NINE INCH NAILS' TRENT REZNOR: 'I Don't Care About How Many Records I Sell'

UK's Metal Hammer magazine recently conducted an interview with NINE INCH NAILS mastermind Trent Reznor. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

Metal Hammer: In a recent interview you said: "When I did 'With Teeth' I didn't make myself any rules, I was just hoping that I could do it at all." You mentioned that you had a confidence on this record that you didn't have for "With Teeth". How has that manifested?

Trent: "I have to look at where my life was at the time — not that it was that long ago — but coming out of a period of inactivity, and a big life change — getting sober — and the humility that comes with that: I was a fuck up, and I fucked a lot of shit up, and... including maybe my career, or my ability to use my art, my gift... that I've been blessed with. So it was kind of… fear was entangled in the whole writing process of 'With Teeth', but from the day it started this new record it was a fairly easy process, it wasn't as painful... I was going at it with… it was like a hot stove, I didn't want to touch it [gestures] there was a bit of a 'kid gloves' feel to that record, and a I kind of 'feeling around in the dark to see what I found exciting to me musically', but with this record it was... the tour was going well, I felt better about things, I realised the mistakes I made on 'With Teeth'."

Metal Hammer: You made mistakes on "With Teeth"?

Trent: "Yeah, I made some mistakes on 'With Teeth'... I look at it now as things I wouldn't do again. I got rid of a manager that had been round me for a long time, and I had a new group of people, I had a new fresh start with the record label I'd been with forever, and I let a few too many people in the room when I was... When it wasn't quite finished, to get opinions and I've never done that. Never. Like, I would never have played it for as many people as I did before it was finished, to get their opinion. Now I think there's good that can come from that — and good did come from that, but also some bad. The bad was that I wasn't in a confident enough place to say — strongly but I should have — 'yeah, but I disagree, thanks for your opinion', 'I've considered, however, this is what I'm going to do'. And I don't want to officially say that I felt compromised on that record, because ultimately whatever I did on that record was of my own making and my own choice, but this time around I didn't let anybody in the room. And that has dangers too: sometimes you can have your head way up your ass and not realise before it's too late. But I felt very strongly about the whole process of this record. I didn't care if it had singles on it, or got played on the radio; I don't care about MTV... at all. I don't care about how many records I sell — I mean, I hope people like the record and I hope people get the record, but I'm not doing this just to make a product that fits into a mould that a record label would like to make, there's enough people doing that. I don't feel like doing it [laughs] so I approached the whole thing with a kind of 'Fuck it, I'm going to do what I think is cool.' And some of it was... every time I sat down I was concerned about someone preaching to me, 'It has to have a strong melody, it has to have a bridge and...' Fuck all that. It has that button and it makes a noise that sounds cool to me. Nothing wrong with that."

Metal Hammer: Can you make the same record in those three different mental places?

Trent: "I would hope not. [smiles] I think those records ['The Fragile', 'With Teeth'] reflect… when I listen to them I'm seeing them differently to the way you would because I was there, I think about when I made it, how I made it and the feelings I had. And there couldn't be two more disparate places than 'The Fragile' and 'Year Zero'. Now, do I think a track of 'Year Zero' could wind up on 'The Fragile'? Maybe. But not in the way they were put together, not in the mindset. Like, I just try to make as true a record to who I am at that time. I could try and sound like THE CLASH, and maybe I could fool you, but it wouldn't be real. I like THE CLASH a lot, but it's not who I am."

Metal Hammer: What does isolation do for you?

Trent: "I have a place in L.A. that's right up on a hill so I get to see the whole city. It's a very urban setting; it feels like you're sitting on top of a giant city. I'd just finished the tour and I was setting up the house and a water piper broke and fucked it all up, so trying to turn it into a positive thing, I rented a place for a few months, while they fixed the house up. And it kind of acted as a..."

Metal Hammer: A good excuse...

Trent: "Yeah, when people think about Malibu, and I did too — I thought it was just the beach and 'Baywatch' and shit like that — and I guess that's there — but there's all these canyons and stuff. When I first drove to the place I couldn't even find the fucking place. It's an hour outside of L.A. down a dead-end track, deer in the back yard, giant spiders, kind of creepy, it felt like you're the only person around."

Metal Hammer: How did that affect the writing and mindset?

Trent: "For me it won't mean I make a country record because I'm out there… but what it does is it gave me some piece of mind, and got me a way from the distractions of… you know, you're in your house and the phone rings, and people know where you are and you end up getting fucking nothing done. It was a nice place to go, it was serene, I took my dogs, and disappear into the woodwork for a while. The ultimate state for me is when there's no phone, when I wake up I can immediately start working on something, if I need to leave the house I can, long walks in the woods, I'll probably end up Unabomber-style living out in the woods..."

Metal Hammer: How do you feel about how "With Teeth" was criticized? Too pop/easy?

Trent: "I think it was fair. When I hear it I don't hear it as a FALL OUT BOY record or anything that shitty, I don't think that it was my most daring artistic experiment by any mean but I didn't go into it trying to do that. The idea of trying to write concise songs was a challenge, especially after 'The Fragile', having immersed myself in something like 'The Fragile' I wanted to make something song based. At the moment it's not the favourite album I've done. But I don't dislike it, [falters] I don't think this record is like that. I don't know... at the time it felt like the right thing to do."

Read the entire interview at www.metalhammer.co.uk.