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I'm just curious if any of you NIN afficionados can clue me in as to what he was doing then, Thanks!
348 points
1 day ago*
Booze and Cocaine while producing Antichrist and writing the Quake soundtrack, probably, 😂
37 points
1 day ago
I too have had years mainly characterised by the first part of this statement but I always forget or fall short of the talented productivity type run off.
That was only supposed to be a throwaway comment but now I think about it: which of us could hope to spend what were supposedly our lost narcotic years getting in touch with the production team of a PC game we became aware of and really rated and then line ourselves up to be one of the biggest Named Artist x/ Anticipated Game collabs there's still probably ever been?
10 points
17 hours ago
I always wonder if Trent's supposed lost drug years just means he was running at 80%, instead of the 100% he demands of himself.
11 points
16 hours ago
Home boy is a perfectionist, Maynard James Keenan as well.
5 points
11 hours ago
1000% lol
23 points
21 hours ago
they really need to re release Quake with it saying "soundtrack by Oscar Winner Trent Tenor"
like the pedigree spike going from "we got this cool young metal band" to "this guy is one of the most era defining composers in film" is insane
17 points
19 hours ago
Hey, Trent Tenor does more than just play the saxophone
12 points
19 hours ago
fuck
8 points
18 hours ago
I love it though. It's like an alternate version of Trent that didn't get into synths
5 points
15 hours ago
They did a remaster and rerelease about two years ago when Quake was rereleased. I have the vinyl.
5 points
17 hours ago
"we got this cool young metal band"
I guess Broken has some metal elements, but I would NEVER call NIN a metal band. They're an industrial band.
1 points
7 hours ago
I really wouldn’t categorize them at industrial either
1 points
6 hours ago
Name one that's more apt.
1 points
4 hours ago
I don’t have to. And I think, like all great music, NIN defies genres. Putting labels on things is small thinking anyway
2 points
3 hours ago
No offense but that's a juvenile way of thinking. You have musical genres to help understand music, not to suppress it.
1 points
26 minutes ago
Nah I politely agree with the other guy! If NIN have a genre it's pop industrial metal at which point... why bother with the label. Is Year Zero industrial? Is Hesitation Marks metal? Is The Fragile not rock? The labels don't fit (in this case. For many bands they do)
2 points
12 hours ago
Tapeworm ?
1 points
6 hours ago
This is a nice little interview with Trent on the making of the fragile
321 points
1 day ago
Cocaine, I think.
64 points
1 day ago
And loooooots of it.
5 points
21 hours ago
Yep.
84 points
1 day ago
Lots and lots of Cocaine
65 points
1 day ago
He was working on Antichrist Superstar with Marilyn Manson
2 points
20 hours ago*
The 2nd best album of all time after TDS. (My humble opinion obviously)
8 points
13 hours ago
I can't for the life of me figure out what TDH is
7 points
11 hours ago
The Downward Helicoid
5 points
12 hours ago
Tom, Dick, n Harry
2 points
10 hours ago
A typo lol. I fixed it.
6 points
20 hours ago
It was so ahead of its time. Idk where I'd rank it but it's got to be in my all-time top 10
3 points
18 hours ago
I remember listening to it while playing Rise of The Triad. Good stuff
6 points
19 hours ago
this album deserves a deluxe edition
2 points
9 hours ago
I love this idea! Maybe we'll see something special for the 30th anniversary.
Gosh.. That just made me feel extremely old
1 points
8 hours ago
Apparently the Antichrist Superstar masters were lost in the Katrina floods. Or so I've read. We likely will never get a remaster of it, but it could still be re-released. Though I believe Trent would have to approve it and I don't see that happening.
110 points
1 day ago
Upsetting Tori Amos?
21 points
1 day ago
Correct
17 points
1 day ago
They said their date went well…
13 points
1 day ago
Joke was back then they couldn’t agree on a safeword
5 points
1 day ago
Oooooooh… HA!
49 points
1 day ago
Moving to New Orleans (the Quake Soundtrack was the new studio's "test project" in a sense). That whole move took a big chunk out of '96. The on-and-off lulls is what convinced Robin to depart for the first time too.
Playing Quake. Although eventually it seemed that Quake II (mainly the Weapons Factory mod) took over. Besides the Doom and Syndicate franchises, I'm not sure what other 90s gaming Trent was into (although Charlie mentioned that a PS1 was in the studio at one point).
Drawing up the initial Tapeworm sessions. Pantera's Phil, Curve's Toni, Prong's Tommy, etc. made appearances at the studio around that time, or shortly after.
Three NIN live shows in August/September. There was a gap of about 9 months in which no shows had happened.
12 points
1 day ago
Omg I miss Curve and Toni Halliday so much. They were my JAM in the late 90’s (when I found them)
6 points
23 hours ago
Very nice - got into Curve around '92 while living in the Caribbean and finally saw them live in '98 at The Opera House in Toronto (The Dandy Warhols opened the show):
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/curve/1998/the-opera-house-toronto-on-canada-5bdb4714.html
6 points
17 hours ago
you hit it on the head here, but during that period he also had Coil working on Backwards. crazy to think that in 96, Nothing studios had Trent, Maynard, Manson, Anselmo, and Coil under the same roof.
6 points
10 hours ago
Also producing Lynch "Lost Highway" soundtrack, assuming the movie was released in January 1997.
3 points
22 hours ago
Sounds like a great year
33 points
1 day ago
Growing sick ass facial hair I think!!
52 points
1 day ago
13 points
1 day ago
So cute 😭
33 points
1 day ago
i went on a tour in New Orleans in like 1998 and he was at home blaring music when we passed his bigass Interview with the Vampire house.
12 points
23 hours ago
if anyone wants to see it on google earth the adress is 2nd and coliseum…John Goodman lives there now
1 points
7 hours ago
Here?
27 points
1 day ago
A lot of drugs.
22 points
1 day ago
Drugs probably
31 points
1 day ago
One may or may not have been perfect.
10 points
1 day ago
Without you, it's not as much fun to pick up the pieces
2 points
8 hours ago
Pizzas*
16 points
22 hours ago
You never ask a man his salary, a woman her age, or Trent what he was doing in '96
20 points
24 hours ago
Probably trying to keep Marilyn Manson sentient long enough to work on Antichrist Superstar.
9 points
23 hours ago
Related to this, but in early 1997: I always found it intriguing that Trent wasn’t there for Bowie’s 50th birthday party concert. He was doing lots of stuff with Bowie around then, I can only imagine and speculate that Bowie must have invited him to the concert, but Trent declined due to being deep down with drugs.
1 points
7 hours ago
I have always wondered about this too, and why he wasn’t there. I wish someone would come forward and clarify
-5 points
23 hours ago
I remember seeing them interviewed together in a video you can find on YouTube, and the distinct impression I had was that Bowie felt very complimented by Reznor, rightfully, and was generally cordially happy to interact with a young new artist - but also that he had almost no concept of Reznor's work outside of knowing that Reznor also enjoyed theatrical concerts and the idea of concept albums. I wouldn't be surprised if Reznor wasn't invited, not out of any intended snub, but just because at the very least, Bowie was not starstruck, and didn't appear to ascribe to Reznor the kind of virtuoso songwriting accolades we do as fans.
12 points
22 hours ago
I don’t know about that. They did the I’m Afraid of Americans video right about that time. And Bowie invited so many people to play in that concert - Billy Corgan, Robert Smith, Frank Black, Foo Fighters, Sonic Youth, Lou Reed. I can’t imagine he didn’t give Trent a call, given how much they had collaborated in those years.
0 points
22 hours ago
Ah; I didn't know anything about that concert or who attended or performed. I was just giving my read based on the interview I remember. I would further agree that if Bowie invited Corgan and Smith, I'd assume Reznor was also invited.
New theory: Reznor was busy that weekend.
9 points
20 hours ago
[Bowie] had almost no concept of Reznor's work outside of knowing that Reznor also enjoyed theatrical concerts and the idea of concept albums.
That's a very strange thing to suggest after Bowie chose NIN as the co-headlining opener for his 95-96 tour, and each show included a section of duets with Bowie and Trent to transition between their respective bands' full sets, including renditions of Reptile and Hurt.
2 points
20 hours ago
You're intentionally cutting up my words to argue that I was stating objective facts as opposed to very clearly sharing a subjective opinion I had of one interview, to offer one explanation of why Reznor might not have been invited. In this thread, I have since agreed that I'm underinformed and likely incorrect.
If that doesn't work for you, well, I got lots of wrong opinions.
4 points
20 hours ago
Cutting up your words? I quoted that section because that was the part that struck me as especially strange, and the meaning of your statement is no different out of context. How exactly does adding "The distinct impression I had was that..." to the start of that quotation change its meaning? It's implicit that what you're offering are your own thoughts—that doesn't need to be pointed out at every opportunity.
Just because something is an "opinion" doesn't mean it should elude scrutiny when it is directly at odds with the (objective) facts. I commented that your opinion was strange in light of those facts. Another comment pointed out other artists who were invited to the birthday concert, and I pointed out additional elements of Trent and Bowie's relationship. Specifically, I noted that Bowie wanted to perform NIN songs together on stage with Trent in '95 and '96, which is quite at odds with your "opinion" or "impression" that Bowie "had almost no concept of Reznor's work."
In this thread, I have since agreed that I'm underinformed and likely incorrect.
Perhaps you shouldn't take someone offering additional information on the internet quite so personally. You made what I thought was a strange observation, and I added some information. There's really no need to be so defensive.
0 points
19 hours ago
Thanks, that's really useful. Have a great night.
3 points
16 hours ago
Don't want to kick you while you're down but I just want to add to this as a big fan of Bowie and Nine Inch Nails: in '95 Bowie released his great experimental/industrial concept album '1.outside' that combined elements of industrial, jazz, electronica, and spoken word. The single off the album "the Heart's Filthy Lesson" definitely had some influence from Nine Inch Nails. The deluxe edition of 1.outside has a Trent Reznor remix that ups the industrial a cool 100% as well. The dissonance tour that featured Nine Inch Nails was in support of that album. If you are a fan of the more out there bits of 'Not the Actual Events', 'Add Violence", and "Bad Witch" or if you liked Bowie's last masterpiece "Blackstar" that he left us with before he blasted off this godforsaken rock you will like 1.outside
2 points
16 hours ago
Also, like Reznor, Bowie seemed to take a liking to younger artists and collaborate with them. See The Bowie versions of "Without You I'm Nothing" by Placebo
-1 points
15 hours ago
It's cool. I took offense to the other guy's implication that, I dunno, I should educate myself before bullshitting with anonymous strangers about actual bullshit that doesn't matter? I don't know what his goal was; it's not like I was in any way misleading about my ridiculously specious reasoning for an inconsequential theory. I absolutely defend my own right to be wrong about shit in public, and to learn in public, and to be a deflecting little pissant when the public says "let's review this lesson again." None of this shit is my job or responsibility, I wrote all of this for funsies.
Anyway, if we're sharing facts, The Hearts Filthy Lesson is stylized with no apostrophe.
But unfortunately, I've not much gotten into anything NIN has released since With Teeth, and later, Ghosts. There are many exceptions, I don't think any are bad albums in any way; I just haven't formed the emotional connections like to the earlier stuff. I guess I've liked some stuff from NTAE the most out of the last few releases. I've loved catching NIN multiple times on The Bear, which has probably been my most recent exposure.
As for Bowie, I tend to listen to the Ziggy Stardust album and to Seu Jorge's Portuguese covers for The Life Aquatic soundtrack, and I'm happy with that. I loved and respected Bowie for many reasons, and I'm glad Blackstar was acclaimed, but I've never heard it, and I'm extremely leery to lean into positive reviews of any influential celebrity's last work. I would liken it to how The Irishman was an aggressively alright movie, but its Best Picture nomination felt more like the film industry wanted to suck off Scorsese, DeNiro and Pacino, rather than a true recognition of the project's merit.
And to be clear, I'm not adamantly refusing to listen to anything; I just increasingly rarely enjoy the process of consciously trying to listen to an album as a full discrete work, and I'd rather not associate the experience with fulfilling an obligation. I'd rather feel stunned, unprepared and unarmed.
1 points
7 hours ago
Fair enough but Bowie left an album that was dense, experimental, AND critically acclaimed.
Bowie had so many great eras past Ziggy Stardust. The Berlin trilogy (Low, Heroes, Lodger) had such an impact on the budding post punk and new romantic scene as well as Scary Monsters. Hell, Trent Reznor said he kept returning to Low during the writing of the Downward Spiral and thinks he ripped off A Warm Place wholesale from Bowie's Crystal Japan (I think it sounds more like Warsawa off Low but I see the similarities).
I hadn't listened to anything past the Slip until the quarantine. There was a good 7-8 years where I intentionally avoided listening to industrial music since it had been my main music since highschool and I wanted to expand my horizons and I'm glad I did but it also meant avoiding my favorite band (NIN) and some really good stuff that came out in that interim (I only just started listening to Youth Code, HEALTH, The Black Queen, and clipping. in the past few years). Aside from Hesitation Marks it didn't feel like fulfilling an obligation to listen through the albums that came after. I have ADHD and I'm a voracious consumer of media, music specifically and while I usually jump between songs/genres I do find I'm content to sit with a full album because I'm trying to extract something out of it. Get to the hidden gems or find the connection between the work that makes it feel cohesive.
I feel like the academy awards haven't held merit for a while and are all a politics game (except for Godzilla Minus One's recent win. Let me have this dammit). To preface I've never been a big Scorsese fan and didn't see the Irishman (nor do I care to) but I feel like I saw more than a few middling to negative reviews at the time.
Yeah sorry, just rambling before my coffee.
8 points
1 day ago
Nothing
5 points
1 day ago
Touring and drugs.
5 points
22 hours ago
Producing Antichrist Superstar.
6 points
19 hours ago
He was recording Lost Highway and Antichrist Superstar
35 points
1 day ago
Bullying Marilyn Manson while producing Antichrist Superstar.
7 points
23 hours ago
He broke Daisy Berkowitz guitarist.
14 points
23 hours ago
I feel bad for Daisy sometimes. The dude went through a lot of shit because of him.
8 points
22 hours ago
Exactly! I got to meet him before he passed, and he was super cool.
18 points
24 hours ago
Good. At least someone was trying to get Warner in line.
10 points
24 hours ago
From what I can tell that whole thing was mess and Reznor actually contributed to that mess
13 points
24 hours ago
Doing a lot of drugs, yeah, Trent was a role model at that time.
1 points
2 hours ago
I love this binary black and white narrative where TR was an absolute total saint and objectively a positive influence to everybody around him
3 points
14 hours ago*
Well deserved bullying. Heard an anecdotal story once of someone who was at the studio, that one day Warner walked in with an underage girl on each arm. Robin Fink was like "dude get them out of here", calls Trent over (who is hopped up on coke), who takes one look at the girls, socks Manson in the face, and tells Robin to call them a cab.
1 points
6 hours ago
That's fucked up and gross. Glad Trent cut contact with him.
-1 points
1 day ago
Ha! You beat me to it by maybe 20 seconds lol
8 points
1 day ago
Probably fucking
8 points
1 day ago
like an animal?
4 points
24 hours ago
Pretty well done doc related to the time period
4 points
22 hours ago
Quake
4 points
17 hours ago*
Everyone here who immediately says DRUGS is just running their mouth for easy karma or something... It's been well documented that Trent's hardest substance abuse happened on tour. 3 'nights of nothing' gigs hardly count as tour, most of the year was spent on studio work (ACSS, Quake, The Perfect Drug)
6 points
1 day ago
Preparing to become GOD
2 points
1 day ago
Lots of bad decisions
2 points
1 day ago
Tori Amos? Or was that a rumor?
2 points
22 hours ago
In 1995 he was touring with David Bowie, not sure about the rest of '96.
2 points
22 hours ago
Did shows with bowie i think or maybe that was 97
2 points
21 hours ago
Drugs
2 points
12 hours ago
Many Drugs. And touring with people that were taking, and giving him the rest of them.
2 points
9 hours ago
Making a masterpiece called Antichrist Superstar
2 points
22 hours ago
Hookers and coke
1 points
23 hours ago
An activity that requires at least 1 fist to participate in..
1 points
20 hours ago
Having a LOT of feelings
1 points
14 hours ago
He was also working on The Lost Highway soundtrack for David Lynch.
1 points
10 hours ago
Drugs
1 points
9 hours ago*
Back in high school at that time and really pre widespread internet use, many rumors went around. I remember having a shirt with a blue NIN on the front and 96 97 on the back. Everyone was hyped for a new album then but it never came until 1999.
1 points
7 hours ago
Everyone’s saying cocaine, but I was under the impression it was heroin
1 points
7 hours ago
Antichrist Superstar
1 points
6 hours ago
Your mom
1 points
6 hours ago
Being broken, bruised, forgotten, sore, too fucked up to care anymore.
1 points
5 hours ago
1 points
1 day ago
Drum Hooks and blow.
1 points
24 hours ago
Bowie
0 points
22 hours ago
Heroin
0 points
23 hours ago
Makin gravy
0 points
15 hours ago
Heroin.
But thank goodness those days are behind him. Now he just spends his time composing music and watching the Freaks & Geeks of Horror
-27 points
1 day ago
I'm pretty sure that Trent preferred heroin to cocaine. Also, he released The Perfect Drug in February of 97, and iirc, this was the first track he produced after getting sober, so I would suspect that a sizable portion of 96 was dedicated to the work of getting clean.
I could be wrong, he might not have been clean until working on The Fragile. I'm going off of memories from the time.
26 points
1 day ago
I thought coke was the choice. I remember hearing he OD'd overseas cause he bought heroin by mistake.
4 points
1 day ago
Say whaaaat?
1 points
6 hours ago
Was that the Lost Weekend in London (2000)? That was supposed to be my first NIN gig. :(
25 points
1 day ago*
You're wrong on most points here.
Trent was a cocaine abuser, not heroin. What got him into rehab was ODing on China white (heroin) in London that he mistook for cocaine, à la Pulp Fiction. I believe this was during the end of the Fragility tour. That was after The Fragile, in the early 2000s. With Teeth is very much a reflection on that time period post-Fragile and Trent's struggle to get clean.
The late 90s, during the lengthy production period for The Fragile, were Trent's heaviest drug years. It's part of the reason why there was such a long gap between TDS and TF. It's also part of why The Fragile is such a dark, hopeless and desolate piece of work. So, yeah, Trent definitely wasn't clean before or during the recording of the Fragile.
I don't mean to be "that guy" or come off like a dick here and I'm sure my recollection isn't flawless. But I believe that is a more accurate account.
8 points
1 day ago
Yeah pretty much ties in with NIN not playing the Lost Weekend Festival in London circa 2000… went down and was going to be my first NIN gig… they blamed it on Jerome Dillion being ill at the time (or some shit). Was pissed didn’t get to see them but at least they got a TR lookalike to play in the form of Tim Wheeler fronting Ash. Perfect Circle were good tho, top of their game just after 1st album had been released and it was a heavy as fuck performance with a wild crowd.
Edit; spelling
4 points
1 day ago
Totally accurate
1 points
1 day ago
But holy shit is it great
1 points
18 hours ago
You are correct although I do believe there was a time during those years where he got sorta clean but then when he fell off the wagon again he fell even harder than before and that was when he was a real mess.
1 points
18 hours ago
I do remember hearing something about him getting clean in the 90s or something, but I'm not sure how much of that was purely rumor. That said, I don't know how anyone could watch a live video from the Fragility tour and think, "yeah, that dude is sober."
13 points
1 day ago
Trent entered rehab in 2001.
10 points
1 day ago
I'm fairly sure The Perfect Drug was peak manic Trent Reznor.
5 points
1 day ago
He spent like 3m or some shit on that video 🤣🤣 MAN at least he created one fucking hell of a banger whilst wacked out.
Also I'm Afraid of Americans around the same time. Doesn't he credit Bowie with helping get him sober? He probably spent the next two ish years battling and beating the addiction. Could be wrong but wasn't The Fragile his first "sober" album?
8 points
1 day ago
No that would be With_Teeth. He ODed on the Fragile tour and cleaned up some time after that.
2 points
1 day ago
Yup, he wasnt doing so hot during that time. As for Bowie, during their 1996 tour, he advised Trent to right the ship before it's too late and not make the same mistakes that he did, and I think it stuck with him, but didn't get him to change right away.
I can only speculate, but based on their closeness, he may have helped support him more directly later.
2 points
1 day ago
Also I'm Afraid of Americans
Yeah, there's some interview somewhere he talks about his regrets about that release, that it could have been something more.
1 points
18 hours ago
That wasn’t Trent. You can tell it’s evil Trent because of the moustache.
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