Edsel Dope: In-Depth Interview on Dope, Static-X and More

2023-02-20

Edsel Dope – Story by Anne Erickson, courtesy photo

Edsel Dope joins Anne Erickson to talk about the band’s new album, “Blood Money Part Zer0,” his involvement with Static-X and more in this new interview

New York City industrial metal titans Dope are back with their seventh studio album, “Blood Money Part Zer0,” out Friday (Feb. 24). The album marks the band’s first release in seven years and their follow up to 2016’s “Blood Money Part 1.”

Edsel Dope has been releasing the songs off “Blood Money Part Zer0” one track at a time over the past several months. He’s also been offering the album for free download via the band’s website at DopeTheBand.com.

To support the new album, Dope is hitting the road on the “Rise of the Machine” tour featuring Static-X, Fear Factory, Dope, Mushroomhead and Twiztid. Many of the dates have already sold out.

“It was just really natural, to be honest,” Edsel Dope told Audio Ink Radio of the new bill. “Obviously, it’s the 20th anniversary of Static-X’s ‘Machine’ album, which is also the 20th anniversary of Dope’s ‘Die MF Die.’ With my involvement in Static and how much I’ve been doing with them, we sort of have this understanding that until it doesn’t make sense anymore, we plan to tour the two bands together, because we share so much with the fans. Back in the early days, we toured so much together, so we feel like it’s a good package and connection to those fans who probably discovered these two bands the same night back in 1999 or 2000.”

As for “Blood Money Part Zer0,” Edsel thinks this will be Dope’s final full-length record. He points to the fact that the music model favors singles these days.

To be truthful, I really don’t have much of a desire in the future to make full-length albums anymore. I feel like we’re living in more of a singles model where fans will appreciate getting more consistent content from me rather than waiting such long periods of time to complete full-length albums. But, because ‘Blood Money Part 1’ came out giving fans the expectation of a full-length album, I felt the pressure to deliver on that promise (on ‘Blood Money Part Zer0’), which is why I did.”

He added that he “may change my mind, but I think it’s very doubtful. I’ll be just fine if I never release another full-length album as long as I live.”

In addition to Dope’s new album, Edsel has been busy serving as executive producer of Static-X’s recently announced “Project Regeneration: Vol. 2.” The album will feature the final vocals of the late Wayne Static. According to Edsel, it was beyond difficult to dig up Static’s vocals and restore their sound to the point when they could be on a listenable record.

“It’s something that people really can’t fathom, because of the disarray that this content was in,” Edsel said. “It was damaged work tapes that were left in a warehouse and had mildew, and for a song like ‘Terrible Lie,’ it’s a four-minute song, and the only thing that retained its integrity was Wayne’s vocals and a tiny, tiny bit of programming that didn’t even get used because it was there more just to keep time.”

Switching gears to Edsel Dope’s involvement with Static-X and his hesitance to say whether he’s the band’s mystery tour singer, Xer0, Edsel says his privacy is about respecting the brand of the band.

“Really and truthfully, it’s not so much about it being private as it is about respecting the brand of Static-X. and retaining the respect when writing or discussing it,” Edsel said. “A good example I can use for that is Ghost. Everybody knows that there’s a dude called Tobias that’s behind the paint, but when people write about Ghost, they don’t call him Tobias. They respect the entity and call him Papa Whatever-the-F*** he is. That’s because they respect the creative, they respect the artistic integrity of it enough to honor that.”

He added, “With Static-X, we knew very early on that we were not going to have the overwhelming support of the media and the community. In the world that we live in, most people’s goal is not to be supportive. It’s to try to tear things down. It’s to try to be the one to uncover and let you know that there is no Santa Claus or whatever it is. So, for me, it was more about making sure Static-X was properly represented, because I would never be interested in looking at a photo of Static-X or reading a liner note that mentions me as being the signer of Static-X.”

“Edsel Dope has no interest in being the singer of Static-X,” he continued. “There’s one living, breathing singer of Static-X, and that’s Wayne Static. Then, there’s a character or entity, for lack of better words, that was created in order to allow Static-X to have a future and to continue to be the legacy act that they are and tour and perform, and we gave that character a name that is respective to Static-X and fits the branding of what Static-X is, and that’s what the importance is. It’s the importance of recognizing the character as opposed to recognizing the person behind the character.”

Listen to the full interview with Edsel Dope via the Audio Ink Radio podcast on Apple Podcasts here, Spotify here and above.

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Anne Erickson

Meet the expert - Author, writer and editor Anne Erickson is a Detroit-based reporter and radio host. She has written for the USA Today Network, Consequence.net, Blabbermouth.net, and many more. Anne holds a master's degree from Michigan State University. Contact Anne at anne@audioinkradio.com.