“Everyone’s got a theory”: how Nine Inch Nails got their name
A young Trent Reznor, unable to find a sufficient band to perform his songs as he envisioned and inspired by Prince’s prolific nature, began to record music by himself, playing all instruments except drums, which would be programmed electronically. These would be the earliest versions of Nine Inch Nails’ studio recordings.
Reznor had played in a few bands before, including Option 30, which he joined while he was still in high school in Mercer, Pennsylvania; The Urge, a cover band; and The Innocent, as a keyboardist. He’d even joined a local band, Exotic Birds, in 1986 and appeared with them in the 1987 film Light of Day as a fictional band called The Problems. But through all of these tenures, Reznor sensed that something was missing.
For the music that, then, existed only in his head, Reznor wanted to transcend popular rock music and distort traditions of guitar, bass and drums. His instruments of choice? Vintage synthesisers, guitars and sampling distorted and mangled into new art forms, rooted in industrial and electronic metal.
“If you’re going to make music,” Reznor posed to Greg Rule, as quoted in 1999’s Electro Shock! Groundbreakers of Synth Music, “have something to say, and have some unique way to say it.”
Living in Cleveland, Ohio, Reznor got a job at Right Track Studio as an assistant engineer and janitor. Taking matters into his own hands, Reznor asked Bart Koster, the studio owner, for permission to record demos of his own songs for free when the studio was vacant – Koster agreed, and soon, Reznor was given the freedom to experiment with what would become Nine Inch Nails’ signature sound.
The story of how Reznor’s project became known as “Nine Inch Nails” has, like many rock ‘n’ roll fables, fallen to rumour and the sensationalising of the truth. Some believed the band’s name was a reference to Jesus’ crucifixion; others claimed it was a nod to the horror icon Freddy Krueger’s nine-inch metal claws in the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise.
In reality, the name came to Reznor much more simply. He landed on “Nine Inch Nails” among an estimated 200 other names that never quite fit. “I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to think of band names, but usually you think you have a great one, and you look at it the next day, and it’s stupid,” Reznor explained to Axcess Magazine in 1994.
Adding, “I had about 200 of those. Nine Inch Nails lasted the two-week test, looked great in print and could be abbreviated easily. It really doesn’t have any literal meaning. It seemed kind of frightening. ‘Tough and manly!’ It’s a curse trying to come up with band names.”
The Nine Inch Nails logo – the band’s initials with the second “N” mirrored – first appeared in the music video for ‘Down In It,’ their debut single released in 1989. “It’s just a name,” Reznor emphasised to Greg Rule. “Everyone’s got a theory on that – nailing Jesus to the cross, or this and that. But it just came up. I like it.”
Nine Inch Nails’ first album, 1989’s Pretty Hate Machine, was the first official release under the “Nine Inch Nails” name and was written, arranged and performed completely by Reznor. For the majority of the band’s studio recordings, Reznor has continued to be the primary instrumentalist, hearing the music continually rooted in his vision from the inception of the “NIN” moniker.
