And whether those things were cut up and manipulated, and who-knows-what was done to them, that’s really in Trent’s domain, and Atticus and Alan Moulder, and whoever is in the studio all the time. So I just went in the studio for a day, and played on seven songs. From my understanding, a part of the process is just experimenting a lot, and sifting through different performances and ideas, and then him honing in on what he likes. I was fortunate to come in and play some drums for a day. Whenever Nine Inch Nails are in the studio, it really is Trent and his group of people. I’ve done a lot of that with the Buchla Modular instruments. Recently it’s been the old Prophet 5 –– I fell in love with it again. And I don’t feel like a kid anymore that has fun with stuff, but it feels, “Aw, okay, I have to do this again.” That’s usually when I try to find either another use for that instrument, or to look for another instrument, and start all over again. And I know that I can get certain things out of it.
There tends to be a period where if I spend too much time on one, then it become routine. I just enjoy using instruments that I haven’t used before. And we did that whole intro with that live, and Trent’s vocals going into the delay, and then just chopped it up and made it a little bit more 4/4 in a way, if you want. And just the way that they look, they look like Ouija boards kinda, they look crazy. It’s not really an LFO, but it’s something crazy. And the other one is an eight, it’s a dual-mono eight-bit delay with a big LFO in the middle. And one is a drum machine, but it doesn’t do 4/4, it’s not 4/4, never. They’re circuits they’re instruments and they’re unlike anything else that I’ve seen before. And I used two boxes made by this company called Ciat-Lonbarde run by Peter Blasser, who makes wooden boxes. Well, we worked on an introduction for Hesitation Marks, which is called The Eater of Dreams. I like to start with sound, and space and a kind of texture, and then adapt that into something that feels, if I’m writing a song, that becomes “song-ish.” So effects are a pretty big part of that, or having a good grasp on how I can achieve what I’m hearing in my head.
So I’m more inspired by that than I would be sitting down at a piano, probably the way real songwriters work, thinking about melodies.
MASTERWRITER SOFTWARE THAT TRENT REZNOR USES FULL
I haven’t done this in a while, but it’s always a fun trip to go to the synth shop or the effects shop and come back with a box full of pedals and things, and just start experimenting, and generally that inspires me into parts, which leads to songs often or things like that. But with that said, in terms of effects and whatnot, I’ve always looked at an effect, or a pedal box, or a new synth, or an interesting plug-in… All of them have songs inside them somewhere that can inspire me into do something. Being a bit more out of the picture rather than right in the computer. And I’ve learned that the better knowledge I have of what’s in there, the more I can extract it out, without getting bogged down in the actual programming side of things, and try to remain somewhat objective as to the music and what’s happening. I’ve become heavily reliant on the guy next to me, which usually is Atticus Ross, to be the guy manning the computer. I’d say in the last 10 years or so –– it’s probably been longer than that –– but I’ve moved away from being the programmer guy that sits and does everything myself, into being more of an arranger and producer. Q: Do you find inspiration in gear or effects?