Five of Trent Reznor’s favourite artists of all time
At the dawn of the industrial age, Trent Reznor was one of the more gentle offerings in the genre. While listening to albums like The Downward Spiral and Pretty Hate Machine weren’t for the faint of heart, Reznor always took pride in his sense of melody to translate his emotions into whichever song he was playing. No artist gets to that state without having eclectic taste.
Over the years, Reznor has waxed poetic about some of his favourite artists, ranging from the classic rock gods to some of the more obscure pop acts in his catalogue. As much as he might be defined by the darkness in his music, his taste always wavered toward pop music. The latter ranged between the squelchy sounds of the 1980s or the dawn of the electric age when synthesisers were just starting to come into their own.
In between his own great albums, he has also mentioned countless other records that he sees as reference points for what he wants to do, whether that be working in the world music realm or refining his musical palette. Although none of the acts listed below sounds alike, they all have one common thread: evolution.
Throughout every one of these careers, none of them wanted to rest on their laurels, and Reznor internalised that mentality into his own music. Although it might be easy to find a niche and stick with it, Reznor understood that music is about moving in different directions and never settling for good enough.
Five of Trent Reznor’s favourite musicians of all time
Pink Floyd
Reznor has always related some sense of loneliness in his lyrics. Throughout his time in Nine Inch Nails, his take on existence has always been from an outsider looking in, not really having anyone to relate to. His life experience might not have been easy to understand, but it’s one that Roger Waters knew all too well.
When growing up in Pennsylvania, Reznor would gravitate towards Pink Floyd, latching onto The Wall as a cornerstone in his musical development, telling NME: “I’d never heard music that had that naked, honest emotion. That was a real turning point for me. I must have listened to it a million times”.
Far from being the first concept album, Waters’ vision helped open Reznor’s eyes to what could be done outside of the traditional pop-rock sphere. Although he took things in a far more aggressive direction, The Downward Spiral may as well be an answer to The Wall’s sense of loneliness, chronicling the moment where Reznor lets himself go too far.
Skinny Puppy
Around the time Reznor was cutting his teeth, the music scene looked a lot different than when he was a kid. Moving to Cleveland to become a part of the industrial music scene, he was mingling with some of the titans of the genre, with Fliter’s Richard Patrick joining an early version of ‘NIN’. In between his own work, Reznor had a particular affinity for Skinny Puppy.
Born out of the same decrepit sounds of techno, Reznor resonated with Skinny Puppy’s sense of chaos. When asked about the glory days of the scene, he singled them out along with Ministry as “the music that I related to on a number of levels — I liked the sound of it, I like the way it was made, I liked the message, which seemed fresh at the time,” he said. “I hadn’t heard anything like that. It was as powerful as metal without all the silly metal stuff I understood or got into”.
Reznor would later admit that he might have become a little too infatuated with Skinny Puppy’s music, calling ‘Down In It’ off Pretty Hate Machine a shameless ripoff of one of their tunes, ‘Dig It’. Skinny Puppy may have left their mark, but there’s only ever going to be one person who sounds like Trent Reznor.
Rush
Even in the world of progressive music, Rush often falls into a world of their own. Although they might be a bit too complex for many mainstream musicians to listen to, the lyrics of Neil Peart always had an earnest edge to them. While some die-hard fans looked at the band’s synth period with disdain, Reznor saw his true calling.
When discussing them in the documentary Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage, Reznor thanked Rush for giving more exposure to the keyboards on albums like Signals, saying, “I came from a keyboard background. You always felt kind of left out because keyboards weren’t that cool. With Rush, the way that they were integrating synths was wildly exciting to me. It was filling the role for what a guitar player would have done”.
More than anything, Rush’s defiant attitude towards the mainstream media had a drastic impact on the way Reznor would later view the corporate side of rock and roll. Labels might try to get the next trendy thing, but most artists are always better off writing what’s in their hearts instead of what’s assembled in a boardroom.
The Cure
The music of Nine Inch Nails has always been indebted to the darker side of life. As long as Reznor has made music, he has always looked for a different angle to let his pain loose in his music, getting the chance to leave that anger on the tape instead of letting it affect the world around him. It might have been a fresh approach at the time, but this was just the natural extension of what Robert Smith had started with The Cure.
While Reznor has never been one for ceremonies, he was more than willing to induct The Cure into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, thanking them in his induction speech, “One of the most important aspects of getting swept away by this tidal wave of new music was hearing the Cure for the first time. A lot of darkness in my head was coming back at me through the speakers, and it blew my mind”.
Outside of the musical influence, Reznor and Smith have also taken on similar career paths in terms of giving back, from Smith’s insistent feud with Ticketmaster to Reznor encouraging fans to steal his music because of how outrageous the price of CDs was back in the 2000s. As much as The Cure might have a musical impact on the band, the most important lesson from them is that the fans come before anyone else.
David Bowie
Throughout his entire career, David Bowie never did the same thing twice. Going through his discography, Bowie was the essence of a chameleon, going in different directions with each project and nailing down pretty much every song he could with laser-focused creativity. For a budding Trent Reznor, it was that mentality that fueled his need to be a musician.
When speaking to Billboard, Reznor mentioned how much Bowie played a part in shaping his musical DNA, recalling, “It creeps its way in, in various ways. So, I would turn back to the idea of Bowie and think for a minute: ‘F–k, that’s what being an artist is.’ So, there was that kind of influence from a distance, a fan level, aside from the music emotionally connecting with me”.
Aside from inspiration, Reznor also sprinkled bits and pieces of Bowie into his work, taking samples from one of Bowie’s films for the song ‘A Warm Place’ off of The Downward Spiral. Bowie eventually returned the favour in the late ‘90s, eventually performing his own version of ‘Hurt’ live with Reznor on backing vocals. While it might be hard to meet heroes, his relationship with his music was only strengthened when he heard ‘The Starman’ perform his tunes.
