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10/30/07

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Trent Reznor and Saul Williams Discuss Their New Collaboration, Mourn OiNK

Saul and Trent.Courtesy of Cornerstone

Spoken-word and hip-hop artist Saul Williams toured with Nine Inch Nails last year, and Trent Reznor liked him so much that he decided to produce his new album. The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust!, a mind-boggling fusion of genres — think NIN meets Gnarls Barkley meets Justice, if you can do so without your head exploding — will be released tomorrow through Williams's Website as a free download (or you can chip in five bucks to support Saul). The two artists spoke with Vulture by phone from L.A. this afternoon, discussing the album's genesis, the imploding record industry, and how much they paid for the new Radiohead album.

How did this collaboration come about?
Trent: I'd come across Saul through his "List of Demands" video, and it really impressed me as strong piece of work, as an aggressive rock-type track that jumped out of the television. So I checked to see if he was interested in touring with me. And it impressed me that he could go in front of an audience that probably didn't know who he was. He won the crowd over, and I watched it happen every night. I said, "Hey, if you ever want to experiment on some tracks, let's see what happens."

How would you characterize the music?
Saul: Gosh, I don't know, ghetto gothic? I guess I'd characterize it as hard-core dance. I don't know if I'd include spoken word in it, actually. It's so danceable. I have a lot to say, but I wanted to find a way to say it that didn't get in the way of me dancing my ass off.

Did you ever butt heads?
Trent: There were times when we disagreed on things, certainly, but sooner or later he'd realize that I was right. [They both laugh.]

What inspired you to go the In Rainbows route with this album?
Saul: From the start, I remember Trent saying, "Let's give it away for free." At first, I was like, "This dude is out of his mind!" But then it really started making sense, and, of course, with Radiohead doing it, we were like, "What the fuck? The idea that we had was great, and we should really follow it through."

Trent: I think it's just an awkward time right now to be a musician. The reality is that people think it's okay to steal music. There's a whole generation of people, that's all they've known. I used to buy vinyl. Today, if you do put out a record on a label, traditionally, most people are going to hear it via a leak that happens two weeks — if not two months — before it comes out. There's no real way around that. I'm truly saddened because I think music has been devalued, so that it's just a file on your computer, and it's usually free. But we can't change that. What we can do is try to offer people the best experience that we can provide them. Will it work? I don't know. But I think it's a great way to get music out to people who are interested. At the end of the day, all I care about is the integrity of the music, and that the feeling of those who experience it is as untainted as possible. I'd rather it not be on an iPod commercial. I'd rather it not be a ringtone that you have to get with a free cell phone or any of that bullshit.

Are you using this project, Trent, to test the waters for a self-released NIN record?
Trent: There isn't a Nine Inch Nails record done. I'm starting one right now. If I had one that was done, I would [release] it today in exactly the same way. I won't have one done for several months. One of the things that started this in motion with Saul was me sitting around thinking about finally getting off a major label, which I think is the right move for Nine Inch Nails. I wasn't looking to jump right back into another binding contract with a big company, and I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't advising Saul to do that in today's climate. We decided to go the route we did, and we'll see what happens.

How long do you think before the labels are out of business?
Trent: I mean, who knows? I remember a time when it felt like, being on a major label, our interests were aligned. At times, it's a pretty well-oiled machine and the luxury is that I feel like I've got a team of people who are taking care of the shit I don't want to think about. I don't care about the radio guy, I just want to make music. But those days are gone. Because, mainly, that infrastructure is broken at the moment. How long before [record companies] are irrelevant? Who knows? They seem to be doing everything they can to make sure that happens as quickly as possible.

Saul: I had already had experiences with my first album, with Rick Rubin and Sony and everything, where the company basically sat on it for two years and told me it wasn't hip-hop. So, I was also very familiar with the infrastructure, and this just made the most sense.

What do you think about OiNK being shut down?
Trent: I'll admit I had an account there and frequented it quite often. At the end of the day, what made OiNK a great place was that it was like the world's greatest record store. Pretty much anything you could ever imagine, it was there, and it was there in the format you wanted. If OiNK cost anything, I would certainly have paid, but there isn't the equivalent of that in the retail space right now. iTunes kind of feels like Sam Goody to me. I don't feel cool when I go there. I'm tired of seeing John Mayer's face pop up. I feel like I'm being hustled when I visit there, and I don't think their product is that great. DRM, low bit rate, etc. Amazon has potential, but none of them get around the issue of pre-release leaks. And that's what's such a difficult puzzle at the moment. If your favorite band in the world has a leaked record out, do you listen to it or do you not listen to it? People on those boards, they're grateful for the person that uploaded it — they're the hero. They're not stealing it because they're going to make money off of it; they're stealing it because they love the band. I'm not saying that I think OiNK is morally correct, but I do know that it existed because it filled a void of what people want.

How much did you guys pay for the new Radiohead album?
Saul: I paid $7, which is like, what, fourteen pounds? No, wait, that's like three pounds!

Trent: I bought the physical one, so I spent a whopping $80. [Pauses.] But, then I re-bought it and paid $5,000, because I really felt that I need to support the arts, so people could follow in my footsteps. [Saul laughs.] —Ben Westhoff

Earlier: OiNK Founder Will Be in Really Big Trouble — Just As Soon As Police Figure Out What He's Done Wrong
OiNK, 2004–2007: A Vulture Tribute
OiNK Busted: The Internet Responds

More: Chat Room »music, nine inch nails, oink, saul williams, trent rezno

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Nine Inch Nails makes triumphant return to Hawaii

By Marie Carvalho
Special to the Advertiser

Trent Reznor is back.

Back in Honolulu after a 13-year lapse, and back at the top of his game, opening to a devoted crowd last night at Blaisdell Arena in the final show of the Nine Inch Nails world tour (and possibly the first and last night of its U.S. tour, the band quipped).

When the band last stopped in Hawai'i it was 1994, and apparently, cold. About 60 degrees, if you believe lead singer Trent Reznor's recollection, and overcast. Taking a break to rap between numbers in a candy-store set of nearly 25 songs that spanned the band's entire 18-year history, Reznor recalled his Hawai'i shoreside debut.

"We were five of the whitest, skinniest guys with combat boots on the beach, in water up to our waists, shivering, saying, 'This sucks,'" he said.

"Trent," as fans in chat rooms and on NIN's interactive blog call him, is the brainchild behind the band's pioneering industrial sound and obsessive, angst-driven lyrics, which won the hearts of college radio listeners back in 1989 when his debut album, "Pretty Hate Machine," hit the airwaves. NIN continued to innovate with albums like 1994's brilliant "The Downward Spiral."

It all fell apart with 1999's release and tour for "The Fragile." The band became tabloid fodder and Reznor bottomed out, later entering rehab. He's since re-emerged clean, humble, strong, and with two new NIN albums, 2005's "With Teeth" and 2007's breakthrough "Year Zero," released on the Interscope Label.

Last night's concert set featured the band's current, and soon to be defunct, live incarnation (in studio, it's all Reznor) with guitarist Aaron North, keyboardist Alessandro Cortini, drummer Josh Freese and bassist Jeordie White mixing a smattering of old licks with new.

The well-rounded set stretched back to "Pretty Hate Machine," with songs like "Sin," and the crowd-pleasing anti-authority anthem, "Head Like a Hole." The song list covered enduring NIN themes such as sex, betrayal, power, religion and abuse, delivered up with raw intensity.

And there was plenty, too, of Reznor's more broadly dark new material: the fictional, near-futuristic and message-driven songs of "Year Zero." With that album, Reznor's trademark personal narrative morphed into grand political cyberstory. Songs like "Me, I'm Not" and "The Great Destroyer," played last night against a pixilated screen backdrop, recalled more synesthetic performance piece than arena rock — giving fans a tasty visual of Reznor's multilayered apocalyptic prequel album concept.

last tour

remembering the past

Hordern Pavilion September 16, 2007.

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MUSIC LINK to article

INTERSCOPE RECORDS Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails.

Reznor’s edge cuts NIN’s bleak outlook

STORY SUMMARY »

Look at this tortured soul. Remember him? It's Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, as he appeared when he last performed here waaay back in 1994.

His angst-ridden industrial music was in its heyday. Working from his earlier hits -- "Head Like a Hole," "Terrible Lie" and "Wish" -- Reznor released what would be his career-making album, "The Downward Spiral."

The band did two incendiary shows at what was then the After Dark club on Nimitz Highway. It was such an event that music stars like Dr. Dre and David Gahan of Depeche Mode came to Hawaii to see the band in all its blinding glory.

Thirteen years later a different-looking and healthier Reznor returns to Honolulu to prove that Nine Inch Nails is still as relevant as ever. His dark music has moved from private dysfunction to a disturbing vision of a dystopian future.

STAR-BULLETIN

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FULL STORY »

By Gary C.W. Chun
gchun@starbulletin.com

Even though Trent Reznor's wasted Goth look is a thing of the past -- he's now bulked up with close-cropped hair -- there's no doubt he remains industrial rock's iconic figure. As wannabe acts have fallen by the wayside, he's now torchbearer for the genre, pretty much alone on his perch as Master of Angst.

Nine Inch Nails » On Stage: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday » Place: Blaisdell Arena » Tickets: $52.50 and $55 » Call: 591-2211 or visit ticketmaster.com

After a five-year hiatus to get his life together, Reznor has been busy recording and touring, beginning with the '05 album "With Teeth."

It was like he never left, as he hit the ground running with breakout tracks "The Hand That Feeds" and "Only," a catchy piece inspired by synth-pop that reminded fans that Reznor occasionally gives his songs dance remixes to great effect.

Reznor's currently on tour to support an album released earlier this year, the conceptual and multitextured "Year Zero." What once was private pain has expanded into his take on a near future of catastrophic proportions.

"Year Zero" takes place about 15 years from now. Reznor has described its setting: "If you imagine a world where greed and power continue to run their likely course, you'll have an idea of the backdrop. The world has reached the breaking point -- politically, spiritually and ecologically. Written from various perspectives of people in this world, 'Year Zero' examines various viewpoints set against an impending moment of truth."

(The album's packaging includes opposing panels showing hands clutching a Bible on one side and a submachine gun on the other.)

Perhaps he'll find some brief respite in "paradise" when Nine Inch Nails plays Honolulu on Tuesday, concluding an exhaustive world tour that started Aug. 1 in Moscow, wending its way through Eastern and Western Europe, Britain, Israel, Asia and Sydney.

Speaking by phone Wednesday from somewhere between gigs in Seoul and Hong Kong, Reznor was low-key, firm but accommodating.

And he had some unexpected news to tell.

"YOU ARE getting the last show of the current incarnation of the band."

Although Reznor's touring band of drummer Josh Freese, guitarist Aaron North, bassist Jeordie White and keyboardist Alessandro Cortini are excellent support players, "at this point, I want to switch things around a bit. Nine Inch Nails as a rock band configuration, we've done it and we've done it again. I see other ways I can present the material in concert, more challenging, something new. I don't want it to go stale."

This group has toured together for two years, he said. "It's a well-rounded concert, a good collection of songs from different records."

If the show approximates the high production values seen on the 2006 tour DVD, "Beside You in Time," it should make for quite a spectacle, blinding strobe lights included.

"The show evolves, like a film," Reznor said. "It has a flow to it. And it'll be not what you saw on the DVD. It'll be cooler than that."

But the time has come to dial back.

"The idea of five guys playing loud music two hours, while it's the culmination of fine tuning over a lot of years, has got to change once finances come into play, especially performing in markets outside of the mainland U.S. I want to whittle things down."

Reznor was initially hesitant about doing this part of the world tour because of the expense. "But when you see a lot of people who don't speak English, knowing every word of your songs, that's pretty motivating and inspiring. And it helps that I have new management, a new head on my shoulders and the Internet to use."

COURTESY INTERSCOPE RECORDS After two years of touring, Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor is disbanding his current lineup after this tour's final show in Honolulu. The band includes Jeordie White, left, Josh Freese, Reznor, Alessandro Cortini and Aaron North.

MUCH OF the buzz surrounding "Year Zero" was created by an imaginative marketing scheme that exploited the Internet to its fullest. "It's the right medium for the content of this record. ... There are too many limitations that record labels use for artists. It's the old business model. With the Internet, everyone's a publisher, and it's kind of liberating to be able to write on my Web site, uncensored, for better or worse."

Part of Reznor's expanded vision came from the ruin Hurricane Katrina left behind.

"I lived In New Orleans off and on since 1990. I love that city, and I still consider it the closest place to home, even though I now live in Los Angeles. When I watched that place being destroyed, not so much by nature, but by negligence and incompetence, it was heartbreaking."

The storm hit two months before the Voodoo Music Experience, "one of the coolest fests in the U.S. Once the shock wore off of watching what happened on TV for weeks on end, I told the promoter, who's a good guy, 'Here's a way we can still pull this off that doesn't place more strain on the remaining infrastructure.'

"We basically played for free, and the festival was done on a smaller scale, basically for the recovery workers. It was the first time I'd been back, and it was overwhelming.

"The whole Katrina scenario made it very personal," Reznor said. "I'm already no fan of George Bush and his ideology on any level, and when that disaster hit, I felt it was a personal insult and outrage, and it certainly poured gasoline on the fire."

And you'll feel that fury come Tuesday night.

disclaimer: we are waiting on official word, however this just the article people have been asking us in e-mails for

china show 2007

link to a great slide show