Trent Reznor

At 58 years old, Trent Reznor has this physical status:

Michael Trent Reznor (born May 17, 1965) is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, record producer, and film score composer.

He is the founder, lead singer, and chief songwriter of Nine Inch Nails, which he founded in 1988 and of which he was the sole official member until adding long-serving collaborator Atticus Ross as a permanent member in 2016.

The 1989 album Pretty Hate Machine, his first release under the Nine Inch Nails name, was a commercial and critical success.

He has since released nine Nine Inch Nails studio albums.

He left Interscope Records in 2007 and was a freelance recording artist before signing with Columbia Records in 2012. In the mid-1980s, Reznor was a member of Option 30, The Urge, The Innocent, and Exotic Birds.

He has contributed to artists like Marilyn Manson and Saul Williams' albums outside of Nine Inch Nails.

Mariqueen Maandig, a British songwriter, and David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) are among the David Fincher films to win the Academy Award for Best Original Score for Visual Media for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, along with Atticus Ross and Rob Sheridan.

They also scored the 2018 film Bird Box.

Reznor was named as "the most influential artist in music" in Time's list of the year's most influential individuals in 1997, and Spin magazine named him as "the most influential artist in music."

Early life

Reznor was born in New Castle, Pennsylvania, on May 17, 1965, the son of Nancy Lou (née Clark) and Michael Reznor. He grew up in Mercer, Pennsylvania, and is of German and Irish descent. George Reznor, his great-grandfather, founded Reznor Company in 1884, a heating and air conditioning company. Tera, Reznor's sister, lived with their mother after his parents divorced when he was six years old, until he went to live with his maternal grandparents. He began playing piano at the age of 12 and showed an early aptitude for music. Bill Clark, his grandfather, told People in February 1995, "Reznor] was a good kid[,] a Boy Scout who loved to skateboard, build model planes, and play the piano." From the time he was a boy, music was his life. He was so gifted."

Reznor has admitted that his sheltered life left him feeling alienated from the outside world. In a September 1994 interview with Rolling Stone, he discussed his career choices, "I don't know why I want to do these things other than my desire to get out of Small Town, U.S.A., to defy the boundaries to investigate." It isn't a bad place to grow up in, but there isn't much going on outside of the cornfields. I enjoyed watching television, watching television, and reading newspapers as well as going through magazines. When your culture comes from watching television every day, you are bombarded with images of things that look cool, places that look exciting, people with jobs and careers, and opportunities. None of this happened where I was going. You're almost taught that this isn't for you." However, he told Details that he did not want to give the appearance that it was a difficult childhood" in April 1995.

"The Eagles' first concert I ever saw was in 1976," Reznor would later recall. The night's elation hit me and I remember thinking, 'Someday I'd like to be up on stage.'" He learned to play the tenor saxophone and tuba at Mercer High School and was a member of both the jazz band and marching band. The school's former band director recalled him as "very upbeat and friendly." He was active in theatre while in high school and was lauded as "Best in Drama" by his peers for his performances as Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar and Professor Harold Hill in The Music Man. He graduated in 1983 and enrolled at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania, where he studied computer engineering.

Personal life

Reznor suffered from depression for the first five years following the publication of The Downward Spiral in 1994; his illness was exacerbated by his maternal grandmother's death, who had raised him. He began using alcohol, cocaine, and other medications and recovered in 2001.

He said in a 2005 Kerrang!

"There was a persona who had run its course," the researcher explained. My head was in the mud trying to get my priorities straight, but my head was spinning. I took a few years off from work to figure out if I wanted to continue doing this or not. I had become a terrible addict, and I wanted to get my shit together and figure out what had happened." He said in another 2005 interview that he is "pretty happy" in comparison to his previous suicidal tendencies.

In October 2009, Reznor married Filipino-American singer Mariqueen Maandig. They live in Los Angeles and have five children together: Lazarus Echo Reznor (born October 10, 2010), Balthazar Venn Reznor (born November 1, 2015), and a fourth son whose name has not been revealed (born January 20, 2020).

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Career

Reznor formed Option 30 local band Option 30 while still in high school and spent three weeks with them. He dropped out of college to pursue a life in music in Cleveland, Ohio. Urge, a cover band, was his first band in Cleveland. He joined The Innocent as a keyboardist in 1985; they released one album, Livin' on the Street, but Reznor left the band after three months. In the 1987 film Light of Day, he joined local band Exotic Birds and appeared with them as a fictional group called The Problems. Reznor appeared on keyboards with Slam Bamboo and briefly joined the new wave band Lucky Pierre during this period.

Reznor began working at Right Track Studio in Cleveland as an assistant engineer and janitor. "He is so concentrated in everything he does," Studio owner Bart Koster later said. It looked fantastic when the guy waxed the floor. Reznor asked Koster for permission to record demos of his own songs for free during unoccupied studio time. Koster agreed, remarking that it cost him "just a little wear on [his] tape heads."

Reznor was unable to find a band that could articulate his songs as he desired when assembling the first Nine Inch Nails albums. Rather, inspired by the prince, he played all the instruments except drums himself. He stayed on most Nine Inch Nails studio recordings, but he has occasionally collaborated with other musicians, assistants, drummer, and rhythm experts. Several labels responded well to the demos, and Reznor signed with TVT Records. Nine Picks from the Right Track demos were unofficially released in 1988 as Purest Feeling and several of these songs appeared in updated form on Reznor's first official release under the Nine Inch Nails name.

Pretty Hate Machine was introduced in 1989 and was a moderate commercial success, winning gold in 1992. Reznor began recording under various pseudonyms to avoid public company interference under pressure from his record label's to produce a sequel to the Pretty Hate Machine, resulting in an EP titled Broken (1992). Nine Inch Nails appeared on the Lollapalooza tour in 1991 and 1993, and the song "Wish" was given a Grammy Award in 1993.

The Downward Spiral, Nine Inch Nails' second full-length album, debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 chart in 1994 and is still the country's most popular Nine Inch Nails release. Reznor rented and moved into the 10050 Cielo Drive mansion, where the Tate–LaBianca murders were perpetrated by the Manson Family in 1969. Since the word scrawled on the front door in Sharon Tate's blood by her murderers, he built a studio space in the house, which he renamed Le Pig. Despite the notoriety surrounding the house, Reznor told Entertainment Weekly that he chose to record there because he "looked at a lot of places, and this one happened to be the one I liked the most." He has also stated that he was attracted by the house because of his obsession with "American folklore," but has stated that he does not "want to help serial-killer bullshit."

Nine Inch Nails performed well over the next few years, including a show at Woodstock '94, though Reznor admitted to the audience that he did not like to perform large venues. Reznor's studio perfectionionism, struggles with heroin, and bouts of writer's block all slowed the development of a sequel to The Downward Spiral around this time.

The Fragile, a double album, was released in 1999. It was partially successful, but Reznor's name was lost, so he funded the North American Fragility Tour from his own pocket. A further six years went by before the new Nine Inch Nails album With Teeth was released. Reznor went into heroin use during the time between the two records and was able to handle his heroin use. Teeth have risen to No. 1 with Teeth No. 11. 1 is ranked one on the Billboard 200. Reznor, With Teeth, released Year Zero in 2007, which has an alternate reality game based on the album's theme, which is about how the new government's new policies will impact the world in 2022. Reznor debuted on major record labels and released two albums, Ghosts I–IV and The Slip, independently on his own brand, The Null Corporation, following Year Zero's debut. Following the Wave Goodbye Tour in 2009, Nine Inch Nails went on hiatus. Nine Inch Nails returned to big record labels in 2013, signing with Columbia Records. Hesitation Marks was released in September, and earlier this month, the Tension 2013 tour began.

Reznor was given a songwriting award on Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road" in 2019, partly due to the album heavily sampling the 2008 Nine Inch Nails instrumental track "34 Ghosts IV." It hit No. 12 on the charts. Reznor and Ross received both writing and production credit for their debut on the Billboard Hot 100 in April 2019. The song will continue to be the chart's longest-running #1 hit, despite remaining at the top for a record 19 weeks. Reznor gave permission to use the sample and expressed admiration for the music, but declined to appear in the music video.

One of Reznor's earliest collaborations was a Ministry side venture in 1990 under the name of 1000 Homo DJs. Reznor performed on a cover of Black Sabbath's "Supernaut" (Black Sabbath). Reznor's vocals had to be altered to make his voice unrecognizable due to legal issues with his name. Al Jourgensen's singing was also included in new recordings. Although there is still no agreement as to which version is Reznor and which is Jourgensen, it has been confirmed that Reznor's vocals were used in the TVT Records' Black Box box set. In 1990, he appeared in Revolting Cocks, another of Jourgensen's side ventures. "I saw a whole aspect of humanity that I didn't know existed," he said. It was decadence on a new level, but with a sense of humor."

Reznor performed the vocals on 1991 Pigface's "Suck" album, which also featured production work from Steve Albini. On Tori Amos' 1994 album Under the Pink, Reznor sang backing vocals on "Past the Mission." Marilyn Manson's debut album, Portrait of an American Family (1994), as well as several tracks on Manson's Smells Like Children (1995) and Antichrist Superstar (1996). Reznor recalled of the former, "I went right into doing a Manson record," Reznor recalled, "which was a way of staying on tour, physically." Every night was a strange dream. "I was in a bad mood and disillusioned as the final result came," I said.

Reznor and Manson's ties soured later. Later, Manson said: "I had to choose between being friends and having a mediocre career, or breaking it off and continuing to thrive." It became too competitive. And he can't expect me not to want to be more profitable than him."

Reznor plays a stalker who appears wherever Bowie goes in David Bowie's "I'm Afraid of Americans" (1997). Reznor recalled how touring with Bowie in 1995–96 inspired Reznor to remain sober in a Rolling Stone story.

Reznor created a remix of The Notorious B.I.G. Busta Rhymes appeared in "Victory," the's song.' Reznor worked with Danny Lohner, Maynard James Keenan, and Atticus Ross for almost ten years, but the project was eventually ended before any official information was revealed. The only known released Tapeworm product on A Perfect Circle's 2004 album "Tiger" (retitled "Passive") as well as a track titled "Potions" on Puscifer's 2009 album "C" Is for.

Reznor presented his first "solo" performances at Neil Young's annual Bridge School Benefit in 2006. He performed stripped-down versions of several Nine Inch Nails songs, backed by a four-piece string section. Reznor appeared on El-P's 2007 album "Want Sleep When You're Dead," as well as guest vocals on "Flyentology." Reznor co-produced Saul Williams' 2007 album The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust! Williams appeared on Nine Inch Nails in 2005 and 2006. Williams persuaded Williams to make the album available as a free download, while giving fans the option of paying $5 for higher quality files or downloading all of the songs in a lower quality for free. Reznor was also credited as "Musical Consultant" on the 2004 film Man on Fire. The film features six Nine Inch Nails songs.

In his home studio in Beverly Hills, Reznor composed songs for Jane's Addiction. On Jane's Addiction's website and the NINJA 2009 Tour Sampler digital EP, the first recordings, "Chip Away" and "Whores," were released simultaneously.

Reznor revealed on Reddit in November 2012 that he would be working with Queens of the Stone Age on a song for their sixth studio album, titled 'Like Clockwork.' He had been with the band before, providing backing vocals on the 2007 album Era Vulgaris' title track. Reznor was originally intended to produce the album, according to Josh Homme.

Reznor appeared in a documentary entitled Sound City, directed by former Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl in January 2013. Sound City is based on real-life recording studio Sound City Studios, which is based in Van Nuys, California. Since its inception in 1969, the museum has housed the works of some of the most well-known composers in music history. On February 1, 2013, the film was selected as an official selection for the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, and it was available for download from its official website. Reznor, as well as Dave Grohl and Josh Homme, contributed to the film's soundtrack.

At the 2014 Grammy Award ceremony, Reznor appeared live with Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham, Dave Grohl, and Queens of the Stone Age. Reznor outlined his thought process at the time when he was considering his participation in the event in an interview with a New Zealand media outlet:

Reznor and Atticus Ross, a long-serving collaborator, would produce Halsey's fourth studio album, If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power. The album was released on August 27, 2021. Reznor and Ross recorded instrumentation and produced the album from a Los Angeles studio, while Halsey performed at a studio in the Turks and Caicos Islands. The album has received laudatory feedback.

In April 2010, Reznor and his partner Mariqueen Maandig and Atticus Ross formed How to Destroy Angels, announcing that they had formed a new band with his wife Mariqueen Maandig and Atticus Ross. On June 1, 2010, the group launched a self-titled six song EP, with the retail edition launching on July 6, 2010. "Is Your Love Strong Enough" by Bryan Ferry was a discussion. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo soundtrack was released on December 9, 2011. Reznor announced on September 21, 2012 that An Omen EP, the band's forthcoming release, would be an EP, and that some of the EP's songs would be released on Columbia Records in November 2012, and that some of the EP's tracks will be included on the band's first full-length album in 2013. "Keep it Together" was released by An Omen EP on October 8, 2012. How to Destroy Angels, Destroy Angels' first full-length album titled Welcome Oblivion was announced in January 2013 on March 5 of the same year.

Reznor revealed later that Nine Inch Nails had withdrawn from its contractual relations with Interscope Records and that the company would release its next big albums independently following Year Zero's release. Reznor and Nine Inch Nails created The Null Corporation and Nine Inch Nails in May 2008, offering The Slip as a free digital download. He expressed his gratitude for his fanbase and patron base without ever being bound by a contract, and said, "This one's on me." The Slip had been downloaded 1.4 million times from the official Nine Inch Nails website a month and a half since its online debut.

On NIN.com, Reznor expressed doubts about the future of Nine Inch Nails, saying, "I've been thinking for some time now it's time to make NIN disappear for a while." Reznor said in a video interview that the organization hasn't stopped making music as Nine Inch Nails, but that it will not be touring in the near future.

The original music from Quake's 1996 video game Quake is credited to "Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails"; Reznor produced sound effects and ambient music; and the NIN logo appears on the nailgun ammunition boxes in the game. Reznor's connection with id Software began with Reznor, who was a fan of the original Doom. He resurfaced as the sound engineer for Doom 3 in 2003, but the project was not made official until "time, funds, and poor planning," and his audio work did not make it make it to the game's final release.

Year Zero, Nine Inch Nails' 2007 major studio album, was released alongside a companionable alternate reality game. Reznor characterized Year Zero as a concept album critiquing the United States government's latest policies and how they will influence the world 15 years from now. Reznor had written and performed the theme tune for Call of Duty: Black Ops II in July 2012.

Reznor made the soundtrack for Oliver Stone's film Natural Born Killers in 1994, using a portable Pro Tools in his hotel room. For the film, Nine Inch Nails released "Burn." For the Crow's own version, the group also produced a cover version of Joy Division's "Dead Souls."

Reznor produced the soundtrack for David Lynch's 1997 film Lost Highway. "Driver Down" and "Videodrones; Questions," with Peter Christopherson, he produced two parts of the film's score. He attempted to bring Coil into the picture but Lynch was unable to convince Lynch. For the soundtrack, Nine Inch Nails has released "The Perfect Drug." The collection was released as a single, with Mark Romanek also directing a music video.

Reznor's request for One Hour Photo in 2001 was requested by Mark Romanek, but the score was not compatible and was not used. These compositions developed into Still. "You Know Who You Are" is a remix of the Nine Inch Nails' "You Know What You Are?" Clint Mansell was included in the 2005 film version of Doom by the latter's soundtrack. Trent Reznor created "Theme for Tetsuo" for Shinya Tsukamoto's Japanese cyberpunk film Tetsuo in 2009.

Reznor worked with Ross to write the score for David Fincher's The Social Network, a 2010 drama film about the founding of Facebook. "I actually read the script and realized what he was up to," Reznor says. The score was praised for portraying "Mark Zuckerberg the genius, inventing a bold solution to ominous undertones" and receiving almost unanimous praise. The film's score was released in October 2010 in a variety of formats, including digital download, compact disc, 5.1 surround on Blu-ray, and vinyl record. The EP, a 5-song sampler, was released for free on digital download.

Reznor revealed on January 7, 2011 that he would be back to Fincher, this time to provide the score for Fincher's American version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" was a cover, accompanied by a trailer for the film. As the film was shot, Reznor and Ross' second collaboration with Fincher was shot. "What if we give you music the minute we start to edit stuff together?" Reznor said in 2014 that the composition process was "a lot more work" and that he "would be reluctant to go any further in that direction in the future."

To film Fincher's film Gone Girl, Reznor and Ross collaborated once more. Fincher was inspired by music he heard while awaiting an appointment with a doctor and asked Reznor with making the musical equivalent of an insincere façade. In an interview, Reznor explained Fincher's request: "David [Fincher] was at the chiropractor and heard this music that was inauthenticly attempting to make him feel better, and that became a logical analog for this film. [...] What is the musical equivalent of the same sort of mask of security and a feeling of insincerity that this music portrayed? [My primary aim was to instill doubt [and] remind you that things aren't really what they seem to be]" Richard Butler of The Psychedelic Furs performed a cover version of the song "She," which was included in the film's teaser trailer. On September 30, 2014, the Columbia label's soundtrack album was released.

Reznor and Ross' keynote address at the 2014 "Billboard and Hollywood Reporter Film & TV Music Conference," said on November 5, Reznor, the only director he had worked with as a writer until that point, "I'm open to any possibility." [...] The film scoring kind of came up unexpectedly. It was always something I was interested in, and it was certainly a rewarding learning experience." Reznor continued to express gratitude for his Fincher experience as "there's a search and dedication to uncompromised excellence."

Reznor will collaborate with composer Mike Patton, best known as the frontman of alternative metal band Faith No More, on The Girl Who Played With Fire by Fincher, the sequel to 2011's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. However, Sony decided to revive the series after the introduction of The Girl in the Spider's Web, a component of the company's web series, but decided against canceling this film.

Reznor and Ross have since gone on to film by a number of other producers, beginning with Fisher Stevens' Climate Change documentary Before the Flood (which also included compositions by Gustavo Santaolalla and Mogwai) and Peter Berg's Patriots Day, a crime drama about the Boston Marathon bombings, began in 2016. With the score for Ken Burns and Lynn Novick's documentary film The Vietnam War, they made their television debut the following year. Susanne Bier's film Bird Box and Jonah Hill's debut Mid90s was rated by Reznor and Ross in 2018.

Reznor and Ross composed the score for the independent drama Waves in 2019, and later that year, they made their second appearance on television with their score for Damon Lindelof's HBO miniseries Watchmen, a sequel to Alan Moore's original 1987 comic book. Reznor and Ross, both avid supporters of the comic, approached Lindelof to work on the series and the series's three volumes of music were released throughout the course of its broadcast. Reznor and Ross received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Limited Series in 2020, and the score was highly acclaimed.

Reznor and Ross reunited with Fincher to film Mank's Netflix drama film Mank and the 2020 animated Pixar film Soul. Reznor's 2021 work on the Soul score received a Golden Globe and an Academy Award.

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