Trent Reznor: “I Teared Up Listening to a Dua Lipa Track”
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The post Trent Reznor: “I Teared Up Listening to a Dua Lipa Track” appeared first on Consequence.
Trent Reznor appeared as a recent guest on Rick Rubin’s podcast Tetragrammaton. Over the course of their two-hour conversation, the Nine Inch Nails mastermind spoke at length about his musical upbringing, songwriting process, and interest in film scoring.
“To me the hardest thing is the songwriting,” Reznor explained. “Having something to say, something to say with truth, that has reason to exist rather than just a thing.”
He’s even found that truth in his new-found appreciation for pop music, something he attributes to his children. “For while, I kept them in a kind of hermetically sealed way from pop music. Because I think it sucks generally — I had thought that.”
“And I heard my daughter, who’s six, singing Dua Lipa the other day,” Reznor recounted. “She is so into it and it is so cool. Like this is her music, you know, this is her thing… It really reminded me the art of writing a well-crafted song — I teared up listening to a Dua Lipa track. Because it was just a really well-done piece of music, you know? It was clever. It felt good.”
“It’s a difficult thing to do. I don’t know how to do that,” Reznor continued. “When I’m trying to think of what to say, I’m saying it from the unvarnished me. And that requires me thinking about who I am and where my position is now and all of that together becomes something that feels the stakes are higher.”
It’s for that reason that Reznor has found comfort in film scoring. “Sitting there and arranging stuff — I know what’s right… I don’t have to assess my thoughts on how I feel about a thing,” he explained.
He continued, “What it comes down to is I really enjoy weirdly working in service to something. It’s like cracking a code. It feels good to crack the code, whatever it is.”
On the topic of Nine Inch Nails, Reznor said he is not currently interested in “endlessly touring.” He explained, “I don’t want to be away from my kids, not that much. I don’t want to miss their lives to go do a thing that I’m grateful to be able to do, and I’m appreciative that you’re here to see it, but I’ve done it a lot, you know?”
“I think where it is for me personally right now in the context of Nine Inch Nails, in terms of an audience and the culture where it is, and the importance of music or lack of importance of music in today’s world, from my perspective, is a little defeating,” Reznor admitted. “It feels to me in general, and I’m saying this as a 57-year-old man, music used to be the thing that, that was what I was doing when I, when I had time, I was listening to music. I wasn’t doing it in the background while I was doing five other things, and I wasn’t treating it kind of as a disposable commodity.”
“I kind of miss the attention music got, I miss the critical attention that music got. Not that I am interested in the critic’s opinion, but to send something out in the world and feel like it touched places, might’ve got a negative or positive [review], but somebody heard it, it got validated in its own way culturally. Culturally, that feels askew. Like I can’t think of any review I care about today that I even trust. I could write it before it comes out because it’s already written. In fact, ChatGPT could probably do a better job, you know? Or is currently doing the job. That makes for what I feel is a less fertile environment to put music out into –in the world of Nine Inch Nails.
“I think that’s where some of the excitement of composition in film has thrust me into places I wouldn’t be with my band. It’s made me learn and be in awe of what music is and how powerful it is and how much there is to know about it and how much I don’t know about it. And I mean, in awe of seeing these different ways it can affect you emotionally and techniques and sound and soundscapes and things I don’t think I would’ve come across on the typical trajectory of being in a band.”
You can listen to Reznor’s full conversation with Rubin below.
Reznor and Atticus Ross’ next film score is for the upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film.
Trent Reznor: “I Teared Up Listening to a Dua Lipa Track”
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