Nine Inch Nails figurehead Trent Reznor has got quite the mouth on him (just ask The Grammys, Soundwave, or even his fans) but his bark is backed up by the rather intelligent bite of a man who’s been a mainstay of popular music for more than 25 years.
So when he’s got beef with the current state of the industry, it’s worth lending an ear. As it happens, Reznor does have some issues with the current state of rock music.
In a recent interview with Scottish paper Daily Record, Reznor sounded off on his concerns that modern bands are more concerned with popularity and acceptance than artistic expression and innovation.
“When you see a lot more excitement generated from the dance tent, I do think a staleness has permeated [rock music]. A pretty conservative nature has crept into music and I don’t mean sonically,” he says.
“I get the sense that a lot of bands today are designing themselves to get a good review in the hip blogs and that is probably the safest and most cowardly thing you can do as an artist. If you have something to say, then say it. Express yourself and break the rules.” “A lot of bands today are designing themselves to get a good review in the hip blogs and that is probably the safest and most cowardly thing you can do.”
Reznor doesn’t name and shame, but his comments are pertinent considering the wave of big-name artists that have taken aim at music media following poor reviews, such as Pixies and Mobb Deep taking aim at Pitchfork (the very same writer, in fact).
Then there’s veteran artists like The Cure and Motörhead blasting negative write-ups, which could be perceived as a bit petty considering the decades-long, influential careers that precede them. Or Lorde and Iggy Azalea slamming “spineless” music media for cowardice, for not “[having] a stance on an artist and stick to it.”
Instead, the Nine Inch Nails ringleader used himself as an example of how not to be cowardly; “what I try to straddle is paying attention to what is happening in the outside world to some degree and at the same time becoming insular and really trusting my own voice … I don’t hear tons of that going on right now,” Reznor explains.
The 48-year-old musician is aware that he’s “saying this as an old guy” of the music scene, “you start to morph into the guy you railed against when you were younger,” adding “I have thought about the nostalgia aspect of Nine Inch Nails, because I am not completely objective,” before noting “I don’t want to realise tomorrow is that I have been this clown pretending to be someone half his age… “I try to be mindful to keep myself in a place that feels artistically uncomfortable, unsure and makes me think…”
“I try to be mindful to keep myself in a place that feels artistically uncomfortable, unsure and makes me think and shoots me into some place new rather than resting on past achievements.”
Just as, Reznor explains, how Nine Inch Nails was “starting to get comfortable and routine” and pushed him towards creating side-project How To Destroy Angels and his moonlighting career as an Oscar-winning film composer for director David Fincher (including his upcoming film, Gone Girl).
“Around that time in my life, I just felt, ‘I’ve done this, I know how to do this, it doesn’t feel broken, but at the same time the list of creative things I’d like to do is growing and I never get to them because I’m constantly in a Nine Inch Nails tour schedule.”
Interestingly, Reznor is currently very much back in a continual NIN tour schedule; having completed a co-headline Australian tour with Queens Of The Stone Age (and releasing some amazing super-HD footage of a performance) NIN are currently touring through Europe before teaming up with Soundgarden for a US tour starting July.
