Fresh off releasing Nine Inch Nails‘ new EP Not the Actual Events, Trent Reznor talked about the band’s big plans in a 30-minute chat with Beats 1 Radio’s Zane Lowe.
“I’m teeing up the next quote I’ll have to live up to, but the idea has been to do two new major works come out next year,” Reznor said, adding that the “major works” would be released under the Nine Inch Nails umbrella, as opposed to Reznor and Atticus Ross’ film score work.
During the interview, Reznor talked about balancing four projects simultaneously: Reznor and Ross’ scores for Before the Flood and Patriots Day, plus Not the Actual Events and “something I can’t mention yet,” which suggests one of the works isn’t the previously announced The Fragile: Deviations 1, a reimagined version of Nine Inch Nails’ 1999 double-LP.
Earlier in the year, Reznor proclaimed that new Nine Inch Nails music would arrive in 2016, a promise he delivered on with Not the Actual Events, which was released digitally Friday ahead of its “physical component” version. “A lot of what’s blessed as the cool thing feels pretty generic and also feels, a lot of it, like a desperate plea for commercial airplay and success,” Reznor said of Not the Actual Events. “That combined with just our own worldview and a kind of daydream I was having led to ‘Let’s make a record that feels challenging, and exciting to us …’ I wanted the music to sound kind of ugly and to sound unfriendly not suck you in with a sexy hook.”
In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Reznor hinted at big plans for 2017, but didn’t want to ruin the surprise. “That will be part of the reveal,” Reznor said. “I don’t want to spoil it. If I’m interested in a film, I prefer not to watch the trailer. We live in overstimulated times.” It’s unlikely part of that plan includes a Nine Inch Nails tour: “Not in the immediate future, but we are discussing it,” Reznor told Lowe of returning to the road.
Reznor also discussed streaming, his role at Apple Music, the “devaluation” of music and his preferred method of listening to music recently. “I’ve begun listening to a lot more vinyl lately,” Reznor said. “I like not being able to skip songs. I like putting it on and I like the idea that it’s a 20-minute suite of music and then I have to get up and turn it over and there’s another 20-minute suite of music. And if the phone rings or something happens, it’s not as convenient.”
Listen to Reznor and Ross’ complete Beats 1 Radio interview below: