The ongoing public dispute between musician and filmmaker Matt Zane and the Static-X camp shows no sign of cooling. In his latest move, Zane has been circulating a video on his social media that he presents as leaked footage of Dope vocalist Edsel Dope, who currently manages and fronts Static-X under the masked persona “Xer0“, appearing to comment on late Static-X vocalist and guitarist Wayne Static and Static’s late wife, Tera Wray.
In the clips, Edsel appears to talk about the couple’s struggles with addiction and how those struggles fed into the Static-X track “Z0mbie“, from the album Project Regeneration Vol. 2. Alongside the footage, Zane offers his own view that the animated music video for that song, which Edsel Dope directed, was designed to mock what Static and Wray went through.
Zane‘s post also includes additional footage he says shows Edsel discussing Wayne‘s addiction issues and remarking that he would eventually take over Wayne‘s role. The clips are intermittent and presented without broader context, and from there Zane implies they point to a less honorable motive behind the decision to relaunch Static-X with Edsel at the front. It’s worth stressing that these are Zane‘s characterizations of unverified material. Neither Edsel nor anyone in the Static-X camp appears to have publicly responded to the footage.
The backstory runs deep. Zane was once close with both Wayne and Tera, and says he was asked to personally document what turned out to be roughly the final seven years of their lives. He was also involved with the Static-X reunion at one point, but had a public falling out with the band’s camp after his plan to produce a documentary on the couple’s last years drew cease-and-desist notices from the estates of the late pair as well as from the band.
Despite that, Zane has said he intends to press ahead with the film, teasing assorted footage and putting out what appear to be unauthorized versions of songs Wayne left behind — material that has since drawn copyright strikes.
Wayne Static died in November 2014 from a fatal combination of prescription medication and alcohol. Tera Wray died by suicide in January 2016.
The friction between Wayne Static and Static-X predates all of this. Static parted ways with the band on notoriously bitter terms, a split that bassist and vocalist Tony Campos addressed from his own perspective years after Wayne‘s death.
