PipemanRadio Interviews Tony Campos of Static X at Aftershock 2024

0:02 Hey, you unto ESSU for Wow Crazy you. Wake up of America. It's time for the adventures of Hitman on W four C. Why do com West Palm Beats is number one Internet radio station. Here's your host, the light Man. We just started calling it Evil Discoverer. For twenty five years, their music has captivated millions of fans around the world. Now prepare for a journey through the rise, fallen regeneration of Static X to me Wisconsin Death Trip?

0:49 Is that eras the Wall? A million people actually went out to the door and bought my comedian. That's who Wayne's Static was at that time. I think it does that got The day they had that live, people just wanted to rage and party. It was so good. It blew meat fucking away and they almost became like the corner or the limp biscuit. We expected none of it. There was like a turning point, feeding them pills, alcohol, three soomes, wild sex, orgy parties. These two were living in this Bonnie and Clyde suicide drug crazy cinematic romance. I mean, Wayne had a suicide packs and she was like Wayne's dead.

1:31 This was what she wanted to do. Honoring the band honoring the sound. I felt that it was a tremendous way to celebrate the work. The band has so much great music and tons of fans all over the world. Watch of these guys. Come backs have been incredible. This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures Pipe Matt W four C Radio, and I'm here with. Oh Tony Campo's most of the time. Most of the time, right with static X here at after Shock. Yeah, this is one of my favorite Danny Wimmer festivals. How many times have you guys actually played here?

2:14 This is my first time here, really, this is static X's first performance here, so yeah, we're definitely looking forward to it. Yeah, it's pretty cool. It's a pretty cool venue, right mm hmm. Yeah, beautiful setup, beautiful day. Yeah, it's great. So what's going on in the stack X world and that the listeners need to know about? Well, we're winding down the year. We just came off of doing a couple of tours in the States with seven dust most awesome bands we've ever toured with, and after this we have a week and a half two weeks in South America at the end of the month, and then we're done for the year. Nice. Yeah, so what made it one of the greatest going out with seven Dusts.

2:56 Oh, those dudes are just the aside from being one of the best bands out there, they're just like some of the most awesome dudes you could ever tour with. Man, we got the tour with them back in like late ninety nine, two thousand, you know, they took us under their wing and we had such a blast with them, and it was just so cool to get to tour with them after twenty plus years. Is that weird or what? Like? I think that you've been doing this that long you can say that when you first started playing music. I mean, could you have ever even conceived being here at this point in time, much less playing music than this.

3:39 Point at all? Like, this is the last thing I thought I'd do for a living. Man. I was going to school trying to get my degree in computer science. That didn't work out, so I went to a trade school to learn drafting. That didn't work out, and then I. Was just like, fuck, what am I gonna do with my life? And that shit started happening for the band. I was like, well, let's see where this goes. Nice and twenty plus years later, here I am still playing music for a living. I know, it's crazy, one of the biggest festivals in the countries. So that's pretty cool. And so what was that moment in time in life where you found music. Do you remember a specific moment? Probably twelve thirteen. A buddy of mine that I knew in elementary school, he'd moved out of the neighborhood and then around that time moved back and he was a metal head, turned me onto you know, Sabbath Scorpions. And then at the same time, my neighbors were skater punks, nice, and so they built a halfpipe in their backyard and would skate while blasting Dead Kennedy's Circle Jerks Black Flag.

4:43 So that was my exposure to extreme music. You know what's funny is like back in the day. For me, back in the eighties, when that whole OC scene what's going on, I was along hare. I wasn't even allowed to go to those shows, but I wanted to. But then we had this band that brought us all together, that's playing here tonight, Fucking Slayer. Yeah, and then you could finally have the punks and the metal heads together. Yeah, yeah, definitely, I remember that. And you know, bands like dri. Oh yeah, one of my favorite Yeah. Yeah, did right crossover record, I just says it all right there. Yeah, one hundred. So I was at check this out because you would probably know about this. I was at the first crossover show ever. That was at the Sun Valley Sportsman's Lodge in the Valley in LA And it was like this Elks Lodge, Yeah, no security, and you had three punk bands, three metal bands. First time ever you had punkin metal in the same venue. You had coc pre Pepper, you had Suicidal pre Crossover, and you had the Descendants, and then on the metal side you had Possessed, Dark Angel and Savage Gray.

6:00 Yeah. Most epic show ever. Even when I talked to Woody and Mike, I'm like, let me tell you about this thing that I really remember, you probably don't remember, And They're like, that was like an ELK slage, wasn't it. That was the most epic show ever? And I'm like, that is the coolest shit that the band remembers stuff like that. Was there an iconic moment in your career that really that you remember like that? Yeah? I mean the tour itself was monumental for me. We were on tour with the Pantera, Slayer, Morbid Angel, three of my favorite bands, Lime and But the icing on the cake was to get to play on that tour.

6:45 We got to play Long Beach Arena nice and one. Of my favorite records was recorded there, Iron Maidence. Live After Death. Yes, and I was at that show too where it was. And yeah, just just waking up in the morning and walking into the arena, I'm. Like, whoa, I sat up there, you know. But I tried to smoke weed out of toilet paper. Was a stupid kid, ye know, Me, Me and my friend, like, we didn't have papers eat weed. It was like coughing our lungs out trying to smoke weed. But yeah, right, and then getting to play and then I got to do the whole Bruce Dinickings and scream for me Long. Beach, I know, right, that's like the most memorable saying in my head from an album, you know. Yeah. So yeah, that was a total epic moment for me.

7:29 So now Bruce is gonna after this weekend and scream for me. Sacramento. Yeah, yeah, they were just in La yesterday. I think they were. Actually I was down in La because I was covering the last No Effects show, and somebody invited me to go to Maidan in La. I'm like, I'm heading up to Sacramento. I'll see them there. But it's funny. I was interviewing Richie from Priest the other day for after Shock. I couldn't even believe it because I saw Maiden Pray so many times in the eighties. I swear it was always them together. And he's like, you know, the last time that they were playing the same day at the same concert was nineteen eighty one. Wow, and they're doing it here. It after shot.

8:14 Nice, very cool. And they're doing it just for you guys. So I also saw, like a couple of your influences were Jeff and Kerry, who are very different guitarists, love them both always have. What did you like about Jeff's style and what did you like about Kerry's style? It was just the way they influenced me was when I was a kid, I had a shitty little record player and I couldn't really hear the bass guitar, and so I would just play the guitar parts. And so I. Quickly learned figure out that I couldn't keep up playing fingerstyle with that, you know, So I picked up a pick.

9:01 And it's because of those two guys that I can play a million. Miles an hour now. Nice because I had try to keep up with them. Yeah, I know. When I was starting learning how to play guitar, I was like, fuck, I'll never play as fast as them. Man I intro to Chemical Warfare, Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah, have about aggressive perfector too. I always love the dueling guitars too. I love the way they traded solos. No doubt. Yeah, and here there are you going to be up there for them tonight? I hope they'll let me sneak up there. I don't know. Maybe I'll get lucky and uh, somebody will confuse me for carry again.

9:41 I thought, right, it's that would be funny. Yeah. Can you imagine just get up on stage and just pick up his guitar and they think it's. You'd be like, oh ship, what do we do now? Oh? Man? Yeah? So Slayer w supposed to play lower in life and Hurricane Helene hit that. Oh wow. Like I live in Florida. I left Florida to go to Louder and got hit by the hurricane. Now I'm here. I just was watching a video before airview of four blocks from my radio studio. There was a tornado just ripping through, but I am the studio didn't get touched that good. I'm here. I don't know if my car is still there, but we'll find out when I go. Wow, what else you guys got going on after after Shock?

10:29 That we want to tell the listeners about South. America at the end of the month, and then that's it. We're done, You're wrapped for the year. Yeah, And I gotta be back here on Sunday because I gotta do a set with Fear Factory. Oh yeah, that's so. That's so, I gotta fly I fly out tomorrow morning and then Saturday night, I fly back in play the show of Fear Factory like I at four forty five, and then go back to the airport and jump on plane at ten thirty and I think I'll be home by midnight. Wow. Yeah, that's the life, right, you know? Yeah, Hey, hell of a way to make a living. But I always want to know from somebody like you, is you know you kind of get in the zone when you're a musician on stage. How do you sit there and differentiate when you're in multiple bands? You know, being in the right zone or mindset of that band.

11:20 It helps that the different things that I do are totally different vibes. Yeah, Statics more of a Bounty groove have fun type band, you know, fear factories, more technical, more syncopated guitars and drums, very precise. That that helps me separate the tube. There you go, and do find that you have like more passion for playing after all these years cause you do different projects opposed to doing the same thing over and over again. Yeah. I always love doing different things, And yeah, I'm lucky I'm in the situation I am right now because both these. Bands different itches. Yeah of mine that I love equally.

12:04 You know, I can play fast, brutal shit with your Factory and then do some fun, bouncy, groovy shit with with Static. Yeah. And see that's what I'm saying. That's why I would think it's like because we all have multiple facets to our personality and even music likes. You can be the biggest metal head ever. It doesn't mean you don't like other stuff. I think people don't understand it. Oh, we just like metal and that's it. I mean, I mean I had that attitude when I was like fourteen. Me too, like I remember, okay, so CRU's gonna be playing this festival. First club show I ever went to was Crew at the Roxy before they had an hour Wow, when they were still like horror punk okay. And then I went to Slayers first show ever, and after that I was made to burn any Motley Cruise shit you know, by bro Is like we got burg your shit, Like why you can't have that fucking mind Cruise shit anymore? Okay?

13:02 And then we'd got to shows and somebody walking with Botley Cruise shirt. You'd grab it off them, throw it up to Tom and he would like burn it on stage. Uh. Yeah. It was very tribalistic back then, right. I like it, you know, I like it better now because it's cool that like we can go and see different things and be part Like I can go to a Dead Kennedy show like I just did recently and it's cool, yeah, you know, and have a good time, and then next week I'm at Static X and you know, so I like it better that way because we all have. So that's why I say it's a musician. You must love playing getting types of music.

13:42 As a musician, it's cool to be open to different things. You never know what you can learn from somebody playing another style. Yeah, no doubt. So tell everybody how they can reach out to you, guys, and fear Factor to socials, web merch all that stuffy aesthetic. X dot org. Don't forget the hyphen between static and the X. You can get all the news for us fear Factory. I think it's just fear Factory dot com. And we're all in the on the facebooks and the instagram, the tweeters. I want to tape trading days to come back right, to come back like they did that during COVID too when you couldn't get the vinyl bands. We're all said, storry making cassette tapes. Uh that was wild.

14:31 Yeah. Well, thanks for being here at after Shock and man doing double duty here at after Shock. I love it. And thanks for being on the Adventures of pipe Man. Thanks for having me Man. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of pipe Man on w for CUI Radio.