“I am truly afraid,“ says Trent Reznor, whose new
Year Zero depicts a dark future
Trent Reznor usually struggles for years to
make a new Nine Inch Nails album, but during the long world tour behind 2005‘s With Teeth, something unexpected
happened: He found himself writing and recording new music that flowed with
surprising ease. Those songs became Year
Zero, an apocalyptic concept album due out April 17th. “It was
written and recorded primarily with just me and my main collaborator, Atticus
Ross, in hotel rooms, buses, backstage closets, etc.,“ Reznor writes in an
e-mail interview. “Frankly, I have always dreaded writing - there always seemed
to be pain involved, unpleasant self examination and a lot of fear. Somehow man
aged to finally figure out how my brain works, and writing has become just the
opposite.“
The album takes place in a dystopian version of
the year 2022: The religious right has taken over the US. government, there are mind control
drugs in the water supply, and something called the Presence - in the form of a
giant hand reaching from the sky - keeps showing up. (The image is captured on
the album cover.) Reznor suggests the plot – which has also spawned an intricate
and mysterious online game that elaborates on its world (see
iamtryingtobelieve.com, among numerous other sites) - was inspired by current
events. “I have primarily dealt with personal issues in my songs up to this
point - relating, not relating, searching, failing, trying, hoping, hating,“ he
says. “Human issues. However, when I look at the cold heart of big business and
our murdering government, I am truly afraid. I don‘t get the sense there is any
humanity or compassion behind those suits as I watch their total disregard for
human life arid the ecology of this planet.“
After coming off the road last summer, Reznor
retreated to a secluded house in Malibu to continue work on the album. “I
went into it with a sense of not giving a fuck,“ he says. “Not worried about
singles, radio play, melody, ‘correct‘ song structure, record labels, marketability,
critics, kissing ass, my own fans‘ expectations, chart positions, being
fashionable, etc. In other words, probably every single thing a band like, say,
Fall Out Boy worries about.“
On the resulting album, Reznor sounds rejuvenated,
combining the squalling electronic experiments of 1999‘s The Fragile with more
accessible song structures and stronger melodies. “In the past, I have started
recording with a specific sound or goal in mind,“ says Reznor. “But with Year
Zero, I really just let my subconscious take over and steer the ship.“ And the
album is just the first half of his story. “I‘ve just begun working on the
conclusion, part two,“ he says. “The fate of the world is in my hands.“
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