Yesterday, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross of Nine Inch Nails sat down with BBC Radio 6‘s Lauren Laverne. The interview was part of the current promotional push behind Nine Inch Nail’s new album, Bad Witch—released last Friday, June 22nd—and the extensive run of tour dates they have scheduled in its support.
During the interview, they spoke about various different facets of their creative output and ambitions, from their experience scoring David Fincher films (including their Oscar-winning work on The Social Network) to the impetus behind their current artistic direction with Nine Inch Nails.
Reznor also praised Childish Gambino‘s “This Is America” video for its daring, complex nature, explaining,
I’m always impressed by excellence, and… it feels like that’s happening less than it used to in the world of music. The bar seems to be dropping all the times, and there’s less times when there’s something that really blows you away. And I find it really inspiring and humbling when that happens. I was just kind of taken aback by the song, the direction, the idea, the choreography and the multiple layers of depth where one could be motivated to watch it again, and when you do, there’s a whole different series of things I hadn’t caught the first couple times.
I appreciated it being provocative, and I appreciated seeing the discussion that was surrounding it. It reminded me that music can have that power. Just seeing something that was done on a multitude of levels was pretty humbling, as an artist. I’m glad to see that there’s people out there who are still trying things.
Echoing those sentiments, Reznor went on to speak about some people he feels are not trying new things, but rather trying old Nine Inch Nails things, particularly in regards to live show production. Explains Trent,
I’d been obsessed with, since the beginning, attempting with whatever resources I had access to, transforming the live venue into as much of an immersive experience as possible. And that usually relied on, when we finally had access to it, screens and experimental production techniques and whatnot.
I remember us watching a string of bands on Coachella from the comfort of our couch, you know, and every band has a video playing behind them, and every band is [synced] up with a convenient, polite lighting package, you know? And I saw Kanye West blatantly rip off, and the Weeknd rip off, our tours… production-wise, which I’ll say without any hesitation.
And they know. And I thought what would be exciting to me is just to see — when I think back to the Cure, when I saw them the first time or Jesus And Mary Chain when we opened for them, all I remember of that was smoke, maybe a color, a little bit of someone’s hair and real, real loud guitars. That’s exciting, and I don’t see that happening much.
Reznor explains that this was the mindset behind their more intimate, stripped-down, creatively risky upcoming tour plans.
We went the opposite of the arms race we had been in of immersive, technological-based production and went for ‘it’s music being played somewhat sloppily and with an element of danger and uncertainty and unpredictability.’ And we mean it, and we’re sweating, and it works onstage at times… It worked. So that became a template for what we’re doing now.
Watch the clip below:
Did @kanyewest and @theweeknd “blatantly” rip off @nineinchnails‘ live show?
Weds, Noon BST: Nine Inch Nails’ @trent_reznor and Atticus Ross spend some time chatting to @laurenlaverne.
💻📱 Listen worldwide https://t.co/Dd2jiILcDV pic.twitter.com/S7ChPCAwPG
— BBC Radio 6 Music (@BBC6Music) June 26, 2018
You can watch more footage of the BBC 6 Nine Inch Nails interview in three parts below:
Nine Inch Nails Interview – BBC Radio 6 Music – Part 1
Nine Inch Nails Interview – BBC Radio 6 Music – Part 2
Nine Inch Nails Interview – BBC Radio 6 Music – Part 3
See below for a full list of Nine Inch Nails’ Cold And Black And Infinite North American tour dates. For more information, head to the band’s website.
[H/T Billboard]