Trent Reznor On Keeping His Private Life Private

Imhotep has an interview with Trent Reznor. In the piece, we get to hear Trent talk about the second part of Year Zero, the difference in his writing process for With Teeth versus the process used to compose the more recent albums, and, most interestingly to me, why he has made a conscious decision to keep his private life private:

I don’t really want my fans to see me. What I’ve tried to do in the media is not to let my personality get in the way of the music. In a way, that creates its own aura. Today with the Internet and MTV it is easy to reach out and overexpose yourself to people, and I don’t mean like I was embarrassed about myself, but when you listen to a Nine Inch Nails record, I don’t want you to know what I look like, I want you to create your own version about the record.

As I’ve written in my Oeuvre Blog entries, I’ve always been a listener more concerned with answering the question “How does this lyric apply to my own life, to my own experience?” than most. And I suppose my obsession with Nine Inch Nails has a lot to do with the fact that I don’t think about Trent Reznor when I’m listening to the music. I think about me, and about the lyrics, and about whether or not I’m going to break something as I dance around my house like a maniac.

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Two Weeks Till NIN News

Trent Reznor has posted the cryptic message “2 weeks!” on nin.com for the second time this year. The last time he posted that message, it was two weeks before the impromptu release of the latest Nine Inch Nails record, Ghosts I-IV. What will come two weeks from now, on May 5? Another album? An update to the Website? Fans at Echoing the Sound are speculating even as I type this.

Me, I think the announcement will be that Hannah Montana really is opening for NIN this summer.

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Y Kant Tori Read Comic Books?

Comic Book Resources has a new, vastly-improved layout today, as well as a story on a forthcoming comic book based on the music of Tori Amos. It sounds like it will be very interesting, and maybe even very good.

[Comic Book Tattoo] features no stories that simply illustrate her heavily narrative lyrics. “We didn’t want a book that just had interpretations of the songs; comic book versions of music videos,” Hoseley explained. “It was important to both Tori and I that this stand on its own as a killer set of comic stories regardless of whether you were a fan of Tori’s or, for that matter, if you were even aware of her music. The stories had to be great comic stories first and foremost, and that drove most of the creative and editorial choices.”

The “girls” that will be featured in the collection include “Leather,” “Caught A Light Sneeze,” and one of my personal favorites (yes, because of the backing vocals by Trent Reznor) “Past the Mission.”

It’s being put out by Image Comics and not Marvel, and so therefore doesn’t really fall under the umbrella of my Geek Force Five, but I’m going to file this one under Marvel Comics anyway, just because I can, and because it makes more sense there than under Geek Force Reserves.

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Crossover Craziness: NIN and the Dresden Dolls

One of the first things I learned about the new Nine Inch Nails record, Ghosts I-IV, was that Dresden Dolls drummer Brian Viglione had recorded drums for a couple of tracks. I am a huge fan of the Dolls, and I still think that they were the best opening act that I’ve ever seen at a NIN show, so this was most welcome news. The Boston Herald’s Michael Marotta posted a brief article on Brian’s involvement on the Herald’s Website today. It’s not particularly illuminating, but it’s nice to see the hometown heroes getting a bit of attention.

The Dresden Dolls’s newsletter provided a bit more insight, and a board member at Echoing the Sound has been kind enough to transcribe it. Here’s a snippet:

Here’s a little re-cap of that weekend:

Day 1: Trent said, “I thought a fun art project for today would be to have you put some things together to play on and we could improv some stuff tonight. I don’t really have room for a big drum kit and all the mics here, but, let your imagination go and we’ll help you piece together what you need. When you get something together, we’ll record tonight. Go nuts, see you in a few hours.”

So I put this together from stuff around his house, Home Depot, and the grocery store.

It sounded cool as hell.

Brian can be heard on two tracks of Ghosts I-IV, and they’re two of the better ones, in my humble opinion (and that’s saying something on an album where, to my ear, there aren’t any glaring weak spots). I love crossovers, man, whether they’re in comics, films, or even in music. Yay for Brian for landing this gig, and yay for Trent for giving the New Hampshire boy a chance.

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New NIN Record Released: Ghosts I-IV

What is Mr. Trent Reznor trying to do to me? He releases a new NIN record on a Sunday, when I have so much to do that I don’t have time to check my RSS reader? What is this madness? OH MY JESUS!!!! It’s not only a new Nine Inch Nails record, but 36-track NIN record. And it’s all instrumentals!

Trent explains: “I’ve been considering and wanting to make this kind of record for years.” And to that I say: “I’ve been wanting to listen to this kind of record for years.” You, my friends, should want to listen to it, too. Go, download it now.

EDIT 1: While we wait for the NIN.com server gods to fix the site and allow us to finish our downloads, we should all check out the review over at The Meathead Perspective. It’s almost as good as actually being able to listen to the album.

:-(

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