NINE INCH NAILS Mainman: Do Not Expect PUBLIC ENEMY's FLAVOR FLAV To Appear On New CD

NINE INCH NAILS is currently mixing its new album, "Year Zero", for an April release. In a January 11, 2007 posting on on the official NIN fan club web site The Spiral, the band's mastermind Trent Reznor wrote, "While mixing, I spend most of my time NOT in the control room to allow myself some objectivity when it comes time to listen to the progress of a track. During that time, I'm working on the new set list, tour production, thinking about tracks that aren't being mixed yet, working on a few things NIN-related I can't tell you about yet, finishing Saul's record, and occasionally checking in on you people online.

"Let me clear a few things up so some of you don't kill yourselves (or maybe you now will). This is not a fucking hip hop record, for fuck's sake. I imagine my referring to old PUBLIC ENEMY records as an influence and the fact I'm working with Saul sparked that. To clarify what I meant by being influenced by PUBLIC ENEMY: HANK SHOCKLEE's 'Bomb Squad' had a unique and highly influential way of constructing tracks — layers of samples and loops that combined together to form something chaotic and new. Do not expect Flavor Flav to appear here.

"While we're at it, I wouldn't consider Saul's record to be labeled hip hop either. Certainly there is an influence there but his record reaches far beyond the confines of what I consider a dying genre.

"As far as the sound and content of my new record, you'll see and hear soon enough. I am certain some of you will HATE it. I am also certain some of you will find it the best thing I've ever done. It is different in a number of ways and it is who I am now.

"I am creating right now and I do not care what the record label or marketing people think about what I'm doing. I also do not care what the public think about what I'm doing. I certainly appreciate your patronage — and I HOPE you will get and enjoy what I'm working on, but I will not patronize you or pander to what you want. I assure you I am pouring every ounce of my life, heart and soul into this and it will be the best work I am capable of — and that's all I can do."

In a recent interview with England's Kerrang! magazine, Reznor described the upcoming album as "a collage of sound type of thing, not heavy in a metal guitar kind of way." He added, "With this record I feel a lot less concerned about what people think about it — especially the dying record industry. I couldn't care less about that right now." Reznor also revealed that the new effort is a concept album and "part of a bigger picture of a number of things I'm working on. Essentially I wrote the soundtrack to a movie that doesn't exist."

Reznor said that most of the album was recorded "in hotel rooms around the world on laptops," with very few musicians beside himself and "maybe some surprise vocalists that pop up here and there."

When asked why the new record took less than two years to arrive when the last one took six, Reznor said, "I'm probably as surprised as some fans are (laughs). But really it's just a matter of discipline. When I was on the last tour, to keep myself busy I was just really hunkered down and was working on music the whole time, so this kept me in a creative mode and when I finished the tour I felt like I wasn't tired and wanted to keep at it."

NINE INCH NAILS will release a DVD called "Beside You In Time" on February 27. The disc documents the band's tour in support of "With Teeth".

(Thanks: Danny Stone)