Trent Reznor Interview
Originally published in NRK on April 1, 2000
Trent: I've gone through phases, excess, where I've learned a lot regretted a lot and I guess I wouldn't do the things differently and I suppose I've gained wisdom from that.
NRK: Your mantra, it's been told to be: I focus on the pain, the only thing that's real. Is that you opinion?
Trent: Not not a hundred percent. That was a lyric in a song that was kind of how I felt at that time. And I think I have moved out of that phase a bit. And one of the things which took a long time to do for the last record, The Fragile, was really, get my head in the right space and I tried to really re-invent myself and try to find out why I was feeling the way I was. Every record I'd made pretty much represents accurately where my head has been at that time. And, with the last record I think it's been more about trying to repair things, rather than smash apart, which is what it had been about up until that point. Not that it's overly optimistic, but I think it's approaching things from a little different perspective.
NRK: So would you say, that music has been kind of therapy?
Trent: Absolutely. It's got me out of tough times, its been the friend that I needed, when I didn't have a friend there. It's been something that I always thought I was good at and I could always usually take, if I was feeling upset or angry, or bad about something and channel it into making something that has some sense of beauty to it. That that always made me feel better. And later when the band started taking off, and I'd play songs in front of people I had never seen before, in a country I had never been to, and I'd see them yelling the words back at me, and It seems like they relate to the song and all it makes you feel pretty cool. It makes you feel it makes you feel good, like maybe there's a point to your existence or maybe not!
NRK: What is you connection with Courtney Love?
Trent: hopefully none whatsoever! I can't stand her, that's about it. We toured, she opened for us a few years ago and I had the displeasure of really getting to know somebody that was not a very nice person! NRK: Who inspires you?
Trent: A bunch of different people for a bunch of different reasons and if I had to name a couple, like I admire the song writing of David Bowie, I admire that fact that he has the guts to re-invent himself and risk failure, and fail often. And I guess, just globally I worked with him a few years ago, we toured together, and it was really inspirational seeing him come from a pretty low rest period to emerge as a light at the end of the tunnel, to come out of it happy.
NRK: Is that you?
Trent: Umm, I'm still in the tunnel, I'm trying to come out. Someone else did it, so maybe I can too.
NRK: Your mantra, it's been told to be: I focus on the pain, the only thing that's real. Is that you opinion?
Trent: Not not a hundred percent. That was a lyric in a song that was kind of how I felt at that time. And I think I have moved out of that phase a bit. And one of the things which took a long time to do for the last record, The Fragile, was really, get my head in the right space and I tried to really re-invent myself and try to find out why I was feeling the way I was. Every record I'd made pretty much represents accurately where my head has been at that time. And, with the last record I think it's been more about trying to repair things, rather than smash apart, which is what it had been about up until that point. Not that it's overly optimistic, but I think it's approaching things from a little different perspective.
NRK: So would you say, that music has been kind of therapy?
Trent: Absolutely. It's got me out of tough times, its been the friend that I needed, when I didn't have a friend there. It's been something that I always thought I was good at and I could always usually take, if I was feeling upset or angry, or bad about something and channel it into making something that has some sense of beauty to it. That that always made me feel better. And later when the band started taking off, and I'd play songs in front of people I had never seen before, in a country I had never been to, and I'd see them yelling the words back at me, and It seems like they relate to the song and all it makes you feel pretty cool. It makes you feel it makes you feel good, like maybe there's a point to your existence or maybe not!
NRK: What is you connection with Courtney Love?
Trent: hopefully none whatsoever! I can't stand her, that's about it. We toured, she opened for us a few years ago and I had the displeasure of really getting to know somebody that was not a very nice person! NRK: Who inspires you?
Trent: A bunch of different people for a bunch of different reasons and if I had to name a couple, like I admire the song writing of David Bowie, I admire that fact that he has the guts to re-invent himself and risk failure, and fail often. And I guess, just globally I worked with him a few years ago, we toured together, and it was really inspirational seeing him come from a pretty low rest period to emerge as a light at the end of the tunnel, to come out of it happy.
NRK: Is that you?
Trent: Umm, I'm still in the tunnel, I'm trying to come out. Someone else did it, so maybe I can too.
Transcribed by Keith Duemling