Nine Inch Nails: Interview
Originally published in ClickMusic.co.uk on April 3, 2005
What have you been up to in this long hiatus?
āI worked on the 12 Round record - not sure if thatās coming out. I worked on Zach [De La Roca, lead singer from Rage Against The Machine]ās solo album, but that may never come out. And some stuff with Tool [singer Maynard James Keena] ā that got cancelled by the label.ā
āAnd I took a couple of years off to get my life in order ā get over my addiction.ā
How has life changed since the last album, and how is that reflected in the new material?
āThereās been a radical change: Iāve gone from addiction to sobriety. My odds of survival have gone up ā thatās a profound change. Iāve changed my management, I get on better with the label, I know where my money is ā which is a change. Iām healthier in body and mind. My writing is clearer as well... I feel like Iāve woken up from a comaā¦ and Iām just thankful that I still have stuff to say.
A lot of musicians become either rich and famous, and/or get clean, and their creative juices dry up. Where does your rage come from?
āAddiction is a disease. The job, the job didnāt make me an addict, but it accelerated what I was doing. I was suffering from social anxiety, and thatās not the best situation for someone doing what I was doing [being a rock star]. I didnāt take drugs as inspiration ā in fact they got in the way. Iām just glad I didnāt destroy my brain.ā
āI feel energised again. My addiction robbed me of my love of music: music became a job so I hated it. So I decided to get clean. I didnāt care about my career, but I did want to be alive. I wasnāt sure if I wanted to interviews and touring... itās no fun when youāre an addict. Iām in control of my destiny again, and I canāt wait to take advantage of my gift again. I only wish [addiction] hadnāt taken so much out of meā¦ so many years off my life.ā
āI started writing ā officially ā in the beginning of 2004. And I realised that I do have something to say.ā
āI feel like this isnāt over. Thereās anticipation out there. I know itās been six yearsā¦ which isnāt an ideal amount of time to leave it... but people have said nice things about the music and the shows are selling out real fast... so, yeah, I feel like this isnāt over.ā
So is touring as wild as it used to be then?
āAt the time going onstage for two hours was necessary to justify the ten hours of party afterwards. But itās different now. And being the boss itās easier to create a āsafeā environment.ā
Has the balance of man and machine altered since the days of Pretty Hate Machine?
āIām still adhering to the collision of icy precision and human error. I started writing the new album outside the studio, with just lyrics and a piano, so that the songs wouldnāt get too far down the production road before I had finished writing them. In terms of arrangement, With Teeth is far more performance orientated; if there was a bass-line or riff, we didnāt just loop two bars over and over, weād play the whole piece. And we didnāt chop it all up beat by beat, we didnāt fuss with it too much. We wanted the music to sound imperfect.ā
āItās so easy to make perfect sounding music nowadays. Everyone with an iMac has a sound editor, and can make amazing sounding records. I turn on the radio and everything sounds the same, and that terrible music sounds like itās good, when itās not. We wanted imperfection.ā
What are you listening to at the moment?
āIām listening to LCD Soundsystem, M.I.A... or is it Mia? Iām never sure how to say her name. Autolux, they sound like My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth in a blenderā¦ and raise the production quality a bit. Saul Williams; the image, the message - heās amazing. We might go on tour with him. I like hiphop, but there hasnāt been a good hiphop record in the last five years ā apart from Dizzee Rascal and a few European things. American hiphop is just ghetto bullshit. People rapping about jewellery.ā
How does the āperformance orientatedā album effected the live show? And how are the new band finding it all?
āItās very live. Thereās not much backing. Maybe a couple of loops. It gives a lot more freedom. The hardest job was finding a guitarist. I realised that I had to stop trying to find a replacement guitarist ā and find something, someone new. āTerrible Lieā was the audition track, and Aaron [North] just came in ready to kick ass. For him itās not about precision, or having some fancy special rare old guitar ā itās about attacking the instrument.ā
The Single, 'The Hand That Feeds' is out now, and the new album, 'With Teeth', is forthcoming (as of 3 Apr 2005).