PROFILE: Trent Reznor

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Trent Reznor
AKA Michael Trent Reznor

Born: 17-May-1965
Birthplace: Mercer, PA


Gender: Male
Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Musician

Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Nine Inch Nails

Raised the small, wonderbread community of Mercer, Pennsylvania by his mother's parents, Michael Trent Reznor is the principal culprit responsible for taking the harsh electronic musical form frequently referred to as "industrial" -- pioneered by fringe bands like Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle in the late 70s and taken in a more aggressive direction by Foetus, Skinny Puppy, and Ministry (amongst others) in the early 80s -- and transforming it into a commercially viable, mainstream genre at the onset of the 1990s. In the very early years of his life Reznor displayed a clear affinity towards music, and at the age of 5 his first musical training was provided in the form of piano lessons; by his teens, this training had broadened to include saxophone and tuba in both jazz and marching band styles. His activities also extended into the dubious realm of high school musical theater.

Following his graduation from high school, Reznor continued his musical education at Allegheny College in Meadville. During this same period he assumed keyboard and lead vocal duties for the new wave act Option 30, which maintained an active performance schedule around the Meadville area. The band never released any recordings during its existence, but a demo tape that included covers of songs by Icehouse, Thompson Twins and Falco was recorded in 1983, and eventually released by the Shriek label with additional material in 1997. A year after his enrollment in college, Reznor dropped out and moved to Cleveland with schoolfriend Chris Vrenna with the intention of becoming a full-time musician. In Cleveland, he successfully auditioned for the rock band The Innocent, but this association lasted only a few months: not long after contributing keyboards to their sole album Livin' in the Street (1985), Reznor quit to find more promising musical opportunities.

In 1986 Reznor signed on with Exotic Birds, a synth-pop act formed in 1983 and fronted by guitarist/percussionist Andrew Kubiszewski. After contributing keyboards and backing vocals to the band's second effort L'Oiseau, he brought in Vrenna to replace founding drummer Tom Freer; this new configuration did not produce any recordings, however, and both Reznor and Vrenna left the line-up by 1988. In the interim before his departure, the musician received what at the time was the most significant exposure of his career from an appearance in the Paul Schrader film Light of Day (1987), portraying the keyboardist of a fictional rock group named The Problems alongside fellow Exotic Bird Frank Vale and 'bandleaders' Michael J. Fox and Joan Jett. In 1987 his usual keyboard/backing vocal credits were also added to the considerably more obscure White Lies single by yet another synth-pop act, Slam Bam Boo.

After abandoning Exotic Birds, Reznor found employment at Bart Koster's Right Track recording studio, where he began to work out demos for a solo project. Adopting the name Nine Inch Nails, he found an unexpected level of interest in his blend of mainstream and underground styles, and a contract with the independent TVT label was arranged soon afterwards. His debut release Pretty Hate Machine surfaced on the label towards the end of 1989 -- initially receiving notice only in industrial/goth circles, but steadily gathering more attention from dance and modern rock audiences over the following year as a result of the singles Down In It and Head Like A Hole (the latter benefiting in particular from substantial rotation on MTV). A band that featued Vrenna on drums and former The Act guitarist Richard Patrick was subsequently assembled, and this live incarnation of Nine Inch Nails continued to expand its audience by serving as the opening act on tours by Skinny Puppy, Peter Murphy and The Jesus and Mary Chain.

Over the next year and a half, Pretty Hate Machine continued to attract a larger and larger following for Reznor -- the culmination of this process being brought about by Nine Inch Nails' inclusion in the first Lolapalooza touring festival. The recording end of his fortunes did not fare quite as well: aggressive interference from TVT executives during work on the follow-up to Pretty Hate Machine had provoked the musician to attempt to terminate his contract, and the resulting lawsuit prevented any new releases from materializing until 1992. Guest performances on albums by Pigface and 1000 Homo DJ's remained his only recorded appearances until an arrangement with Interscope allowed him to establish his own subsidary label Nothing Records, through which the Broken EP was subsequently released in 1992. An accompanying remix CD Fixed was also released that year, featuring input from Foetus and Coil -- both important influences in Reznor's musical development.

To record his next album, Reznor established a studio in Los Angeles at the same mansion where Sharon Tate had been murdered by Charles Manson's followers; the house was demolished three years later, at which time he relocated his base of operations to a converted funeral home in New Orleans (although with the front door of his former premises in tow). Despite having finally established a stable business context for his work, Reznor's recorded output continued to be sporadic -- his second full-length effort The Downward Spiral not being released until 1994, and the third effort The Fragile (1999) only surfacing after another 5 year gap. His work as a producer and engineer was considerably more prolific, and between 1994 and the start of the next decade he was involved in (sometimes multiple) releases by Marilyn Manson (one of the first bands Reznor signed to his Nothing label), KMFDM, Skin Diver, Prick and David Bowie, as well as adding guest vocals to the track Past the Mission on Tori Amos' second album Under the Pink (1994). Two significant ventures into film music were also made, beginning with his production and composing credits for Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers in 1994, and continuing with his involvement in David Lynch's 1997 film Lost Highway. Reznor also produced the soundtrack to the video game Quake (1996).

In the 00s Reznor continued his pattern of occasional output with Nine Inch Nails, issuing the remix collection Things Falling Apart in the first year of the decade, and only following up with the live document And All That Could Have Been two years later. Nothing Records folded in 2004. His fourth studio offering With Teeth finally arrived in 2005, six years after its predecessor.


Father: Michael Reznor
Mother: Nancy Clark
Sister: Tera Reznor (mother of 2, b. 1971)
Girlfriend: Courtney Love
Girlfriend: Tori Amos


High School: Mercer High School, Mercer, PA (1983)
University: Allegheny College, Meadville, PA


Option 30 Keyboardist/Vocalist 1983-84
Exotic Birds Keyboardist/Vocalist 1986-88
Nine Inch Nails 1989-present
Pigface 1990
id Software Soundtrack for Quake 1996
Drug Overdose in London, heroin
unknown detox facility in Florida, late 1990s
unknown detox facility in New Orleans, 2001
Parodied As A Muppet Nine Inch Snails
Risk Factors: Depression, Alcoholism, Heroin, Cocaine


FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
Nine Inch Nails Live: And All That Could Have Been (22-Jan-2002) Himself
Closure (25-Nov-1997) Himself
Broken (1992)
Light of Day (6-Feb-1987)




www.nndb.com/people/534/000025459/

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Biography
Nine Inch Nails were the most popular industrial group ever and was largely responsible for bringing the music to a mass audience. It isn't really accurate to call NIN a group; the only official member is singer/producer/multi-instrumentalist Trent Reznor, who always remained solely responsible for NIN's musical direction (he was, however, supported in concert by a regular backing band). Unlike the vast majority of industrial artists, Reznor wrote melodic, traditionally structured songs where lyrics were a focal point. His pop instincts not only made the harsh electronic beats of industrial music easier to digest, but also put a human face on a style that usually tried to sound as mechanical as possible. While Ministry crossed over to heavy metal audiences, NIN built up a large alternative rock fan base right around the time of Nirvana's mainstream breakthrough. As a result, Reznor became a genuine star and his notoriously dark, brooding persona and provocateur instincts made him a Jim Morrison-esque sex symbol for the '90s. A long period of inactivity and writer's block followed, which gave virtually every alternative metal band of the late '90s a chance to rip off elements of NIN's sound. By the time Reznor's five-year hiatus finally ended, he was still a popular figure but his commercial momentum had slowed somewhat.

Michael Trent Reznor was born May 17, 1965, in the small town of Mercer, PA; he went by his middle name to avoid confusion with his father, Michael. At age five, Reznor's parents divorced and he wound up being raised mostly by his maternal grandparents; even so, Reznor stated repeatedly that his childhood was mostly happy. He began playing the piano at age five, studying classical music, and later learned tenor sax and tuba in the school band; he also acted in musicals and became an avid Kiss fan. Reznor spent a year studying music and computers at Allegheny College, but dropped out after a year to pursue music full-time; he soon packed up and moved to Cleveland with high school friend Chris Vrenna. Around the same time, he was discovering new wave and assorted underground music; he was most fascinated with early industrial, since it offered an edgy, aggressive way to use electronic instruments. At age 19, he successfully auditioned to join an AOR band called the Innocent, which released one album, Livin' in the Streets (Reznor's picture does appear on the jacket). He quit the Innocent after just three months and subsequently gigged with local bands; he also worked in a keyboard store and as a janitor in the local Right Track recording studio. Eventually, he became a studio engineer, teaching himself various computer applications and working on his own material during off hours. In 1987, Reznor appeared in the Michael J. Fox/Joan Jett film Light of Day, where he played keyboards with a trio dubbed the Problems during a bar scene.

As Nine Inch Nails, Reznor began recording his own Ministry and Skinny Puppy-influenced compositions in 1988, playing all the instruments himself. At first, he simply hoped to release a 12" single on a small European label, but when he sent demo tapes to around ten American labels, nearly every one offered him a deal. He wound up signing with TVT, which released NIN's debut album, Pretty Hate Machine, in 1989 (after having rejected an initial effort called Industrial Nation). Reznor quickly assembled a backing band and toured with Skinny Puppy for a short time, but soon tired of playing for strictly industrial artists. With a tighter outfit featuring Chris Vrenna on drums and Richard Patrick on guitar (plus several revolving-door keyboardists), he consciously chose to open for alt-rock acts (including, early on, the Jesus & Mary Chain and Peter Murphy), partly for the challenge of winning over fans who might not have liked industrial music. The strategy helped expand Nine Inch Nails' fan base substantially; the single "Down in It" got some airplay in dance clubs, reaching Billboard's dance and modern rock charts, and MTV later picked up on the video for the more rock-oriented "Head Like a Hole." In 1991, after settling on keyboardist James Woolley, Nine Inch Nails became part of the inaugural Lollapalooza tour, which expanded their fan base by leaps and bounds. Pretty Hate Machine's momentum kept building slowly and although it never climbed higher than number 75, it spent over two years on the album charts and eventually sold over a million copies -- one of the first indie-label rock albums to do so.

TVT had a massive hit on their hands, and to ensure that Reznor would produce another one, they attempted to take control of the follow-up's creative direction. Enraged by the outside meddling, Reznor tried to secure a release from his contract, leading to a vicious court battle. His only recording outlets were side projects; in 1990, he co-wrote and sang on "Suck," a track on Pigface's debut album, Gub, and also sang on the Al Jourgensen-led 1000 Homo DJs cover of Black Sabbath's "Supernaut." (TVT ordered Reznor's vocals removed from the track, but Jourgensen actually just altered them slightly and said he'd re-recorded it.) Eventually, he was able to sign with Interscope, which helped him set up his own label, the Cleveland-based Nothing imprint. Reznor had been recording new material on the sly and in 1992, Nothing released the EP Broken, as well as a concurrent remix disc titled Fixed. Broken featured more (and heavier) guitars than Pretty Hate Machine, partly in response to NIN's live sound and partly as a sonic evocation of Reznor's boiling frustration in the wake of the legal wars; it also featured two bonus cuts, a version of "Suck" and the Adam Ant cover "(You're So) Physical," a nod to Reznor's new wave roots. Despite many reviews characterizing the EP as a harrowing, difficult listen, Broken -- supported by NIN's now-considerable fan base -- debuted in the Top Ten and the first single/video, "Wish," won a Grammy for Best Heavy Metal Performance. Reznor enhanced his reputation as a provocateur with a widely banned clip for "Happiness in Slavery," which depicted S&M performance artist Bob Flanagan being torn apart by a machine; there was also a long-form clip for Broken that was never released commercially due to its graphic content (a torture victim is dismembered while viewing NIN videos).

Reznor moved to Los Angeles to craft the second full-length NIN album, assembling a studio in the house where actress Sharon Tate was murdered by Charles Manson's associates. The Downward Spiral was a highly ambitious work, a concept album indebted to progressive rock that featured the most detailed, layered studiocraft of any NIN album yet. Hugely anticipated, the album debuted at number two and became one of the bleakest multi-platinum albums ever. Richard Patrick had departed the touring band to form Filter and Reznor revamped the group with drummer Vrenna, keyboardist Woolley, guitarist Robin Finck, and bassist Danny Lohner. NIN caused a sensation at that summer's 25th-anniversary Woodstock concert, performing a ferocious set after horsing around and covering themselves in mud just before hitting the stage. Meanwhile, MTV had put an edited version of the video for "Closer" in heavy rotation and NIN scored one of the year's unlikeliest hits: a song whose chorus began "I want to f*ck you like an animal," which helped make Reznor one of alternative rock's biggest sex symbols. The subdued ballad "Hurt" gained some further airplay, even though it lacked the titillating shock value of "Closer." Later in the year, Reznor assembled the soundtrack of Oliver Stone's controversial Natural Born Killers, editing the songs together to create an innovative collage; he also guested on "Past the Mission," a track on Tori Amos' second album Under the Pink. In 1995, with new keyboardist Charlie Clouser, Nine Inch Nails hit the road with David Bowie, whose late-'70s albums (along with Pink Floyd) had been a major influence on The Downward Spiral. He also contributed a cover of Joy Division's "Dead Souls" to the soundtrack of The Crow and issued the remix album Further Down the Spiral, which nearly reached the Top 20 (a testament to his popularity).

Using money from The Downward Spiral, Reznor built a state-of-the-art studio in New Orleans in a building that had once been a funeral home. While pondering his next move in the wake of his sudden stardom, he produced Nothing signee Marilyn Manson's second album, Antichrist Superstar, which did indeed make him a superstar. In 1997, longtime friend Vrenna had a falling out with Reznor and eventually was replaced by Jerome Dillon; Reznor's maternal grandmother also passed away that year and his friendship with Manson soon deteriorated. Even so, he produced another movie soundtrack for David Lynch's Lost Highway, and contributed the new single "The Perfect Drug," which flitted unpredictably between several different rhythm tracks. Though "The Perfect Drug" kept him in the public eye for a time, Reznor was still unsure what kind of statement would be an appropriate follow-up to The Downward Spiral; that uncertainty resulted in a severe case of writer's block. In the meantime, NIN were proving vastly influential on a new crop of bands; major labels signed up industrial metal outfits like Filter and Stabbing Westward, and an assortment of alternative metal bands started grafting industrial production flourishes onto their music; Guns N' Roses lead singer Axl Rose even fired the rest of his band and holed up in a studio to pursue a more NIN-influenced direction.

Nine Inch Nails finally returned in 1999 with the double-CD opus The Fragile. It debuted at number one with massive first-week sales, but slipped down the charts rather quickly afterward, perhaps because the musical climate had changed a great deal over the past five years. The remix album Things Falling Apart followed a year later, as did an extensive world tour. An album of live performances culled from the tour, And All That Could Have Been, was released in early 2002. Reznor was largely quiet during the next three years, finally re-emerging in 2005 with another chart-topper, With Teeth. Touring continued into 2006, where NIN spent the spring and summer on the road with various support acts including Saul Williams, Bauhaus, TV on the Radio, and Peaches. The EP Every Day Is Exactly the Same appeared in April 2006; it contained the title track and five various remixes (all originally from With Teeth). ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide



www.pandora.com/music/artist/acf2f947e405db79


Halo 02 - Pretty Hate Machine
About this Album
Virtually ignored upon its 1989 release, Pretty Hate Machine gradually became a word-of-mouth cult favorite; despite frequent critical bashings, its stature and historical importance only grew in hindsight. In addition to its stealthy rise to prominence, part of the album's legend was that budding auteur Trent Reznor took advantage of his low-level job at a Cleveland studio to begin recording it. Reznor had a background in synth-pop, and the vast majority of Pretty Hate Machine was electronic. Synths voiced all the main riffs, driven by pounding drum machines; distorted guitars were an important textural element, but not the primary focus. Pretty Hate Machine was something unique in industrial music -- certainly no one else was attempting the balladry of "Something I Can Never Have," but the crucial difference was even simpler. Instead of numbing the listener with mechanical repetition, Pretty Hate Machine's bleak electronics were subordinate to catchy riffs and verse-chorus song structures, which was why it built such a rabid following with so little publicity. That innovation was the most important step in bringing industrial music to a wide audience, as proven by the frequency with which late-'90s alternative metal bands copied NIN's interwoven guitar/synth textures. It was a new soundtrack for adolescent angst -- noisily aggressive and coldly detached, tied together by a dominant personality. Reznor's tortured confusion and self-obsession gave industrial music a human voice, a point of connection. His lyrics were filled with betrayal, whether by lovers, society, or God; it was essentially the sound of childhood illusions shattering, and Reznor was not taking it lying down. Plus, the absolute dichotomies in his world -- there was either purity and perfection, or depravity and worthlessness -- made for smashing melodrama. Perhaps the greatest achievement of Pretty Hate Machine was that it brought emotional extravagance to a genre whose main theme had nearly always been dehumanization. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide




Broken (EP)
About this Album
During the time that Pretty Hate Machine was becoming an underground sensation, Trent Reznor became embroiled in legal difficulties with his label that prevented the release of any new Nine Inch Nails material. But the three-year wait actually helped -- most of NIN's fans were relatively recent converts, and they eagerly snapped up 1992's Broken, which afforded the already angst-ridden Reznor the opportunity to vent his ample frustration over the imbroglio. Where Pretty Hate Machine had a few moments of reflection and sardonic humor, Broken is a concentrated blast of caustic, naked rage. Given how draining it is, a full-length album in its style would unquestionably have been wearisome, even self-parodic. So, Broken is the rare EP that's conceptually focused and complete unto itself. Production-wise, it's also a step up from Pretty Hate Machine, and a showcase for Reznor's flowering studio acumen. While Pretty Hate Machine was primarily electronic, Broken is loaded with heavy, jagged guitars, processed through a veritable meat grinder of effects into a massive wall of distortion. Each song one-ups the viciousness of its predecessor; even the two relatively subdued instrumental interludes are full of abrasive textures. There are two hidden bonus cuts at the end of the CD (early pressings had them on a separate disc); they're neither as produced nor as intense, and thus separated conceptually as well as physically. The cover of Adam Ant's "(You're So) Physical" was something of a revelation -- not just demonstrating Reznor's fondness for new wave, but serving as a touchstone for his self-conscious, glammed-up sense of style. That -- and his skills as a producer and arranger -- would reach their fullest realization on The Downward Spiral, but Broken's tight focus and frothing intensity make it a major work in its own right. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide



The Downward Spiral
About this Album
The Downward Spiral positioned Trent Reznor as industrial's own Phil Spector, painting detailed, layered soundscapes from a wide tonal palette. Not only did he fully integrated the crashing metal guitars of Broken, but several newfound elements -- expanded song structures, odd time signatures, shifting arrangements filled with novel sounds, tremendous textural variety -- can be traced to the influence of progressive rock. So can the painstaking attention devoted to pacing and contrast -- The Downward Spiral is full of striking sonic juxtapositions and sudden about-faces in tone, which make for a fascinating listen. More important than craft in turning Reznor into a full-fledged rock star, however, was his brooding persona. Grunge had the mainstream salivating over melodramatic angst, which had always been Reznor's stock in trade. The left-field hit "Closer" made him a postmodern shaman for the '90s, obsessed with exposing the dark side he saw behind even the most innocuous façades. In fact, his theatrics on The Downward Spiral -- all the preening self-absorption and serpentine sexuality -- seemed directly descended from Jim Morrison. Yet Reznor's nihilism often seemed like a reaction against some repressively extreme standard of purity, so the depravity he wallowed in didn't necessarily seem that depraved. That's part of the reason why, in spite of its many virtues, The Downward Spiral falls just short of being the masterpiece it wants to be. For one thing, fascination with texture occasionally dissolves the hooky songwriting that fueled Pretty Hate Machine. But more than that, Reznor's unflinching bleakness was beginning to seem like a carefully calibrated posture; his increasing musical sophistication points up the lyrical holding pattern. Having said that, the album ends on an affecting emotional peak -- "Hurt" mingles drama and introspection in a way Reznor had never quite managed before. It's evidence of depth behind the charisma that deservedly made him a star. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide



The Fragile




Things Falling Apart
About this Album
After Nine Inch Nails' 1999 double album, The Fragile, came Things Falling Apart, a collection of remixes with three versions of "Starfuckers Inc." ~ Adam Bregman, All Music Guide



With Teeth
About this Album
Trent Reznor always was a perfectionist, laboring over his final mixes with a fine-tooth comb, a belabored process that inevitably led to long gaps between albums. About five years a piece, actually, a wait that was sustainable between his 1989 debut, Pretty Hate Machine, and his 1994 breakthrough, The Downward Spiral; a wait, considering the expectations, that was understandable between that record and its 1999 sequel, The Fragile; yet it was a wait that was a little bewildering and frustrating between that record and its long-gestating follow-up, With Teeth. The Fragile was a grandiose, indulgent double album, dense enough to alienate fairweather fans while making advocates of those with enough time, patience, and fanaticism to listen to it repeatedly until it all made sense. It may not have pleased everybody, but it seemed like a record that necessitated half a decade to construct, and arrived with an appropriate sense of drama. That's not the case with With Teeth, which appeared in the spring of 2005 with the requisite deluge of press but without the sense of breathless anticipation that greeted The Fragile. Part of that was changing times -- fans who were 25 in 1999 were now 30 and weren't following pop music as closely -- but it's also true that the double-disc set whittled his audience down to its core, diminishing Nine Inch Nails' stature somewhat. They still had their cult and still won accolades from those convinced that artists who were important in 1995 were still important in 2005, but NIN seems not only out of step but diminished in 2005. Sure, Rick Rubin had Johnny Cash sing "Hurt," but Reznor's recordings seemed to have less impact on modern music than ever. His soundalikes vanished, his long-abandoned protégé Marilyn Manson turned the corner from self-parody to college lecturer, his romanticized goth morphed into Hot Topic stores and Evanescence. Not that any of this mattered one bit to Reznor. Instead of grabbing the gold ring when he had a chance in 1995, he squirreled himself away in his New Orleans house, recording obsessively, and according to some interviews conducted around the release of With Teeth, succumbing to alcohol addiction. He consciously turned away from stardom, along with anything happening in contemporary pop, so he could tinker in the studio. That lead to the obsessive, insular The Fragile, and that same impulse drives the sleek, streamlined, diamond-hard With Teeth.

Quite frankly, this is the record that NIN should have released if Reznor had wanted to capitalize on the success of The Downward Spiral. It's loud and angry, doesn't skimp on hooks, and is heavy on both sexy robotic dance beats and crashing rock rhythms (some supplied by everybody's favorite drummer, Dave Grohl, but not that you'd know it from reading the CD; the chintzy packaging not only has no credits, it has no booklet) -- all things that made "Closer" an alt-rock classic. But for all the surface similarities to his past albums, there is a palpable difference in tone and approach on With Teeth. This is the work of a craftsman, a musician who meticulously assembles his work by layering details so densely, there's never a moment on the record where something isn't roiling under the surface, where something isn't added to the mix. He's good at this, though. With Teeth is an impressive achievement technically and the music is generally strong, yet there's a nagging problem -- namely, there's nothing new here. It's not that Reznor is recycling himself -- he's far too compulsive a craftsman for that -- but he's not pushing himself, either, preferring to work within the box he created himself ten years ago. Consequently, the music sounds as if it comfortably could have been released in 1996, the time when Reznor's style of music was at its popular peak. There's nothing wrong with that -- plenty of rock and pop musicians are craftsmen, working the same sound and finding interesting variations within it -- but there's something awkward about an industrial craftsman, or at least as how it's practiced by Reznor. His biggest problem is that while he shows considerable skill, even subtlety, in his music, the tortured sentiments of his lyrics are frozen in amber. They're eternally adolescent and they sound juvenile, even embarrassing, coming from a man on the verge of his 40th birthday. These words work when sung by a young man, when they're sung with a sense of urgency, but "urgency" is not a word that can be associated with NIN, even on a record like this that takes great pains to sound visceral and alive. Reznor is too insulated, too shut out from the outside world, too unconcerned with pleasing anybody but himself to make anything close to urgent. Without that sense of hunger, his music doesn't have mass appeal, leaving it to the hardcore who appreciate his sense of craft and construction, listeners who are eager to listen to the album enough times to memorize the details. In short, the same listeners who had the patience to learn how to love The Fragile will learn how to love With Teeth. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide




Every Day Is Exactly The Same
About this Album
Released just under a year after Nine Inch Nails' fourth album, With Teeth, the American Every Day Is Exactly the Same EP rounds up four remixes that have been floating around on various European and vinyl-only singles, adding a new remix of the title track to the mix. There are two mixes each of "The Hand That Feeds" and "Only," bringing the total length of the EP up to six tracks. All five of the remixes are actually better than the original versions, since they not only open up the tunes, but the various adjustments to the songs -- the pulsating neo-disco beats of the DFA mix of "The Hand" or Richard X's mix of "Only," Sam Fog vs. Carlos D's sleekly ominous overhauling of the title track -- make NIN's increasingly claustrophobic, insular music sound fresh again, suggesting what Trent Reznor could do if he entered a genuine collaboration with another musician for his next NIN album. That may not be enough to make this essential, but it surely makes this EP worth a listen for any serious fan -- and it's also a useful way to get mixes that aren't easy to get stateside. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide

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Recent photograph of Trent Reznor, taken at a 2006 Nine Inch Nails concert.

Background information
Birth name Michael Trent Reznor
Born May 17, 1965
Origin Mercer, Pennsylvania
Genre(s) Alternative metal, Industrial metal, Industrial music
Occupation(s) Musician
Instrument(s) Vocals, Keyboards, Guitars
Years active 1982 - present
Label(s) Nothing
Associated
acts Option 30 (1982-1984)
The Innocent (1985)
Exotic Birds (1986-1988)
Nine Inch Nails (since 1988)



Biography
Michael Trent Reznor Jr. was born in Mercer, Pennsylvania to Michael J. Reznor and Nancy Clark. Reznor was called by his middle name to avoid confusion with his father. After his parents divorced, he and his sister, Tera (born in 1970), lived with their maternal grandparents in Mercer.[1].

Reznor began playing the piano at the age of five and showed an early aptitude for music. In a 1995 interview, his grandfather Bill Clark remarked, "Music was his life, from the time he was a wee boy. He was so gifted." [2] His former piano teacher Rita Beglin said Reznor "always reminded me of Harry Connick, Jr." when he played.

Reznor has repeatedly acknowledged that his sheltered life in Pennsylvania left him feeling somewhat isolated from the outside world. In a 1994 interview with Rolling Stone, he makes reference to his choices in the music industry, "I don't know why I want to do these things," Reznor says, "other than my desire to escape from Small Town, U.S.A., to dismiss the boundaries, to explore. It isn't a bad place where I grew up, but there was nothing going on but the cornfields. My life experience came from watching movies, watching TV and reading books and looking at magazines. And when your fucking culture comes from watching TV every day, you're bombarded with images of things that seem cool, places that seem interesting, people who have jobs and careers and opportunities. None of that happened where I was. You're almost taught to realize it's not for you." [3] However, Reznor later confesses, "I don't want to give the impression it was a miserable childhood." [4]

At the Mercer Area Junior and Senior High Schools, Reznor learned to also play the saxophone, and tuba. He was a member of both the jazz and marching bands. Former Mercer High School band director Dr. Hendley Hoge remembered Reznor as "very upbeat and friendly." [5] Reznor also became involved in theatre while in high school. He was voted Best in Drama by classmates for his roles as Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar and Professor Harold Hill in the Music Man.


Option 30 album cover with Reznor on the far right


Reznor graduated from high school in 1983 and enrolled at Allegheny College where he studied computer engineering and music, and he joined a local band named Option 30 which played three shows per week. After a year in college, Reznor decided to drop out to pursue a full-time career in music.

Reznor moved to Cleveland, Ohio. In 1985, he joined a band named The Innocent as a keyboardist. They released one album, Livin' in the Street, but Reznor quit after just three months.

In 1986, Reznor appeared as a member of the fictional band The Problems in the film Light of Day. He also joined a local Cleveland band the Exotic Birds.

He got a job at Right Track Studio (now known as Midtown Recording) as a handyman. Studio owner Bart Koster commented how Reznor "is so focused in everything he does. When that guy waxed the floor, it looked great." [6] Koster allowed Reznor to use the studio during off hours, which he used to record demos for songs that ended up on Nine Inch Nails' first album, Pretty Hate Machine. These demos were later released as a bootleg under the name Purest Feeling.


Trent Reznor (right) and Marilyn Manson at a 2000 concert


Reznor was the credited producer for Marilyn Manson's albums Portrait of an American Family (1994), Smells Like Children (1995), and Antichrist Superstar (1996), as well as the soundtrack for the films Natural Born Killers and Lost Highway. Reznor is credited for "Driver Down" and "Videodrones; Questions" on the soundtrack for Lost Highway. One other track, "The Perfect Drug" is credited to Nine Inch Nails instead.

Reznor likes video games, most notably Doom by id Software, which he has said he played on the Nine Inch Nails tour bus after doing shows. He also created the soundtrack for ID Software's hit Quake. The NIN logo also appears on the nail gun ammo boxes in Quake and prior to this, embedded in both the floor and ceiling of a secret room in Ultimate Doom.

Trent returned to work with id Software in 2003 as the sound engineer for video game Doom 3. However, due to "time, money and bad management" [7], he had to abandon this project, and his audio work did not make it into the game's release. The original audio files can be found on the Internet, although they are not officially endorsed by Reznor nor id Software. Chris Vrenna, former drummer for Nine Inch Nails, produced the music for Doom 3 with his partner Clint Walsh.


Trent Reznor produces music with Saul Williams in March of 2006


During the five years between his albums The Downward Spiral (1994) and The Fragile (1999), Trent Reznor struggled with depression, social anxiety disorder, writer's block, and the death of his grandmother. It has also been revealed by Reznor that he had been suffering from alcohol and drug addiction during the Fragile era. In a 2005 interview with Kerrang!, Reznor makes a note of his self-destructive past, "There was a persona that had run its course. I needed to get my priorities straight, my head screwed on. Instead of always working, I took a couple of years off, just to figure out who I was and working out if I wanted to keep doing this or not. I had become a terrible addict; I needed to get my shit together, figure out what had happened." [8] In contrast with his former suicidal tendencies [9], the song artist admitted in a 2005 interview with Revolver that, "I’m pretty happy right now." But added, "Wait! Don’t print that! You’ll ruin my reputation. At least lie and say that I’ve got a dead body in my closet or something." [10]

Tapeworm, a collaboration with Danny Lohner, Maynard James Keenan of Tool, and Atticus Ross of 12 Rounds, was in production for almost ten years, but an update on the official Nine Inch Nails website declared that the project had been terminated. The only known performance of any Tapeworm material was when Keenan's other band A Perfect Circle performed the song "Vacant" on tour in 2001. "Vacant" appears on A Perfect Circle's third album eMOTIVe, reworked and retitled "Passive".

Reznor will make a guest appearance on rapper El-P's next album, I'll Sleep When You're Dead [11], on the track "Flyentology" [12]. El-P remixed the NIN track "Only", released with the single "Every Day Is Exactly the Same". Reznor has also been confirmed as the co-producer of the next album by Saul Williams, who toured with NIN in 2005 and 2006 [13].

Reznor is reportedly in the studio working on the follow up album to 2005's With Teeth, which he has said will appear "shortly".[citation needed]


Discography
This is a list of musical work credited to Trent Reznor. For work credited to Nine Inch Nails, see Nine Inch Nails discography.


Writing and performance
Sound effects and music for Quake (1996). Credited to Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails
"Videodrones; Questions" appears on Lost Highway soundtrack (1997)
"Driver Down" appears on Lost Highway soundtrack (1997)

Featuring
"My Monkey" for Marilyn Manson, appears on Portrait of an American Family (1994)
"Victory (Nine Inch Nails Remix)" for Puff Daddy & The Family, appears on "Victory: Remixes" (1998)

Guitar
"Lunchbox" for Marilyn Manson, appears on Portrait of an American Family (1994)
"Deformography" for Marilyn Manson, appears on Antichrist Superstar (1996)
"Mister Superstar" for Marilyn Manson, appears on Antichrist Superstar (1996)

Mellotron
"Cryptorchid" for Marilyn Manson, appears on Antichrist Superstar (1996)

Mixing
Portrait of an American Family (Marilyn Manson, 1994)

Piano
"Man That You Fear" for Marilyn Manson, appears on Antichrist Superstar (1996)


Producer
"Get Your Gunn", tracks 1-2 (Marilyn Manson, 1994)
Portrait of an American Family (Marilyn Manson, 1994)
Natural Born Killers (Soundtrack, 1994)
"Down in the Park" for Marilyn Manson, appears on Lunchbox (1995)
Prick, tracks 1, 3–5 (Prick, 1995)
Smells Like Children (Marilyn Manson, 1995)
Antichrist Superstar, tracks 1-2, 4-10, 12-16, 99 (Marilyn Manson, 1996)
Lost Highway (Soundtrack, 1997)
"Victory (Nine Inch Nails Remix)" for Puff Daddy & The Family, appears on "Victory: Remixes" (1998)
Voyeurs (Two, 1998)
It Dreams (Guest producer, Jakalope, 2004)


Programming
Antichrist Superstar (Marilyn Manson, 1996)


Remixes
For remixes credited to Nine Inch Nails, see Nine Inch Nails discography: Remixes.
"Burnt Offering" for Machines of Loving Grace, appears on "Burn Like Brilliant Trash (At Jackie's Funeral)" (1992)
"Burn Like Brilliant Trash (Dub 120 BPM)" for Machines of Loving Grace, appears on "Burn Like Brilliant Trash (At Jackie's Funeral)" (1992)
"Symphony of Destruction (The Gristle Mix)" for Megadeth, appears on "Foreclosure of a Dream" (1992)
"Stone Cold Crazy (Re-produced by Trent Reznor)" for Queen, appears on "Stone Cold Crazy" (promo) (1992)
"Missing Link (Screaming Bird Mix)" for Curve, appears on Blackerthreetrackertwo (1993)
"Who Was In My Room Last Night (Trent Reznor Remix)" for Butthole Surfers, appears on "The Wooden Song" (1993)
"Mother Inferior Got Her Gunn (Trent Reznor Remix)" for Marilyn Manson, appears on "Get Your Gunn" (1994)
"The Heart's Filthy Lesson (Alt Mix)" for David Bowie, appears on "The Heart's Filthy Lesson" (1995)
"I'm Afraid of Americans (V1, V2, V3, V4 & V6 Mixes)" for David Bowie, appear on "I'm Afraid of Americans" (1997)
"Pleasant Smell (Rethought by Trent Reznor, Keith Hillebrandt and Clint Mansell)" for 12 Rounds, appears on "Pleasant Smell" (1998)
"Lapdance (Trent Reznor Remix)" for N*E*R*D, appears on "Spin This" (compilation) (2001)
"Growing Up (Trent Reznor Remix)" for Peter Gabriel, appears on "Growing Up" (2003)
"Vertigo (Trent Reznor Remix)" for U2, appears on "Vertigo (remix) (promo)" and "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own" (2005)


Saxophone
"Communiqué" for Lucky Pierre, appears on Communiqué (1988)
"I Need to Get to Know" for Lucky Pierre, appears on Communiqué (1988)
"My Monkey" for Marilyn Manson, appears on "Portrait Of An American Family" (1994)


Vocals
"Communiqué" for Lucky Pierre, appears on Communiqué (1988)
"I Need to Get to Know" for Lucky Pierre, appears on Communiqué (1988)
"Supernaut" for 1000 Homo DJs, appears on "Supernaut" (1990) (vocals allegedly distorted due to a dispute with TVT Records, though the topic remains to be debated due to Jourgensen's contradicting statements)
"Suck" for Pigface, appears on Gub (1991), later re-recorded for the Nine Inch Nails EP Broken (1992) as a hidden track
"The Bushmaster" for Pigface, appears on Gub (1991)
"Supernaut (Trent Reznor Vocal Version)" for 1000 Homo DJs, appears on Black Box - Wax Trax! Records: The First 13 Years (1994) (vocals restored)
"Past the Mission" for Tori Amos, appears on Under the Pink (1994)
"Black Bomb (Jerry in the Bag)" for Josh Wink, appears on Herehear (1998)


Trivia
Reznor enjoyed science fiction as a child, particularly the television show The Six Million Dollar Man. Later in life, he used the Six Million Dollar Man's name, "Steve Austin," as an assumed name when travelling [14].

Reznor is an admitted addict to the id Software first-person shooter Doom, and cites his addiction as being the cause of some delays between albums. The sequel to the Doom series, Quake, features a "Nine Inch Nail Gun" in tribute to Reznor's support of the game.

Reznor is in possession of John Lennon's Mellotron, which he has used on Broken, The Fragile, and Marilyn Manson's 2nd full-length studio album, Antichrist Superstar.

Trent's favorite candy is Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. [citation needed]
Trent is 5'6" (~168 centimeters) tall.
Reznor has brown hair but has almost always been seen with it dyed black
While writing The Downward Spiral, Reznor lived in the Tate mansion where the Manson family murders took place. After he moved out, and it was demolished, he went back and took the door as a souvenir. It became the front door to Nothing Studios in New Orleans.

Reznor is a big fan of David Bowie, and one of his favourite David Bowie albums is Low from 1977. He has stated in interviews that he played it constantly during the recording of The Downward Spiral, for inspiration. However, he occasionally cites Bowie's Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) as his favorite, and has performed the title track live with Bowie during Bowie's Outside Tour in 1995.

Reznor is also a massive Pink Floyd fan and has cited his favourite Pink Floyd album to be The Wall, which he listened to many times when he was younger.

During the process of making Marilyn Manson's Antichrist Superstar, Manson described Reznor as "the brother I never had," according to his autobiography, The Long Hard Road Out Of Hell.

Reznor moved to New Orleans in 1995 and built a studio out of a former funeral home. He left in 2004 for Los Angeles because he claimed he needed friends that don't drink.

Reznor was involved in a feud with the band Limp Bizkit (specifically their frontman Fred Durst) in the late 1990s, around the height of their popularity, calling Durst a 'moron' and saying in a 1999 interview in Rolling Stone magazine, "Let Fred Durst surf a piece of plywood up my ass." [15] It is noted, however, that Reznor is credited as a writer of the song "Hot Dog" on Bizkit's album, "Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water. This is due to this songs use of lyrics from the NIN song 'Closer' in particular the phrase 'I want to fuck you like an animal'. Reznor was put in the difficult position of having to give permission for his own lyrics to be used in a song mocking him but interviews at the time suggested that he thought it was best to allow permission rather than drag the issue out." [16]

Reznor was to produce a song on Aaliyah's final album, Aaliyah, but scheduling conflicts did not permit this to happen, as she tragically died in a plane crash. [17]

Trent Reznor makes a very small cameo in the show Mission Hill. While Kevin French is at the red carpet for the Grammy Awards, a man in risque, S&M-like clothing strolls in the background with a leashed monkey.

In January of 2006, Reznor filmed a public service announcement for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals [18].
In April of 2006 on The Spiral Fanclub message board, Trent Reznor posted that he officially ended his struggle with drugs and alcohol on June 11th, 2001.
Reznor interviewed Roger Waters for Revolver magazine in 2000.


See also
Nine Inch Nails
Pigface
Nothing Records
Tapeworm

[Salem6]

Nine Inch Nails were the most popular industrial group ever and were largely responsible for bringing the music to a mass audience. It isn't really accurate to call NIN a group; the only official member is singer/producer/multi-instrumentalist Trent Reznor, who always remained solely responsible for NIN's musical direction (he was, however, supported in concert by a regular backing band). Unlike the vast majority of industrial artists, Reznor wrote melodic, traditionally structured songs where lyrics were a focal point. His pop instincts not only made the harsh electronic beats of industrial music easier to digest, but also put a human face on a style that usually tried to sound as mechanical as possible. While Ministry crossed over to heavy metal audiences, NIN built up a large alternative rock fan base right around the time of Nirvana's mainstream breakthrough. As a result, Reznor became a genuine star and his notoriously dark, brooding persona and provocateur instincts made him a Jim Morrison-esque sex symbol for the '90s. A long period of inactivity and writer's block followed, which gave virtually every alternative metal band of the late '90s a chance to rip off elements of NIN's sound. By the time Reznor's five-year hiatus finally ended, he was still a popular figure but his commercial momentum had slowed somewhat.


Michael Trent Reznor was born May 17, 1965, in the small town of Mercer, PA; he went by his middle name to avoid confusion with his father, Michael. At age five, Reznor's parents divorced and he wound up being raised mostly by his maternal grandparents; even so, Reznor stated repeatedly that his childhood was mostly happy. He began playing the piano at age five, studying classical music, and later learned tenor sax and tuba in the school band; he also acted in musicals and became an avid Kiss fan. Reznor spent a year studying music and computers at Allegheny College, but dropped out after a year to pursue music full-time; he soon packed up and moved to Cleveland with high school friend Chris Vrenna. Around the same time, he was discovering new wave and assorted underground music; he was most fascinated with early industrial, since it offered an edgy, aggressive way to use electronic instruments. At age 19, he successfully auditioned to join an AOR band called the Innocent, which released one album, Livin' in the Streets (Reznor's picture does appear on the jacket). He quit the Innocent after just three months and subsequently gigged with local bands; he also worked in a keyboard store and as a janitor in the local Right Track recording studio. Eventually, he became a studio engineer, teaching himself various computer applications and working on his own material during off hours. In 1987, Reznor appeared in the Michael J. Fox/Joan Jett film Light of Day, where he played keyboards with a trio dubbed the Problems during a bar scene.


As Nine Inch Nails, Reznor began recording his own Ministry- and Skinny Puppy-influenced compositions in 1988, playing all the instruments himself. At first, he simply hoped to release a 12" single on a small European label, but when he sent demo tapes to around ten American labels, nearly every one offered him a deal. He wound up signing with TVT, which released NIN's debut album, Pretty Hate Machine, in 1989 (after having rejected an initial effort called Industrial Nation). Reznor quickly assembled a backing band and toured with Skinny Puppy for a short time, but soon tired of playing for strictly industrial artists. With a tighter outfit featuring Chris Vrenna on drums and Richard Patrick on guitar (plus several revolving-door keyboardists), he consciously chose to open for alt-rock acts (including, early on, the Jesus and Mary Chain and Peter Murphy), partly for the challenge of winning over fans who might not have liked industrial music. The strategy helped expand Nine Inch Nails' fan base substantially; the single "Down in It" got some airplay in dance clubs, reaching Billboard's dance and modern rock charts, and MTV later picked up on the video for the more rock-oriented "Head Like a Hole." In 1991, after settling on keyboardist James Woolley, Nine Inch Nails became part of the inaugural Lollapalooza tour, which expanded their fan base by leaps and bounds. Pretty Hate Machine's momentum kept building slowly, and although it never climbed higher than number 75, it spent over two years on the album charts and eventually sold over a million copies -- one of the first indie-label rock albums to do so.


TVT had a massive hit on their hands, and to ensure that Reznor would produce another one, they attempted to take control of the follow-up's creative direction. Enraged by the outside meddling, Reznor tried to secure a release from his contract, leading to a vicious court battle. His only recording outlets were side projects; in 1990, he co-wrote and sang on "Suck," a track on Pigface's debut album, Gub, and also sang on the Al Jourgensen-led 1000 Homo DJs cover of Black Sabbath's "Supernaut." (TVT ordered Reznor's vocals removed from the track, but Jourgensen actually just altered them slightly and said he'd re-recorded it.) Eventually, he was able to sign with Interscope, which helped him set up his own label, the Cleveland-based Nothing imprint. Reznor had been recording new material on the sly, and in 1992 Nothing released the EP Broken as well as a concurrent remix disc titled Fixed. Broken featured more (and heavier) guitars than Pretty Hate Machine, partly in response to NIN's live sound and partly as a sonic evocation of Reznor's boiling frustration in the wake of the legal wars; it also featured two bonus cuts, a version of "Suck" and the Adam Ant cover "(You're So) Physical," a nod to Reznor's new wave roots. Despite many reviews characterizing the EP as a harrowing, difficult listen, Broken -- supported by NIN's now-considerable fan base -- debuted in the Top Ten and the first single/video, "Wish," won a Grammy for Best Heavy Metal Performance. Reznor enhanced his reputation as a provocateur with a widely banned clip for "Happiness in Slavery," which depicted S&M performance artist Bob Flanagan being torn apart by a machine; there was also a long-form clip for Broken that was never released commercially due to its graphic content (a torture victim is dismembered while viewing NIN videos).


Reznor moved to Los Angeles to craft the second full-length NIN album, assembling a studio in the house where actress Sharon Tate was murdered by Charles Manson's associates. The Downward Spiral was a highly ambitious work, a concept album indebted to progressive rock that featured the most detailed, layered studiocraft of any NIN release yet. Hugely anticipated, the album debuted at number two and became one of the bleakest multi-platinum albums ever. Richard Patrick had departed the touring band to form Filter, and Reznor revamped the group with drummer Vrenna, keyboardist Woolley, guitarist Robin Finck, and bassist Danny Lohner. NIN caused a sensation at that summer's 25th-anniversary Woodstock concert, performing a ferocious set after horsing around and covering themselves in mud just before hitting the stage. Meanwhile, MTV had put an edited version of the video for "Closer" in heavy rotation and NIN scored one of the year's unlikeliest hits: a song whose chorus began "I want to f*ck you like an animal," which helped make Reznor one of alternative rock's biggest sex symbols. The subdued ballad "Hurt" gained some further airplay, even though it lacked the titillating shock value of "Closer." Later in the year, Reznor assembled the soundtrack of Oliver Stone's controversial Natural Born Killers, editing the songs together to create an innovative collage; he also guested on "Past the Mission," a track on Tori Amos' second album, Under the Pink. In 1995, with new keyboardist Charlie Clouser, Nine Inch Nails hit the road with David Bowie, whose late-'70s albums (along with Pink Floyd) had been a major influence on The Downward Spiral. He also contributed a cover of Joy Division's "Dead Souls" to the soundtrack of The Crow and issued the remix album Further Down the Spiral, which nearly reached the Top 20 (a testament to his popularity).


Using money from The Downward Spiral, Reznor built a state-of-the-art studio in New Orleans in a building that had once been a funeral home. While pondering his next move in the wake of his sudden stardom, he produced Nothing signee Marilyn Manson's second album, Antichrist Superstar, which did indeed make him a superstar. In 1997, longtime friend Vrenna had a falling out with Reznor and eventually was replaced by Jerome Dillon; Reznor's maternal grandmother also passed away that year and his friendship with Manson soon deteriorated. Even so, he produced another movie soundtrack, for David Lynch's Lost Highway, and contributed the new single "The Perfect Drug," which flitted unpredictably between several different rhythm tracks. Though "The Perfect Drug" kept him in the public eye for a time, Reznor was still unsure what kind of statement would be an appropriate follow-up to The Downward Spiral; that uncertainty resulted in a severe case of writer's block. In the meantime, NIN were proving vastly influential on a new crop of bands; major labels signed up industrial metal outfits like Filter and Stabbing Westward, and an assortment of alternative metal bands started grafting industrial production flourishes onto their music; Guns N' Roses lead singer Axl Rose even fired the rest of his band and holed up in a studio to pursue a more NIN-influenced direction.

Nine Inch Nails finally returned in 1999 with the double-CD opus The Fragile. It debuted at number one with massive first-week sales, but slipped down the charts rather quickly afterward, perhaps because the musical climate had changed a great deal over the past five years. The remix album Things Falling Apart followed a year later, as did an extensive world tour. An album of live performances culled from the tour, And All That Could Have Been, was released in early 2002. Reznor was largely quiet during the next three years, finally re-emerging in 2005 with another chart-topper, With Teeth. Touring continued into 2006, where NIN spent the spring and summer on the road with various support acts including Saul Williams, Bauhaus, TV on the Radio, and Peaches. The EP Every Day Is Exactly the Same appeared in April 2006; it contained the title track and five various remixes (all originally from With Teeth). Touring America followed, and then late in the year Reznor was back in the studio working on the next album. In early 2007 the band resumed touring, this time in Europe. A viral marketing campaign began when USB key chains that contained new songs were found in the restrooms during NIN shows. These key chains also contained a noisy audio file that, when run through a spectrum analyzer, drew an audio wave in the shape of a phone number. The phone numbers were answering machines filled with conspiracy theories, there were fake websites strewn across the net, and busy Internet forums and wikis appeared to theorize about and document it all. The big payoff appeared in April when the dystopian concept album Year Zero arrived. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide



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