A Brief Overview To The History Of Trent Reznor & Nine Inch Nails
He was born Michael Trent Reznor in Mercer, Pennsylvania on May 17th, 1965. At the early age of five Reznor began to play the piano. In high school he began playing saxophone and tuba, and was a member of the marching and jazz bands. He went on to college where he studied computer engineering and joined a band called Option 30.
Reznor dropped out of college to dedicate all his time to a career in music. In 1985 he moved to Cleveland, Ohio and became the keyboardist for a band called The Innocent. He quickly left the band after only one album, and joined another local band, the Exotic Birds.
Trent Reznor went on to work for Right Track Studio, also in Cleveland, as a handyman where he was allowed to use the studio after hours to record demos for what would become Nine Inch Nails' first album, Pretty Hate Machine.
Nine Inch Nails (NIN) was formed in 1988. All musical aspects of Nine Inch Nails including being its producer, singer, and songwriter are controlled by Trent Reznor.
As Nine Inch Nails, Reznor proceeded to release his next album, an EP called Broken, in 1992. Then with 1994's release, The Downward Spiral, Nine Inch Nails was spiraled straight into the spotlight mainly thanks to "Closer", the most widely recognized NIN song to date. 1999 saw the birth of the double disc masterpiece, The Fragile, and six years later With Teeth was released. 2007 holds Nine Inch Nails' first concept album, Year Zero. Reznor normally writes lyrics that revolve around his personal feelings and thoughts, but with Year Zero he explores what the U.S. could be like 15 years in the future.
Since the conception of Nine Inch Nails, Trent Reznor has become one of the most groundbreaking and respected artists. NIN has two Grammy Awards to its name, and Time magazine named Trent Reznor one of the most influential people in America in 1997. Nine Inch Nails performance at the second Woodstock earned the band even more respect.
The talents of Trent Reznor are not limited to Nine Inch Nails exclusively. In 1992 he began the Nothing Records label and signed shock-rocker Marilyn Manson along with many other artists. He has gone on to produce soundtracks such as Natural Born Killers and Lost Highway, and even added the soundtrack and some sound effects for ID Software's computer game Quake.
The Year Zero remix album, Y34RZ3R0R3MIX3D, marked Trent Reznor's separation from his record label and launched NIN as a fully independent artist. Since then Nine Inch Nails has released 2 albums; Ghosts I-IV and The Slip. Ghosts is a collection of 36 instrumental tracks meant to invoke a visual experience, "a soundtrack for daydreams", and The Slip was released as a free download as a "thank you" for the support of the fans. Nine Inch Nails future as an independent artist is an exciting one and hopefully what we've seen so far is an indication of many more years of groundbreaking music.