Nine Inch Nails

Formed in Cleveland, Ohio in 1988, Nine Inch Nails is the creation of one man – Trent Reznor. Throughout NIN’s existence Reznor has been the only official member of the band – taking responsibility for the instrumentation, production, singing and song writing. It’s only when NIN come to perform live shows that Reznor assembles a full band.

The origins of NIN stem from when Trent Reznor worked as a programmer for Bart Koster at Right Track Studios in Cleveland. It was here that Reznor worked on his own demo’s (which came to be known as the ‘Purest Feeling’ demos) at night. These demos were soon picked up by a number of record labels, including TVT records, who Reznor eventually decided to sign for.

It was a year later, 1989, that Reznor released NIN debut album, ‘Pretty Hate Machine.’ The album featured a number of songs from the ‘Purest Feeling’ demos, as well as a number of new songs, including, ‘Down In It.’ The album featured dark, soul-searching lyrics, set to catchy melodies – a common characteristic of NIN music. After two years in the charts, the album became the first independent record to achieve Platinum status in the US.

Almost immediately after the success of ‘Pretty Hate Machine,’ however, Reznor began to fall for the dark-side of the music industry. It’s something that he has admitted recently, severely damaged the regularity and quality of NIN’s output during the nineties.

It wasn’t until 1994 that NIN released their second full studio album, ‘The Downward Spiral,’ which later became NIN highest selling US release. The album was influential in bringing NIN mainstream success and it’s brooding, melancholic moods meant many bands cited NIN as musical inspirations. Mixed by Alan Moulder, who - in an interview with Gigwise - Reznor described as a “brother” figure, ‘The Downward Spiral’s’ most notable song was ‘Closer’ – which is still one of the bands most prominently played anthems. Following the albums release NIN also played one of their biggest shows to date at Woodstock in 1994.

Reznor throughout his career has received a number of accolades for his musical talent, including being named one of the 25 most influential people in America by TIME magazine, in 1997.

Because of Reznor’s ongoing personal and relationship problems , it was another five years until NIN released their third studio album, ‘The Fragile,’ in 1999. ‘The Fragile,’ is still NIN most instrumental piece of work to date – highlighting, how Reznor, at the time, was in a fragile state. Although, after intial delays, the album received positive reviews and charted well, due to a lack of promotion Reznor had to fund the supporting live tour with his own money.

It was at the turn of the century when Reznor finally decided it was time to combat his addiction problems if he was going to find his musical creativity again. After rehabilitation periods, NIN returned in 2005 with, ‘With Teeth.’ Like the albums predecessors, it was written from Reznor’s current state of mind. ‘With Teeth’s’ lyrics, therefore, highlighted Reznor as a man finding his feet with music again. Although many saw it as a return to form, some thought it lacked his usual vision – something Reznor has recently blamed on the trepidation of writing from a clean soul for the first time.

After touring, ‘With Teeth,’ extensively, Reznor – now clean – found himself writing the albums follow-up, ‘Year Zero,’ whilst still on the tour, something he’d struggled with in the past. Released in April 2007, ‘Year Zero,’ was not only NIN fastest between album turnarounds, but it was also the first part of a two-part concept album set in the future. The albums promotion was spun across the internet with fans finding mp3’s in gig toilets and hidden messages in bands t-shirts. Lyrically, the album is written from the benefit of having hindsight about what the world would be like in 2022 if it continued along the same path. The first single to be taken from the album was, ‘Survivalism.’ Anti-Presidential lyrics are dominant across the album.