Alternative Nation : NIN
By Kennedy for MTV on June 1, 1994
Kennedy: Hi Trent
Trent Reznor: Hi Kennedy
Kennedy: You're playing a secret show in San Fransico tonite, are you excited.
Trent: um, yeah.
Kennedy: Now, just a minute ago we saw your video for "March of the Pigs", very basic video, one camera, one shot, not a lot of [?] type of effects if you know what I'm saying. Basically what I'm trying to get... was it your idea?
Trent: Yes
Kennedy: Hey, there you go, "March of the Pigs", it was Trent's idea.
Trent: Well, we did the video, but it didn't turn out that great so we decided to sort of do an anti video video.
Kennedy: What was the orgenal version like?
Trent: There was fire, a lot of naked woman, dancing buck tooth midgets, body fluids, nothing we haven't seem before.
Kennedy: Dismemberment?
Trent: no, we didn't do dismemberment this time.
Kennedy: [questionable]
Trent: yeah...
Kennedy: Are you a control freak?
Trent: I just want it to be good.
Kennedy: Does it have to be perfect?
Trent: Sometimes.
Kennedy: Is your record, THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL good?
Trent: What am I going to say, "it sucks"?
Kennedy: I don't know, a lot of bands...
Trent: No, I liked it, I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. It's the record I wanted to make right now.
Kennedy: It's got a much softer side.
Trent: Is my deoderant holding up?
Kennedy: No it isn't! Thanks for bringing that up!
[goes to commercial, then returns]
Kennedy: nine inch nails is playing a secret show here in San Fransisco at teh Oasis, a little gothic club. Now, this is your third [?]
Trent: Well, we haven't toured in about 2 and 12 years, since the last Lolapalooza in America and I've got a new band togather, so we wanted to play a few shows, get used to being on stage, hopefully it will be a treat, but if we suck it won't be any big deal.
Kennedy: Now, this is real fun for me, this is real fun hanging out and watching Mary Tyler Moore, you're a real fun guy. When people are they real surprised that you're not all gore and mean and vicious and macabre... well, you're macabre, but...
Trent: No.
Kennedy: They're not? Well, there you go, we we go into depth on this show.
Kennedy: Now from what I've read, and I do a lot of reading, I read that you had a pretty normal upbringing in Mercer, PA, correct?
Trent: Yeah, I'm a normal guy.
Kennedy: But your songs have so much anger, and pain and angst, is it just your upbringings where really bad, or that you have such clearity and such good perspective that you know how that kind of stuff feels?
Trent: I feel weird talking about it... i was raised fine. When I write I tend to write songs about certain things it tends to be unpleasant things more than happy stuff.
Kennedy: Does it make you fell better?
Trent: Maybe. I just don't feel motivated to write about cheese burgers and stuff.
Kennedy: I heard some of the track you left off, some of the polka tracks, I was marveling!
[laughs]
Trent: [laughes]
[fades out, returns with Kennedy and the band in bed, with Trent lying at the foot of the bed.]
Kennedy: Hi James.
James Woolley: Hi Kennedy.
Kennedy: What's your last name?
James: Woolley.
Kennedy: I thought it was Wood...
James: [shakes head]
Kennedy: What do you do in the band?
James: Keyboards.
Kennedy: Keyboards? And this is Chris Vrenna. What's your nickname?
Chris Vrenna: [blushes and smiles]
Kennedy: It's Podboy! Can you say Podboy? Podboy! What do you do in the band, Chris?
Chris: I play drums.
Kennedy: You're also credited as assistant...
Chris: Yeah, um, I help Trent out.
Kennedy: What kind of stuff do you do? Did you get Trent that gynacology book?
Chris: [giggles]
Kennedy: OK, execellent. Over here and what's your name?
Danny Lohner: Danny.
Kennedy: Is your girl friend's name Wendy?
Danny: [laughes] yes it is.
Kennedy: Hi Wendy! What do you do in the band Danny?
Danny: I play the pan flute.
Kennedy: I see we have our little sans fear. It appears you have a pan flute in bed with you. What's your name on the end?
Robin: [?] [laughes]
Kennedy: [laughes] That's Robin. Actually nine inch nails held a contest to find a new guitarist and it was the "who's the white guy that looks the most like Whoopie Goldburg?". And Robin won automatically. [laughes].
Kennedy [to Chris]: What was your scariest moment with Trent?
Chris: [pause] Oh! The earthquake!
Kennedy: You guys where in the earthquake togather?
[murmer of agreement from the band]
Chris: Yes we were!
Kennedy: Were you prepared for it?
Chris: No we weren't, we were caught in our underwear at 4:30 in the morning with no water and a jar of rotten mayonase in the fridge.
Kennedy: Trent, I've got a question for you. Which member of nine inch nails would you least like to have hovering over you in your sleep with raviolie breath?
Trent: Robin.
Robin: [laughs.. a lot]
Kennedy: We'll call him Whoopie for short.
[we return and see Trent and Kennedy outside]
Kennedy: I'm here with the scariest man that I've ever met, Trent Reznor. To be honest, I am fearing for my life right now.
Trent: And you should be.
Kennedy: I'd like to know, should I be fearing bullets or are you going to kill me with your bare hands?
Trent: Anything is possible at this point.
Kennedy: Are you having a good time?
Trent: I'm having a great time!
Kennedy: Are you looking forward to going on tour again?
Trent: Yeah, it's good to get out of the studio. We've been in the studio for 2 and a half years... 2 years... it doesn't matter. I just want to be around people again.
Kennedy: Did you go straight from BROKEN right int THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL?
Trent: Well there was a couple monthes of doing videos and nonsense, setting up the studio, but there was no touring.
Kennedy: A lot of it produced by Flood?
Trent: Over half of it.
Kennedy: Do you bare any ill will towards Flood for abandoning you half way through the record?
Trent: Nah, Flood's a cool guy. He had some scheduling problems on this record, but it's cool.
Kennedy: May I ask about BROKEN for a second?
Trent: You may.
Kennedy: When I really first became aware of you was the cover of SPIN that said "the leader of the industrial revolution". Did that disturb you, did that cause any sort of backlash?
Trent: It caused me some anxiety because we got king of hood winged (?) into that cover. It wasn't meant to be that. When I saw what it was gonna be after I did the interview it was a complete nightmare. It was the last thing I wanted it to be.
Kennedy: Was BROKEN a bi-product of that, a way to show people that you have a much harder edge and you where more intense.
Trent: Maybe.. well we just toured 2 years, something like that, on PRETTY HATE MACHINE, off and on, and I used a lot of diffrent (?) for that and everything just got more aggresive. And we where having a lot of problems with the label and I just wanted to make a real angry, aggresive sounding record.
[back to bed]
Kennedy: I was actually speachless to find that Chris and James where in the same band, but... what was that?
James: Not at the same time.
Kennedy: And what band was that?
Chris: A Chicago band called Die Warzua.
Kennedy: Did you ever get to jam with Chicogo's Ministry's Al Jourjonson?
Chris: No, but Al did a remix for nine inch nails a long time ago, the "Get Down, Make Love" piece.
Kennedy: Did you meet Al?
Chris: Yeah
Kennedy: Is he a nice guy?
Chris: Yeah, he's a great guy.
Kennedy: Did he and Trent get togather in a room and just sulk?
Chris: [smiles and laughes]
[back outside]
Kennedy: Are things better over all than when you went in to make BROKEN?
Trent: With the record label yeah.
Kennedy: What about with Trent?
Trent: Trent? There is no Trent. It's just nine inch nails these days.
Kennedy: That's sad. Trent, I'm your friend.
Trent: You're my friend Kennedy.
Trent Reznor: Hi Kennedy
Kennedy: You're playing a secret show in San Fransico tonite, are you excited.
Trent: um, yeah.
Kennedy: Now, just a minute ago we saw your video for "March of the Pigs", very basic video, one camera, one shot, not a lot of [?] type of effects if you know what I'm saying. Basically what I'm trying to get... was it your idea?
Trent: Yes
Kennedy: Hey, there you go, "March of the Pigs", it was Trent's idea.
Trent: Well, we did the video, but it didn't turn out that great so we decided to sort of do an anti video video.
Kennedy: What was the orgenal version like?
Trent: There was fire, a lot of naked woman, dancing buck tooth midgets, body fluids, nothing we haven't seem before.
Kennedy: Dismemberment?
Trent: no, we didn't do dismemberment this time.
Kennedy: [questionable]
Trent: yeah...
Kennedy: Are you a control freak?
Trent: I just want it to be good.
Kennedy: Does it have to be perfect?
Trent: Sometimes.
Kennedy: Is your record, THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL good?
Trent: What am I going to say, "it sucks"?
Kennedy: I don't know, a lot of bands...
Trent: No, I liked it, I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. It's the record I wanted to make right now.
Kennedy: It's got a much softer side.
Trent: Is my deoderant holding up?
Kennedy: No it isn't! Thanks for bringing that up!
[goes to commercial, then returns]
Kennedy: nine inch nails is playing a secret show here in San Fransisco at teh Oasis, a little gothic club. Now, this is your third [?]
Trent: Well, we haven't toured in about 2 and 12 years, since the last Lolapalooza in America and I've got a new band togather, so we wanted to play a few shows, get used to being on stage, hopefully it will be a treat, but if we suck it won't be any big deal.
Kennedy: Now, this is real fun for me, this is real fun hanging out and watching Mary Tyler Moore, you're a real fun guy. When people are they real surprised that you're not all gore and mean and vicious and macabre... well, you're macabre, but...
Trent: No.
Kennedy: They're not? Well, there you go, we we go into depth on this show.
Kennedy: Now from what I've read, and I do a lot of reading, I read that you had a pretty normal upbringing in Mercer, PA, correct?
Trent: Yeah, I'm a normal guy.
Kennedy: But your songs have so much anger, and pain and angst, is it just your upbringings where really bad, or that you have such clearity and such good perspective that you know how that kind of stuff feels?
Trent: I feel weird talking about it... i was raised fine. When I write I tend to write songs about certain things it tends to be unpleasant things more than happy stuff.
Kennedy: Does it make you fell better?
Trent: Maybe. I just don't feel motivated to write about cheese burgers and stuff.
Kennedy: I heard some of the track you left off, some of the polka tracks, I was marveling!
[laughs]
Trent: [laughes]
[fades out, returns with Kennedy and the band in bed, with Trent lying at the foot of the bed.]
Kennedy: Hi James.
James Woolley: Hi Kennedy.
Kennedy: What's your last name?
James: Woolley.
Kennedy: I thought it was Wood...
James: [shakes head]
Kennedy: What do you do in the band?
James: Keyboards.
Kennedy: Keyboards? And this is Chris Vrenna. What's your nickname?
Chris Vrenna: [blushes and smiles]
Kennedy: It's Podboy! Can you say Podboy? Podboy! What do you do in the band, Chris?
Chris: I play drums.
Kennedy: You're also credited as assistant...
Chris: Yeah, um, I help Trent out.
Kennedy: What kind of stuff do you do? Did you get Trent that gynacology book?
Chris: [giggles]
Kennedy: OK, execellent. Over here and what's your name?
Danny Lohner: Danny.
Kennedy: Is your girl friend's name Wendy?
Danny: [laughes] yes it is.
Kennedy: Hi Wendy! What do you do in the band Danny?
Danny: I play the pan flute.
Kennedy: I see we have our little sans fear. It appears you have a pan flute in bed with you. What's your name on the end?
Robin: [?] [laughes]
Kennedy: [laughes] That's Robin. Actually nine inch nails held a contest to find a new guitarist and it was the "who's the white guy that looks the most like Whoopie Goldburg?". And Robin won automatically. [laughes].
Kennedy [to Chris]: What was your scariest moment with Trent?
Chris: [pause] Oh! The earthquake!
Kennedy: You guys where in the earthquake togather?
[murmer of agreement from the band]
Chris: Yes we were!
Kennedy: Were you prepared for it?
Chris: No we weren't, we were caught in our underwear at 4:30 in the morning with no water and a jar of rotten mayonase in the fridge.
Kennedy: Trent, I've got a question for you. Which member of nine inch nails would you least like to have hovering over you in your sleep with raviolie breath?
Trent: Robin.
Robin: [laughs.. a lot]
Kennedy: We'll call him Whoopie for short.
[we return and see Trent and Kennedy outside]
Kennedy: I'm here with the scariest man that I've ever met, Trent Reznor. To be honest, I am fearing for my life right now.
Trent: And you should be.
Kennedy: I'd like to know, should I be fearing bullets or are you going to kill me with your bare hands?
Trent: Anything is possible at this point.
Kennedy: Are you having a good time?
Trent: I'm having a great time!
Kennedy: Are you looking forward to going on tour again?
Trent: Yeah, it's good to get out of the studio. We've been in the studio for 2 and a half years... 2 years... it doesn't matter. I just want to be around people again.
Kennedy: Did you go straight from BROKEN right int THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL?
Trent: Well there was a couple monthes of doing videos and nonsense, setting up the studio, but there was no touring.
Kennedy: A lot of it produced by Flood?
Trent: Over half of it.
Kennedy: Do you bare any ill will towards Flood for abandoning you half way through the record?
Trent: Nah, Flood's a cool guy. He had some scheduling problems on this record, but it's cool.
Kennedy: May I ask about BROKEN for a second?
Trent: You may.
Kennedy: When I really first became aware of you was the cover of SPIN that said "the leader of the industrial revolution". Did that disturb you, did that cause any sort of backlash?
Trent: It caused me some anxiety because we got king of hood winged (?) into that cover. It wasn't meant to be that. When I saw what it was gonna be after I did the interview it was a complete nightmare. It was the last thing I wanted it to be.
Kennedy: Was BROKEN a bi-product of that, a way to show people that you have a much harder edge and you where more intense.
Trent: Maybe.. well we just toured 2 years, something like that, on PRETTY HATE MACHINE, off and on, and I used a lot of diffrent (?) for that and everything just got more aggresive. And we where having a lot of problems with the label and I just wanted to make a real angry, aggresive sounding record.
[back to bed]
Kennedy: I was actually speachless to find that Chris and James where in the same band, but... what was that?
James: Not at the same time.
Kennedy: And what band was that?
Chris: A Chicago band called Die Warzua.
Kennedy: Did you ever get to jam with Chicogo's Ministry's Al Jourjonson?
Chris: No, but Al did a remix for nine inch nails a long time ago, the "Get Down, Make Love" piece.
Kennedy: Did you meet Al?
Chris: Yeah
Kennedy: Is he a nice guy?
Chris: Yeah, he's a great guy.
Kennedy: Did he and Trent get togather in a room and just sulk?
Chris: [smiles and laughes]
[back outside]
Kennedy: Are things better over all than when you went in to make BROKEN?
Trent: With the record label yeah.
Kennedy: What about with Trent?
Trent: Trent? There is no Trent. It's just nine inch nails these days.
Kennedy: That's sad. Trent, I'm your friend.
Trent: You're my friend Kennedy.
Transcribed by Keith Duemling