Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails, commonly abbreviated as NIN, is an American industrial rock band formed by singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Trent Reznor in 1988 in Cleveland, Ohio. Reznor was the sole permanent member of the band until his frequent collaborator, English musician Atticus Ross, became an official member in 2016. The band's debut album, Pretty Hate Machine, was released via TVT Records. After disagreements with TVT over how the album would be promoted, the band signed with Interscope Records and released the EP Broken, followed by the albums The Downward Spiral and The Fragile.
Following a hiatus, Nine Inch Nails resumed touring and released their fourth album With Teeth. Following the release of the next album Year Zero, the band left Interscope after a feud. Nine Inch Nails continued touring and independently released Ghosts I–IV and The Slip before a second hiatus. Their eighth album, Hesitation Marks, was followed by a trilogy which consisted of the EPs Not the Actual Events and Add Violence and their ninth album Bad Witch. The band simultaneously released two further installments of the Ghosts series in 2020: Ghosts V: Together and Ghosts VI: Locusts. In 2024, Nine Inch Nails announced a number of new projects through their multimedia company With Teeth; the following year, they embarked on the Peel It Back Tour and released the soundtrack to Tron: Ares.
When touring, Reznor typically assembles a live band to perform with him under the Nine Inch Nails name. This live band has varied over the decades, with various members leaving and returning; the current lineup consists of Reznor and Ross alongside Robin Finck, Alessandro Cortini, and Josh Freese. The band's concerts are noted for their extensive use of thematic visual elements, complex special effects, and elaborate lighting. Songs are often rearranged to fit any given performance, and the melodies or lyrics of songs that are not scheduled to be performed are sometimes assimilated into other songs.
Nine Inch Nails has sold over 20 million records worldwide and been nominated for 13 Grammy Awards, winning for the songs "Wish" in 1992 and "Happiness in Slavery" in 1996. Time magazine named Reznor one of its most influential people in 1997, while Spin magazine has described him as "the most vital artist in music". In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Nine Inch Nails No. 94 on its list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". Nine Inch Nails was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020, having first been nominated in 2014 and again in 2015.
History
Formation (1987–1988)
While living in Cleveland in 1987, Trent Reznor played keyboards in the Exotic Birds, a synth-pop band managed by John Malm Jr. Reznor became friends with Malm, who informally became his manager when he left to work on his own music. At the time, Reznor was employed as an assistant engineer and janitor at Right Track Studios. Studio owner Bart Koster granted Reznor free access to the studio between bookings to record demos, commenting that it cost him nothing more than "a little wear on tape heads". Unable to find a band that could articulate the material as he desired, Reznor was inspired by Prince to play all instruments himself except drums, which he programmed electronically. He has continued to play most parts on Nine Inch Nails recordings ever since.The first Nine Inch Nails live performance took place at Graffiti in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on October 27, 1988. Soon after, following their live support of Skinny Puppy, Reznor aimed to release one 12-inch single on a small European label. Several labels responded favorably to the demo material and Reznor signed with TVT Records. Nine demos, recorded live in November 1988 and collectively known as Purest Feeling, were released in revised form on the first studio album, Pretty Hate Machine. The overall sound on Purest Feeling is lighter than that of Pretty Hate Machine; several songs contain more live drumming and guitar, as well as a heavier use of film samples.
Reznor chose the name "Nine Inch Nails" because it "abbreviated easily" rather than for "any literal meaning". Other rumored explanations have circulated, alleging that Reznor chose to refer to Jesus's crucifixion with nine-inch spikes, or Freddy Krueger's nine-inch fingernails. The Nine Inch Nails logo first appeared on the music video for their debut single, "Down in It". Reznor and Gary Talpas designed the logo, inspired by Tibor Kalman's typography on the Talking Heads album Remain in Light. The logo features the band's initials, with the second N mirrored. Talpas, a native of Cleveland, continued to design Nine Inch Nails packaging until 1997.
''Pretty Hate Machine'' (1988–1991)
Written, arranged, and performed by Reznor, Nine Inch Nails' first album Pretty Hate Machine debuted in 1989. It marked his first collaboration with Adrian Sherwood and Mark "Flood" Ellis. Reznor asked Sean Beavan to mix the demos of Pretty Hate Machine, which had received multiple offers for record deals. He mixed sound during Nine Inch Nails' live concerts for several years, eventually becoming an unofficial member of the live band and singing live backup vocals from his place at the mixing console. Flood's production would appear on each major Nine Inch Nails release until 1994, and Sherwood has made remixes for the band as recently as 2000. Reznor and his co-producers expanded upon the Right Track Studio demos by adding singles "Head Like a Hole" and "Sin". Rolling Stones Michael Azerrad described the album as "industrial-strength noise over a pop framework" and "harrowing but catchy music"; Reznor proclaimed this combination "a sincere statement" of "what was in head at the time". In fact, the song "Down in It" spent over two months on Billboard club-play dance chart. After spending 113 weeks on the Billboard 200, Pretty Hate Machine became one of the first independently released records to attain platinum certification.Three music videos were created in promotion of the album. MTV aired the videos for "Down in It" and "Head Like a Hole", but an explicit video for "Sin" was only released in partial form for Closure. The original version of the "Down in It" video ended with the implication that Reznor's character had fallen off a building and died in the street. This footage attracted the attention of the FBI.
In 1989, while doing promotion for the album, the band members were asked on what shows they would like to appear. They jokingly replied that they would like to appear on Dance Party USA, since it was the most absurd option they could think of at the time. Much to their surprise, they were booked on the show, and made an appearance.
In 1990, Nine Inch Nails began the Pretty Hate Machine Tour Series, in which it toured North America as an opening act for alternative rock artists such as Peter Murphy and the Jesus and Mary Chain. Reznor began smashing his equipment while on stage; Rockbeat interviewer Mike Gitter attributed the live band's early success in front of rock oriented audiences to this aggressive attitude. Nine Inch Nails then embarked on a world tour that continued through the first Lollapalooza festival in 1991.
''Broken'' (1992–1993)
After a poor European reception opening for Guns N' Roses, the band returned to the US amid pressure from TVT to produce a follow-up to Pretty Hate Machine. After finding out they were hindering control of his project, Reznor criticized the labeling of Nine Inch Nails as a commercially oriented band and demanded his label terminate his contract, but they ignored his plea. In response, Reznor secretly began recording under various pseudonyms to avoid record company interference. Involved in a feud with TVT, he signed a record deal with Interscope Records and created Nothing Records:We made it very clear we were not doing another record for TVT. But they made it pretty clear they weren't ready to sell. So I felt like, well, I've finally got this thing going but it's dead. Flood and I had to record Broken under a different band name, because if TVT found out we were recording, they could confiscate all our shit and release it. Jimmy Iovine got involved with Interscope, and we kind of got slave-traded. It wasn't my doing. I didn't know anything about Interscope. And I was real pissed off at him at first because it was going from one bad situation to potentially another one. But Interscope went into it like they really wanted to know what I wanted. It was good, after I put my raving lunatic act on.
In 1992, Nine Inch Nails relocated to 10050 Cielo Drive, Benedict Canyon, Los Angeles, the site of the Tate murders, when Charles Manson's "family" murdered Sharon Tate, wife of noted film director Roman Polanski, and four of her friends. The band used it to record Broken, an extended play that was the first Nine Inch Nails release distributed by Interscope Records and reached the top 10 on the Billboard 200. In the liner notes, Reznor credited the 1991 Nine Inch Nails touring band as an influence on the EP's sound. He characterized Broken as a guitar-based "blast of destruction", and as "a lot harder ... than Pretty Hate Machine". The inspiration for the harder sound came from the way the live band played during concerts such as Lollapalooza. Songs from Broken earned Nine Inch Nails two Grammy Awards: a performance of the EP's first single "Happiness in Slavery" from Woodstock '94, and the second single "Wish". In reference to receiving the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance for "Wish", Reznor joked that "Wish" became "the only song to ever win a Grammy that says 'fist fuck' in the lyrics." Against touring of the brand new material, Reznor began living and recording full-time at Le Pig, working on a follow-up free of restrictions from his record label.
Peter Christopherson of the bands Coil and Throbbing Gristle directed a performance video for "Wish", but the EP's most controversial video accompanied "Happiness in Slavery". The video was almost universally banned for its graphic depiction of performance artist Bob Flanagan disrobed and lying on a machine that pleases, tortures, then kills him. A third video for "Pinion", partially incorporated into MTV's Alternative Nation opening sequence, showed a toilet that apparently flushes into the mouth of a person in bondage. Reznor and Christopherson compiled the three clips along with footage for "Help Me I Am in Hell" and "Gave Up" into a longform music video titled Broken. It depicts the murder of a young man who is kidnapped and tortured while forced to watch the videos. This footage was never officially released, but instead appeared covertly among tape trading circles. A separate performance video for "Gave Up" featuring Richard Patrick and Marilyn Manson was filmed at Le Pig. A live recording of "Wish" was also filmed, and both videos appeared in Closure.
Broken was followed by the companion remix EP Fixed in late 1992. The only track that was left off the final version of the release is the remix of "Last", produced by Butch Vig. The unedited version appeared on the internet as an 8-bit mono 11 kHz file, "NIN_LAST.AIFF", available by FTP from cyberden.com in 1993; it has been removed from the website, but can still be found on p2p networks. Vig later spoke about his remix while answering questions on a music production forum, saying "I started recording a lot of new parts, and took it in a much different direction. When it was finished, Trent thought the front part of the mix didn't fit the EP, so he just used the ending. I'm glad it's on his website. Duke and Steve worked with me on the remix, in the very early days of Garbage."