Dave Grohl once picked his generation’s “most talented musician-producer-songwriter”
No decade has been more lucrative for alternative rockstars than the 1990s. Between the explosion of grunge and the start of shoegaze, the scene spawned some of the most revered and referenced gritty guitarists and formidable frontmen of all time. At the centre of it all were Nirvana, who, between Dave Grohl’s drumming and Kurt Cobain’s vocals, became one of the most influential alternative rock outfits of all time.
Since finding success behind the drum kit with Nirvana, Dave Grohl has always been surrounded by music legends. It’s no surprise, really. His generation spawned dozens of them. From Radiohead to Pixies, from the Smashing Pumpkins to My Bloody Valentine, the talent for distorted guitars and sludgy rock was unparalleled. But there was one name Grohl ranked above the rest.
From Thom Yorke to Kevin Shields, Grohl’s generation produced a mammoth of talented musicians, but it’s Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor that the drummer once named as the best of the best during a 2011 interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “I think it’s safe to say that he is my generation’s most talented musician-producer-songwriter,” he declared.
Reznor is certainly a worthy contender for the title. In collaboration with Atticus Ross, Reznor created some of the most enduring and affecting compositions in alternative rock, from the strikingly sensual ‘Closer’ to the dismal ‘Hurt’, which even won the admiration of Johnny Cash. Simultaneously heavy and atmospheric, Nine Inch Nails remain one of the most idiosyncratic bands within that realm.
Since then, the pair have also proven their abilities to write to film, composing scores for a series of David Fincher pictures, perhaps most notably The Social Network. The music they created was just as ingenious and detached as the film’s main character, and remains one of the greatest scores in modern cinema. It even won Reznor an Academy Award.
Between his work fusing industrial with rock and alternative for Nine Inch Nails and his critically acclaimed ventures into film composition, Reznor is undoubtedly one of the most inventive minds in music, a true gem in Grohl’s generation. The Foo Fighters drummer has been lucky enough to witness ingenuity first-hand when they collaborated on Nine Inch Nails’ fourth record, With Teeth.
As Grohl recalled, he unexpectedly encountered Reznor in the early 1990s at the house where Sharon Tate was murdered. Years later, the Nine Inch Nails composer recruited him to work on the record, contributing his drumming talents. When they got into the studio together, Grohl was mesmerised by Reznor’s musical abilities, remembering that even his rough ideas were “incredible.”
Rather than envying Reznor’s talents, though, Grohl found that they pushed him to be better in his own work. “He can do everyone else’s job better than they can,” he quipped, “so you have to be good. And that pushes you to be great.” Providing percussion for tracks like ‘All the Love in the World’ and ‘Every Day Is Exactly the Same’, Grohl pushed himself to be great and proved his rightful place alongside Reznor as one of the best of his generation.
Though their entries into the alternative catalogue are often starkly different in sound, there is a case to be made for both Grohl and Reznor as being amongst the best of their generation. While Grohl pioneered Grunge, Reznor ventured into industrial ambience, each of them reinventing the genre for years to come.
