Nine inch Nails has become a serious icon in the Goth/Industrial community . Its amazing how someone from a little town would grow up to be one of the major names heard in Goth as well as Industrial music. It all started in a small hick town called Mercer near Pittsburg. A small kid was growing up in a world he just couldn't fit into. A loner and outcast to some, he was just a quiet boy whose desires, dreams and taste in music wasn't the norm for this town. Trent Reznor grew up living in a boring town with the only excitement was reading magazines and watching movies. He spent most of his youth being forced by his grandparents(who raised him) to learn classical music on the piano. The piano was what brought him to the world in his mind.
"I was around thirteem when I realized I could express how I felt through a musical instrument."
And express it he did. He started listening to Human League and Test Dept. while the main stream was Journey. This, along with the often faggot tag, placed him even further down his mental alchove. Trent joined a few bands which slowly lead him to Cleveland with friend and future NIN drummer, Chris Vrenna. Although Cleveland is the home of Rock n Roll, it totally shunned Trents talents. He had to work odd jobs here and there to just get by. In '88, when he was 23, he sat down and created Nine Inch Nails. Reznor put out his Demo Halo 00 which had live versions of Suck and a remake of Supernaut by Black Sabbath. This was created through the help of band members from Ministry and 1000 Homo DJs. The single Down In It (Halo 01) followed, which got little air play as well. Finally, in '89, Pretty Hate Machine (Halo 02) was released with some help from Flood. It took off like a rocket! Soon afterwards, the singles Head Like A Hole(Halo03) and Sin(Halo04) followed with great masses of fans growing in the horizon.
After a few years and some big tours in Lallapolooza and Woodstock, people were wondering if he was sucking Pretty Hate... for all its worth. This wasn't true. Through several pleas with TVT, his efforts were denied to make another. Then through some miracle, Halo5.
Halo6(Broken) was released in secretcy to avoid the record company hounding him. Trent expalined the heart of Broken...
“Broken was a hard recording to make, an ugly record made during an ugly time in my life. I am starting to realize what this is all about, and I don’t like it.” He also told Guitar World,”! wanted to make a real hard-sounding record that was just one big burst of anger. Not necessarily a well-rounded record—just one ultrafast chunk of death.”
Soon help arrived from Jimmy Lovine. Jimmy had so much faith in Trent that he gave him his own label, Nothing. After this process, Fixed(Halo 7) was released but was given poor reviews and sold badly. In '94, March of the Pigs Single was released with a double CD import called Halo 7 1/2. With this came his second full length, The Downward Spiral(Halo 8)
“This record was an unpleasant experience. it was like climbing down a manhole and pulling the cover over my head.”
After that, came the maxi Single Closer To God and Further Down the Spiral(Halo 9 and 10). Trent spoke on his views on his music at this time...
"Sometimes in my music, I’ll try things, and I’ll think, 'No one’s going to like this, but it’s not fucking Bush.' I’m not claiming it’s the weirdest avant-garde contemporary piece ever, but hopefully it challenges you. Either you don’t like it, or you think, “Fuck, that’s cool — that makes me realize how shitty the stuff is that I’ve been listening to.” I’m stretching it a bit here, patting myself on the back.
Trent was always one to test the limits with his music as well as his videos. He was often put down by religious groups for his songs like "closer" and "Big Man with a Gun" The last song was shoved down his throat and totally misinterpretted as a pro violence song by Bennett and C. Delores Tucker. His videos, with their often sexually explicit scenes were totally banned from MTV and could only be seen on the Playboy Channel. Trent explains his reasons for pushing the limit...
"When I was growing up, rock & roll helped give me my sense of identity, but I had tosearch for it. I remember I loved the Clash, but I was an outcast because you were supposed to like Journey. Before that, I loved Kiss. The thing these bands gave me was invaluable — that whole spirit of rebellion. Rock & roll should be about rebellion. It should piss your parents off; and it should offer some element of taboo. It should be dangerous, you know? But I’m not sure it really is dangerous anymore. Now, thanks to MTV and radio, rock & roll gets pumped into your house every second of everyday. Being a rock & roll star has become as legitimate a career option as being an astronaut or a policeman or a fireman. That’s why I applaud - even helped create — bands like Marilyn Manson. The shock-rock value. I think it’s necessary. Death to Hootie and the BlowfIsh, you know? It’s safe. It’s legitimate."
Along with his 2 LP's, numerous EP's, and now promoting groups like Marilyn Manson under his label, trent was now being present on a few movie soundtracks. Some of these included Natural Born Killers, The Crow, and David Lynch's Lost Highway. He explains his first meeting with Lynch...
"He was looking for somebody to provide some of the sound for Lost Highway, and a friend suggested he give me a call. I hadn’t seen the film,but I’m a huge David Lynch fan - we used to hold up Nine Inch Nails shows just so we couldwatch the latest Twin Peaks. So we setup a weekend for him to come to my place in New Orleans. At first it was like the most high pressure situation ever. It was literally one minute, 'Hi,I’m David Lynch,' and he’s cooler than I even imagined he would be. Three minutes later, he’s saying: 'Well, let’s go in the studio and get started.' Then he’d describe a scene and say, 'Here’s what I want. Now, there’s a police car chasing Fred down the highway, and I want you to picture this: There’s a box, OK? And in this box there’s snakes coming out; snakes whizzing past your face. So, what I want is the sound of that — the snakes whizzing out of the box - but it’s got to be like impending doom.' And he hadn't brought any footage with him. He says, 'OK, OK, go ahead. Give me that sound.'
For one to get involved with the dark side of humanity was an almost natural existance with Trent Reznor. He often spoke on his views of death and that if he could get away with killing someone without any consequences, he would do it. This, you have to remember, comes from a man who creates his Downward Spiral LP in the home where Sharon Tate was murdered by Charles Manson Folowers in '69. This act came back to haunt him later on in life as Sharons sister confronted him...
"My awakening about all that stuff came from meeting Sharon Tate’s sister. While I was working on DownwardSpiral, I was living in the house where Sharon Tate was killed. Then one day I met her sister. It was a random thing, just a brief encounter. And she said: 'Are you exploiting my sister’s death by living in her house?' For the first time the whole thing kind of slapped me in the face. I said, 'No, it’s just sort of my own interest in American folklore. I’m in this place where a weird part of history occurred.’ I guess it never really struck me before, but it did then. She lost her sister from a senseless, ignorant situation that I don’t want to support. When she was talking to me, I realized for the first time, ‘What if it was my sister?' I thought, 'Fuck Charlie Manson.' I don’t want to be looked at as a guy who supports
serial-killer bullshit. I went home and cried that night. It made me see there’s another side to
things, you know? It’s one thing to go around with your dick swinging in the wind, acting like it doesn’t matter. But when you understand the repercussions that are felt.. . that’s what sobered me up: realizing that what balances out the appeal of the lawlessness and the lack of morality and that whole thing is the other end of it, the victims who don’t deserve that. "
Several years passed and Trents dark side began to catch up with him. He began to use drugs heavily as well as drink to the point of blackouts. He released Perfect Drug-EP(Halo 11), and his first DVD of videos, live concert and back stage footage called Closure(Halo12). This seemed to hold of many fans but most were getting impatient for something new. At that time period Trent had many ideas on what direction he wanted to take....
"I’d really like to get into more film scoring. I think I’d be good at it. I also thought about doing a record of instrumental piano, like This Mortal Coil—type mood music, music you can put on when it’s a rainy day. Or doing things like [the sounds on the CD-ROM game] Quake..."
"There will be two records that will probably come out around the same time. One will be with people I had with me in the live band. We’re playing and writing together in a group called Tapeworm. That one will be a bit more like what you think industrial music is like now. The new Nine Inch Nails will be more like a funk hip-hop record. It will piss a lot of people off, and it’s going to change the world at the same time, I hope. That’s all I can aspire to. That and staying 10 steps ahead of Billy Corgan."
After that interview things began to fall apart for Trent. He got screwwed left and right from people who he thought were friends. One was namely Marilyn Manson. Thats when "Starfucker Inc" hit the radio stations. It was an instant success. Then came the release of Halo 13(The Day The World Went Away) an EP and the LP The Fragile(Halo14). Fragile was his hardest effort to put out and almost became the monster that destroyed him. It was a 2CD set that dug deep into some atmospheric relms. The problem became apparent when most felt it was too soft for a NIN album and some fans felt screwed. Were In This Together(Halo 15) came out and was performed on MTV music awards. It got some air play but his fire seemd to be dying out. Halo 16(Things Falling Apart) and Halo17(And All That Coulld Have Been ) came out and faded in the wind. Only the true fans saw he still had it and wanted more. The radio stations seemed to think otherwise.
Trent and Nine inch Nails seemed to disappear in 2000.....
It seemed this was the end for NIN until he came back with a bang in 2004. Hand That Feeds-EP(Halo 18) hit the air waves and the video world. It seemed like he got his groove back. The video appeared to be a poor mpeg someone downloaded and it he changed his looks and the band as well. People were wondering what happened to him and it came obvious when the bad news hit the papers. The alcohol had reached a breaking point in his life. He also had problems financial and personally with Nothing records and long time manager....
"I was in denial about being an alcoholic, and finally reached the bottom four years ago. I was either going to die or get my shit together. So I checked into detox. After that, I decided, rather than start up a new record right away, I'd spend some time getting comfortable with myself. Since I got signed, I've always been full speed ahead toward avoiding life. I'd just keep working. And that burned me out....Throughout 2003, as the year rolled on, a number of changes occured. The longest relationship I've ever had in my life-my manager, my best friend-was coming to an end. The relationship had become strained; I had to make a change there. And that was unpleasant as I'm sure you can imagine it would be-lots of name-calling and backstabbing. And it's still wrapped up in legal ramifications..."
The legal ramifications hurt Trent finacially. When he had sobered up he found out his multimillios was only around 400 thousand. His money was being taken for others personal gains which he never saw while being drunk. He also had to face many fears. One, was the fact he felt he wasn't sure of being able to write music again in this new mind set(sober). He also felt that he wasn't good enough anymore. He was fighting to live up to his own expectations.
He released With Teeth(Halo 19), his first LP since Fragile over 5 years ago. It was an instant hit and he was back on the music scene again. It even brought back elements of Pretty Hate Machine. He explains the process with REVOLVER....
"This was the fastes record I've ever done. I think this all came from my demo-ing songs for the first time since Pretty Hate Machine. In January of 2004, I came out to Los Angeles from New Orleans and set up a small demo studio in a rented house. Just a piano, drum machine, and a computer to record everything into. I decided that every 10 days, I'd havetwo songs demoed. By may, I had two albums of stuff done. I went back to New Orleans, fleshed out the songs, recorded real drums(by Dave Grohl)-which is something I've wanted to do for awhile-and finished everything up."
His efforts and triumphs have shown in With Teeth. He put out another single Only(Halo 20) and video to go with it. The video hit number one and was the best in new style and CGI anyone has seen in a long time. He feels refreshed and has no feelings of being trapped in the NIN name. He plans on pushing this machine for a long time and has even had thoughts of putting out an album under his own name.
With numerous grammys and multi-Platinum albums, NIN has come a long way from a shy kid from Pensylvania. He has put out another DVD called Collected and is presently back on the road touring with a healthy body and a new way of life. He reflects on how he has been labeled as the father of industrial and how his music has influenced the new sounds we hear from bands today...
“It starts sounding real egotistical if I take any stance on that. But to answer your question, I think we definitely took a certain element of harder-edged electronic music to the shopping mall. You might say that my success was to take industrial music and add a melody to it, add an element of pop to it. It connected with people in a way that we didn’t anticipate."
