is Xer0:

“Yeah, but I still like to keep that distinction, ’cause, again, I’m trying to keep the focus [on remembering Wayne].”

He also revealed that Edsel Dope wasn’t the only vocalist up for the gig:

 “I had a few ideas in my head, but he was the first to come up and actually demonstrate that he could do the job. So I was, like, ‘I don’t think I need to look any further.’ [Laughs]”

Finally, he gave up an update on the progress of the band’s next album, Project Regeneration Vol. 2:

“We’re still working on stuff. Some stuff was further along than others, and we’re a lot closer now, but we still have a lot more work to do. And I don’t wanna say a tentative release date or anything, ’cause we did that the last time and we had to delay the record a couple of times and pissed off a lot of people. So I don’t wanna do that again.”

Project Regeneration Vol. 1 was released earlier this year. Fans seemed to like it.

You can check out the entire interview below.

[via]