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NPR's Fresh Air Interview With Trent Reznor

Joyrex

By Joyrex
in Music Discussion

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Guest RadarJammer

Guest RadarJammer

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Sounds like he's being banally probed like a piece of meat with a terrible Oprah/Doctor Phil style line of questioning. So awkward, wrong interviewer.

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Cryptowen Grand Master

Cryptowen

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Some awkward moments in that interview for sure, & lots of questions that should have been put to bed a decade ago, but I do like the point he made about it being harder to make subversive music the mainstream can dig as opposed to total outsider music.

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awepittance Grand Master

awepittance

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after listening to the interview i can't help but feel that his 'real' downward spiral following the album was somewhat induced by the internet at the time. Trent was widely hated and scorned on early 1994-1997 internet forums, he was destroyed immolated, smeared, made fun of in almost every circle you would go into. Apparently most of his fans hadn't gotten to the internet yet, but i just remember thinking 'jesus christ, everybody online into industrial music hates trent' and i honestly think that it had an effect on him. He made a name for himself putting mainstream rock elements into dark underground industrial music whilst dressing exactly like a late 80s era Ogre.

 

in a way he was the Skrillex of his era, taking a musical genre that had existed and maintained an underground scene for the previous 5-10 years and turning it into an MTV commodity.

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oscillik Grand Master

oscillik

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after listening to the interview i can't help but feel that his 'real' downward spiral following the album was somewhat induced by the internet at the time. Trent was widely hated and scorned on early 1994-1997 internet forums, he was destroyed immolated, smeared, made fun of in almost every circle you would go into. Apparently most of his fans hadn't gotten to the internet yet, but i just remember thinking 'jesus christ, everybody online into industrial music hates trent' and i honestly think that it had an effect on him. He made a name for himself putting mainstream rock elements into dark underground industrial music whilst dressing exactly like a late 80s era Ogre.

 

in a way he was the Skrillex of his era, taking a musical genre that had existed and maintained an underground scene for the previous 5-10 years and turning it into an MTV commodity.

 

absolutely spot on. I can't vouch for seeing stuff on the net around that time, but I can completely buy that he was hated by a lot of hardcore rivetheads. As I said in the other thread though, at least Reznor had some skill and talent, although what he's doing now shows little evidence...

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l1fef0rm Community Regular

l1fef0rm

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"in a way he was the Skrillex of his era" NO No No. First of all, Skrillex doesn't say words...never mind. Anything I say to differentiate Reznor from Skrillex will cause an uproar. No comparison what so ever.

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l1fef0rm Community Regular

l1fef0rm

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I don't think it was Trent Reznor's purpose to make music that was an "MTV commodity". The same way Skrillex didn't thrust himself into the world of dubstep, brostep, drumstep bullshit. These people just write music. It is not their fault that people say what they say about it.

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awepittance Grand Master

awepittance

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to me its undeniable that Trent Reznor took key elements from a genre which up until NIN had chosen to remain underground. Probably the most commercial sounding 'industrial' band previous to NIN was KMFDM, and pre NIN they didn't have much interest in being big. I think it was with the success of NIN that a lot of the underground industrial bands realized how far they could climb if they retooled their sound a bit. Unfortunately this is that Martin Atkins forces on the last 'real' skinny puppy album The Process. While they turned it into something kinda magical, you can't help but hear them trying to grab a piece of that NIN MTV pie.

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modey Grand Master

modey

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to me its undeniable that Trent Reznor took key elements from a genre which up until NIN had chosen to remain underground. Probably the most commercial sounding 'industrial' band previous to NIN was KMFDM, and pre NIN they didn't have much interest in being big. I think it was with the success of NIN that a lot of the underground industrial bands realized how far they could climb if they retooled their sound a bit. Unfortunately this is that Martin Atkins forces on the last 'real' skinny puppy album The Process. While they turned it into something kinda magical, you can't help but hear them trying to grab a piece of that NIN MTV pie.

The way I see it is that some bands just get tired of releasing album after album of abrasive stuff. Sure, it could have something to do with popularity but I've experienced it myself in my own music, I've got to the point where I just want to write catchy/supermelodic songs rather than experimental chin-stroking IDM (not that there's anything wrong with that).

 

Just have a think about it—would you really prefer it if say, Skinny Puppy kept to the same sound for 30 years?

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awepittance Grand Master

awepittance

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not the same sound, but man to go from an album like Last Rites which was so much a Skinny Puppy album to the forced commercial sound of Martin Atkins in the Process, its kind of a tragedy. Not to say i dont enjoy the process, i really do but these new (post reforming) skinny puppy albums show them behind the curve instead of in front of it.

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eh Speedy Grand Master

eh Speedy

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after listening to the interview i can't help but feel that his 'real' downward spiral following the album was somewhat induced by the internet at the time. Trent was widely hated and scorned on early 1994-1997 internet forums, he was destroyed immolated, smeared, made fun of in almost every circle you would go into. Apparently most of his fans hadn't gotten to the internet yet, but i just remember thinking 'jesus christ, everybody online into industrial music hates trent' and i honestly think that it had an effect on him. He made a name for himself putting mainstream rock elements into dark underground industrial music whilst dressing exactly like a late 80s era Ogre. in a way he was the Skrillex of his era, taking a musical genre that had existed and maintained an underground scene for the previous 5-10 years and turning it into an MTV commodity.

 

I don't think I could disagree with this more. I was in high school on BBSes and internet forums and I remember none of that at all. "Widely hated and scorned" is giving a few forum geek detractors far to much credit. He went down because he didn't like himself and became an alcoholic, period. And Skrillex, wtf? I'm dumbfounded by that comparison.

 

There's two amazingly funny moments in the interview. Trent going "Why don't you play a happy one,....oh wait there aren't any". LOL that was great! And then at the very end when they were talking about dragging up is old feelings about himself from years ago and he says "OK now I'm going to go hang myself, thanks for that." I need more Reznor jokes in my life really. That makes me happy.

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Guest Lucy Faringold

Guest Lucy Faringold

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Listened to With Teeth today, coincidentally. Shit holds up. 'Only' is such an incredible song on so many levels. Some of Trent's strongest lyrics and one of his best vocal performances imo.

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awepittance Grand Master

awepittance

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after listening to the interview i can't help but feel that his 'real' downward spiral following the album was somewhat induced by the internet at the time. Trent was widely hated and scorned on early 1994-1997 internet forums, he was destroyed immolated, smeared, made fun of in almost every circle you would go into. Apparently most of his fans hadn't gotten to the internet yet, but i just remember thinking 'jesus christ, everybody online into industrial music hates trent' and i honestly think that it had an effect on him. He made a name for himself putting mainstream rock elements into dark underground industrial music whilst dressing exactly like a late 80s era Ogre. in a way he was the Skrillex of his era, taking a musical genre that had existed and maintained an underground scene for the previous 5-10 years and turning it into an MTV commodity.

 

I don't think I could disagree with this more. I was in high school on BBSes and internet forums and I remember none of that at all. "Widely hated and scorned" is giving a few forum geek detractors far to much credit

 

but was this on music forums about industrial music? because those are specifically the circles i'm talking about. The rivetheads i came to knew were extremely territorial people and they were most definitely in the majority on any industrial music forum or group i came in contact with.

 

and addiction doesn't just spring out of nowhere, i think there were other causes for what happened.

 

this is an interesting piece of information that gives some clues

 

"Reznor claims to be 'happily inspired' right now, despite recent events. An unknown musician, Mark Nicholas Onofrio, has filed a lawsuit against him, claiming that certain songs from 'The Downward Spiral' are 'strikingly similar' to his own, which he alleges he sent Reznor in '93. 'If I could name the Number One thing on my list that pisses me off right now,' seethes Reznor, 'it would be that piece of fucking human cunt garbage. I've never met him or heard his fucking tape. I don't even want to acknowledge his existence. You'll read about it when it gets thrown out of court.'"

 

this wasn't some random guy either who sued Reznor, it was a guy he had an friendly relationship with on AOL for years whom he shared music with back anf forth, but the lawsuit ended up getting thrown out of court

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