Likes: This is good. Trent always seems to open up more if he's comfortable with the interviewer.Originally Posted by virushopper
Faceplams: 0
Active Member
This is good. Trent always seems to open up more if he's comfortable with the interviewer.
Active Member
I really dug this and, while I'm curious about this "new thing that isn't music", I feel like new NIN isn't any closer. Gettin' itchy...
Active Member
Yeah, and the way he talked about touring made me feel like there's not much hope for another tour in the near future, either (which made me a little sad). It was still a fantastic interview, though! It gave a lot of new insight into Trent's upbringing, and his entire career path up until now. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this.
Stubby Member
I enjoyed the interview. Not much new info, but i can probably listen to TR read a recipe book for 2 hours. He's a great interview. Probably my favourite is his one with Lizzy Goodman (although, she's a little too nervous as an interviewer and gets verbal diarrhea)
Stubby Member
Graphic Novel? I know he likes RPGs, that'd be interesting considering how well the Year Zero ARG was
Last edited by azad_ninja; 06-15-2023 at 07:28 AM.
Active Member
lol, and I was just reading on reddit about how that conversation gave them hope of a tour soon. the dichotomy of man.
Administrator
yes! i read that too. i need to listen to the interview and decide for myself.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Active Member
I don't think Trent was saying that they're never going to tour again, but touring would definitely not be as big of a priority going forward. Certainly no more world tours that last for two years straight. You can't be gone that long when you've got a family, at least if you intend to be part of their lives as much as possible.
Active Member
That's the sense I got as well. Not "no more tours", just "no more HUGE tours". Also, this "new thing that isn't music" has got me thinking...memoir? I kind of hope not, as they tend to indicate the end of one's career. Honestly, I would LOVE a deep, overindulgent look at each and every record and their creation process. I feel like we know so much about PHM and TDS, but I'd love to get a solid two hour deep dive on each of the other releases.
Active Member
I can't see him writing a memoir. I assume it likely some sort of tv, film and or multimedia thing.
Throbbing Member
Time for his Broadway debut: That EGOT is in reach.
Throbbing Member
I get his point, but I would love a new NIN record, even if he didn't tour behind it. Or a score that sounds like Watchmen. The way he talks about rock albums--their commodification--is weirdly similar to what Billy Corgan has said.
Flaccid Member
There are so many things he could do without having to Tour or anything else major. Give us Deviations 2, or a remix album, or another ghosts album, I just want new NIN in some form!
Active Member
I'm so sick of some fans projecting this attitude on Trent. The man gets vulnerable and honest, and all some people can think is "wHy Do YoU hAtE mEeEeEe?!"
Active Member
Then why do you sound like an entitled teenager?
Please. It only comes across that way if you assume that NIN should be his only priority. Every time Trent has something positive to say about doing film scores, people like you get up in arms about it, acting like he hates the fans, hates doing NIN, and is only doing film scores for the money. Why is that? What exactly does he owe you? He's given a lot over his career, yet guys like you just keep begging for more, and you always take it as a slight whenever he does something other than exactly what you want. I don't blame him for being at least slightly tired of it. Like I said, the man opened up in a way that we've rarely seen in this interview, yet you call it a cop out answer and accuse him of only caring about the money. How does that not sound like entitlement?That's how it comes across, whether that's how he meant it or not that's how it comes across.
Not sure when this magical utopia of a forum existed, but it must have been a very long time ago. I've been on ETS for almost fifteen years, and there's always been arguments and assholes. Even setting aside disagreements, some people just love to stir the shit pot. I have a feeling you're here to do the latter.
Last edited by BRoswell; 06-17-2023 at 05:27 PM.
Stubby Member
If Trent said there was no more NIN music ever, I would say that's too bad, but hey, he's given us so much NIN that I'll cherish forever. I will always have his film scores to look forward too. People have this attitude that artists owe us music. They don't. If they say "I'm out", then that's their decision.
But that's not at all what he said on the podcast, so...
Administrator
Can anyone pinpoint exactly where TR says there's no new NIN in the works, or that he doesn't want to tour anymore?
All I heard was that he wants to tour less and spend time with kids more (which let's be honest is already the case since Hez Marks tour cycle ended).
Also: I can't help but imagine how this talk would've unfolded if it was on Marc Maron's podcast, because it basically followed the same scenario (based on dozens of WTF podcast episodes I've heard), and I think Rubin did it much better. Maron would've constantly try to get under Trent's skin with endless questions about his parents, his drug abuse, Manson connection and so on. I can't see Trent opening up in that scenario.
(Unused symbol)
Some blogs / websites seem to have latched on to a botched interpretation of him saying he doesn't see himself doing massive tours anymore and he had some non-music projects going on. I think some people are running with that and not listening to what he actually said.
Administrator
missed opportunity for all these blogs.
“Trent Reznor: I am a tool”
Jokes aside, what a great listen for the hallmark holiday. i love that he wants to be there for his children. how wonderful to hear how fatherhood is shaping his reality now. it felt good and appropriate that he spoke about abandonment but eventually there was repair between him and his father. i also find it interesting to learn that his father was a musician. something i’m not sure i’ve ever heard about his personal life before. My own father was part of the country rock scene in pittsburg and the surrounding suburbs. i love toying with the idea that my step dad and trent’s dad were part of the same scene way back when.
just more ways for me to feel connected to my favorite artist.
Active Member
I really don't care.
I can't shake the idea that everything was there, 20 years ago, for Reznor to go down the rock n' roll slope to hell. We know who we lost to alcohol, drugs, excesses, abuse and inflated egos. This forum could be dead, stuck on the news of a prospective "Bleedthrough" concept album until tragedy struck. Or we could be discussing the merits of yet another "Downward Spiral" copy from an artist desperately trying to chase the highs of popularity.
Instead here we are, following an artist going his own way, doing what he loves, enjoying his life.
Sure, I wish I had a new NIN album. I'm less and less interested in their soundtrack output, to be honest. But I don't really care either way.
It's silly but when you fall in love with an artist's output, especially as a teen, you end up looking up to that person. It's obviously a mistake, there is a real, actual gap between an artist and their art, why and how they conceive it and how we perceive it.
But the result here is that I'm proud to have believed in that man, all those years back. And I'm proud of what he has accomplished, the struggles he had, how he overcame. Not in an idolizing way, rather in a "you're good people, and you've done good".
And whatever he believes is healthy and necessary for himself and his own is good enough for me.
xScott
I do feel like the constant soundtrack work has to have seeped some ideas/time/effort/creativity away from a proper NIN release. I loved the EPs, but would really like to have a another full LP at some point.
Trollhunter
I think that based on that interview, he very well could and doesn’t believe that an album that needs to be taken in in its entirety would work right now but I wish I could convince him it would and that many of us would love nothing more!
Active Member
One of the things I've always admired about NIN and Trent in interviews is just how authentic he sounds, and how you can tell that what he's doing matters to him. The openness that he has with his answers, regardless of what he's feeling or thinking, it's always been authentic, and never a schtick.
Listening to him talk about an appreciation for pop music is something that resonated with me too. I grew up listening to NIN, but I'm also totally in love with Taylor Swift's music, and it's always felt somewhat odd to me to have those two enjoy those two very different styles.
And I got there through my kids really too....I would make fun of pop music all the time, until I had kids, and this is what my youngest enjoyed for a long time. I had an internal resistance to anything that sounded upbeat and easy, I'd just make fun of it as "not important" or "disposible" or whatever, and then having kids, and just enjoying things that are light and easy with them....it took that for me to recognize that light and easy can be important and meaningful too. And listening to one of my favourite artists describe going through something similar with his kids....well, it just made me appreciate him even more.
You know, part of me wonders what a happy and upbeat NIN album would sound like. I mean, there's probably a good reason that pop musicians don't write music that sounds nothing like NIN, but I'd still be really curious to hear it one day. Even if it ended up being something I turned off after 30 seconds to never speak of again.
If NIN doesn't ever put out more music, or never tours again, I can say that I'm really happy with what we have. None of it has felt fake, or forced or like an act, and that's one thing that I really hope stays true, regardless of whether more comes or not.
If he doesn't want to tour, then I hope he doesn't. But if he does, then I'll be there to watch happily. If he doesn't want to make new NIN music, again, I hope he doesn't force it. But I'd welcome it with excitement if it does come.
At any rate, this interview was a fantastic listen, and one that I really enjoyed.
Throbbing Member
Sorry this is so goddamn long, there was a lot to chew on in this expansive and very honest conversation and I’ve been thinking a lot about NIN’s future or lack thereof as a touring entity or even musical project (not to validate the misleading and click-bait-y headlines) quite a bit even before this emerged so pardon the length…
This was a really interesting and insightful little sit down that Rick Rubin put together here and I think he managed his part of the conversation super well. It was really interesting to hear Trent speak so frankly about how his parents’ separation came to instill a core sense of inferiority and how that is something that is still a part of him, and how that fear of being seen as he really was and not being good enough enabled and perpetuated his addictions - extremely personal and affecting. I’d known the whole “Steve Gottlieb told me PHM was an abortion” story before but I don’t remember it being as specifically recalled as it was here. And I was dying at Apple-era Trent being scared straight at the idea of fully embracing corporate work and thinking with shame when he encountered Rubin in that period, “before I was drunk, now I’m at a corporation…I’m not an artist.” Very curious about the non-music work he is talking about and thrilled that it sounds artistically inclined and very much not along the lines of more Apple-type work. The whole thing was a pleasure to listen to, and while I would certainly prefer indications of more NIN on the horizon, I am not surprised by his feelings, no more than I can begrudge him for them.
If you’ve read any of my posts on here, especially recently, you’ll know that there’s nothing that would make me happier than NIN playing a few more shows sometime soon, except perhaps new Nine Inch Nails material. But I have always trusted Trent to know what the right path to take with Nine Inch Nails is and the way he has approached NIN’s releases and live shows in the past couple decades that I have been fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to follow them in have only reinforced my trust and respect for him. I don’t agree with every decision he makes but I almost always understand why he makes them. And even before this interview I was anticipating that, with Trent’s family so large and growing older, whatever time we get from him as a touring artist from here on out is even more of a gift than it was before. Though we can be a headache for him I think he has a lot of love for his fans (well maybe besides us here), but obviously no one in the world could (or at least should) think that compares to the family he has been blessed with, and it only makes sense that they would be his priority as a good husband and father.
I just wish I hadn’t been so blind to performances entering a long lull or ceasing altogether. Regarding major arena tours and the like, I had kind of expected that anything live from Nine Inch Nails at this point wasn’t going to have that kind of scale or budget. And I had also anticipated that the touring cycles might be more brief to accommodate more time with the families. But I just did not anticipate that after how much TR seemed to get out of the C&B&I Tour in 2018 (he genuinely seemed to mean it when he said “I’m not sure when but we’ll be back before long” at the last NYC area show in Brooklyn), after the scuttled Rock Hall performance and two consecutive years of canceled tour plans, after all the stir-craziness of the lockdown period, that the same night of the reunion at the Blossom Music Center show TR would take to Discord and proclaim that not only touring but this very iteration of the band were no more for the foreseeable future.
I had expected there to be a bit more touring after such a long period of forced deferment but that was one thing. More concerning to me was the end of the Cold & Black & Infinite “era” and the potential lineup change that implies. The impression I had since this lineup emerged in 2017, at least from the interview bits I remember, was that Trent wanted to lean towards a stable core group that could learn and master the material and be able to more casually coalesce for smaller touring cycles every few years without having to relearn the whole catalogue. The prospect of future live NIN seems even more distant and potentially unlikely if that “we can reassemble and function whenever we want to” model is abandoned, because the whole idea there seemed to be a lineup that could afford them less time away from home in the first place. I hope these five end up sticking together but of course only time will tell if there’s even going to be another show.
Whatever the future of NIN live is, if there is any future at all, I have been an unbelievably lucky and spoiled fan who has seen and will cherish the memory of eighteen amazing shows forever. The thought of it being over makes me very sad, and makes me wish I had seen more, but that is a testament to what phenomenal events they have been every time I have been fortunate enough to see them. I’m so grateful for everything he and the amazing band members and crews have given us over the years.
As far as his feelings on albums and people not caring enough about music and having it be an accessory to some other activity or background noise etc, in a broad sense I absolutely get it and agree. It doesn’t seem to possess the cultural weight it used to, even when it gets huge. But I think he’s underestimating the number of people who still do care about experiencing music in a dedicated, attentive way, who still care about album art and hidden messages and appreciating the whole created from the sum of the songs therein, and while I more than understand a defeatist attitude on this, if he doesn’t realize that he is discounting the thinking audience out there somewhere he will at least decide the people that don’t care can go to hell and do what he feels is right as he has thankfully made a habit of. To that end, I think he still (and likely always will) feel the call to make music beyond what he and Atticus are commissioned for and that there is some musical future for Nine Inch Nails, at some point (he tells Rubin “what I find exciting about working on film - as a side job - is, here is a scenario that needs to feel a certain way” and I think it’s very interesting that even with so much more soundtrack output from him and Atticus, he still considers it a side job).
If he’s just not feeling the NIN itch, then I’m fine with him sitting by until whenever the spirit rises. This interview makes it clear how much he thrives creatively when he doesn’t try to force it or overthink it. But I also recall some interviews from not that long ago where he talked about being eager to get back to NIN and feeling like he had something to say artistically again. So who knows. When it comes to new NIN material, these days we basically don’t know about anything until it’s done, because Trent has learned the lesson from Tapeworm and all the other abandoned projects that teasing something before it is guaranteed to see the light of day is a recipe for fielding annoying questions forever, so it is genuinely hard to know whether TR has been working on anything besides the scores with Atticus. I remember them saying they liked how the work on NIN broke up the monotony that could set in with the scoring and vice versa, that they would work on one until they felt tapped and then jump into the other feeling stimulated, but maybe they just work differently now.
Whatever work he releases from here, I’m so glad for him that he made it out the way he did and has found such happiness with his family. Part of what has made Trent’s music so powerful and resonant to me is how honestly and openly he reckons with his demons and worst selves, and it is a genuinely beautiful thing that he has survived his darkest days and struggles to thrive and find love. And as much as I would kill to see more shows suddenly announced, when I think about what Trent said about needing to pursue music when he did because he felt “when I’m thirty I want to be able to say, I gave it my best shot, and then I’ll know”, it hits me hard, because I just turned thirty-three, and while my circumstances are fortunate and financially stable enough, to say my life and my accomplishments (or lack thereof really) are a long way from what I want or expected would be an understatement. I slowly let my lack of confidence and inability to commit erode even attempting a real pass at anything I wanted to do, until I waited too long and blew my window and fell into letting my ultimate job and the fucking marathon of bad shit that seems to have happened over the past seven years divert whatever energy could have gone toward actually doing something I could have been proud of. I need to be better, for myself and the people in an unfortunate enough position to care about me, and I need to actually try to do the things I actually want to do, because I don’t want to think it’s too late. Realizing I can’t take NIN in my future for granted is the fire under my lazy ass I need.
I will always adore NIN and Trent and love the part they have played in my life, but they owe me nothing and it’s not right for me to depend on an amazing Nine Inch Nails album or live show always being around the corner to make my lot seem more worthwhile. We are all lucky enough that Trent made it through his worst times - that he recovered, thrived, and made the past nearly two decades such a fertile time for NIN’s catalogue and live performances is just incredible and I will always be grateful for the warmth of recognition and inspiration and euphoria they have saturated me with all of these years.
Last edited by Deacon Blackfire; 06-19-2023 at 01:27 AM. Reason: italics dammit
Throbbing Member
I'm just happy that my discovery and enjoyment of Dua Lipa over the last 18 months, for which some friends have doubted my sanity and musical taste, has now been entirely vindicated!
Throbbing Member
i know everyone is focusing on the tour thoughts but... i mean, we literally *just* got a tour, we haven't had new non-instrumental music since bad witch. and though i totally understand where he's coming from in wondering if it's worth it to create albums in a world where they're mostly disposable... bad witch is still one of the best NIN albums EVER, it's been the one i've listened to most through the entire pandemic and since, so it's a bummer he feels that way. i hope the album inspiration strikes him again soon.
so much of the interview being focused on the PHM era made me put on the purest feeling demo this morning. it's a pretty fucking spectacular piece of work for a dude sitting alone in a studio at night learning how to do all this shit himself, no?
Active Member
I agree. I love seeing NIN live, but they toured so much between 2017 and 2022 (pandemic notwithstanding) that I'm ready for them to spend some time focusing on new material and other projects so that when/if they tour again, it's something special—hopefully in support of new music and with a brand new stage aesthetic.
I like that Trent's been honest about being perpetually afraid to work on new NIN and letting other projects distract him from that. And I expect it's not a coincidence that he's taken on a lot of other projects recently, between lots of score work, Halsey, a few collaborations, and whatever the non-music thing he's working on is. I know we'd love it if he just set everything aside to spend time working on new NIN, but we should take heart in knowing that he's going to do it when it feels right to him. No one wants a NIN album that feels rushed or insincere because of an obligation or to meet some deadline.
God is an American
In terms of NIN with Trent singing, we had "ISN'T EVERYONE" in 2021... plus there was also "(You Made It Feel Like) Home" last year, as well as the Danny Elfman collab tracks. I know those aren't full-fat Nine Inch Nails but they're all pretty exceptional tracks. I don't think TR is stopping NIN, but the album/tour cycle is definitely on hold. I imagine there will be another pretty rad few years left but... sounds like the next album is not coming off the back-burner as quickly as we all hoped.
nindivinedebris
Honestly, I don't even really think about Ghosts V and VI much in terms of NIN. To me, they felt like outtakes from scoring work that they repurposed into NIN releases at the last minute, especially VI which most people considered to be the unused material from The Woman In The Window. It was a digital only release, still no physical product after 3 years. I enjoy them, but they don't really feel like NIN albums, even in the way Ghosts I-IV did.
Throbbing Member
I've been under a mis-apprehension then, was V all new material, while VI was re-purposed as you say? I'd always assumed both were TWITW.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote