Giving an inch

Trent Reznor (second from left) and the rest of Nine Inch Nails. File Photo

There's a three-minute delay before Trent Reznor connects on his end of the conference call. He's in Stockholm and his agent, who's trying to figure out what's behind the hold-up, is in Los Angeles. The suspense is fitting - this is after all the artist who, while recording his breakthrough album The Downward Spiral, lived in the home where Charles Manson's minions murdered Roman Polanski's pregnant wife, Sharon Tate. The same artist whose battles with drugs and depression have been much publicized and whose dark blend of electronic pop and rock has won legions of followers and inspired many imitators.

But when he finally does speak, Reznor sounds more like a plaid-wearing literary professor than the Prince of Darkness. He talks softy, considers his words and discusses everything from the current political climate in the United States to the changes facing the worldwide music industry.

Reznor's own personal demons have been well documented: in 2000 he overdosed on heroin during a tour and in 2005 he told an interviewer "If I drink again I'll probably die". But here he talks less about his personal life and more about what he sees happening around him. Could the 43-year-old Father of Industrial Rock be growing up?

"If I look back at how I've written every record I've ever made, it usually comes from being angry or frustrated. The stress of something, being bothered by something," Reznor says.

"Up until the last several years most of that anger has been very internal and what has happened as a result of me getting older, or perhaps the world seems to have gotten crazier."

In a bid to expand the reach of his band, Nine Inch Nails, into other countries Reznor and the rest of the group have toured Russia and are now set to headline the Beijing Pop Festival on September 8 and 9. Others on the bill include punk icons The New York Dolls and arguably the world's most respected rap group, Public Enemy. Even Reznor is a fan.

"I know it's kind of trendy now for rock musicians to say 'I grew up on hip-hop', but I did not grow up on hip-hop I grew up before hip-hop," he says.

"If I had to name the top five records that have inspired me as a musician probably Fear of a Black Planet or It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back from a musical perspective and from a political statement are right up there."

In terms of political statements, Reznor's latest album with Nine Inch Nails (he is the only permanent member of the group) is his most potent. Titled Year Zero, this 2007 release is a concept album that paints a bleak picture of what the world might look like in 2022 if the United States maintains its current foreign and environmental policies. About as sunny as midnight in a sewer, Year Zero leaves us with the distinct impression that Reznor is not a fan of those who currently occupy the White House.

"A major concern of mine has been what it feels like to watch your country be hijacked and turned into something that you're ashamed of. Ashamed of our administration, the treatment not only of its own citizens and the ecology of the planet but the rest of the world and the arrogance we have shown on a global scale."

"I wanted to paint a picture with Year Zero of what it might be like if we continue down this path because it really feels like we are headed towards Armageddon."

So in the countdown to a US Election, which will determine the course of, among other things, the war in Iraq and green policy, does the now-politically-radicalized Reznor favor any particular candidate? "I had the opportunity to hear Barack Obama speak recently and what comes out of his mouth is inspiring," he says.

"I think it would speak volumes for our nation to be able to elect someone like that. Not just a man of color but someone that can speak, someone who is obviously educated."

Another issue that has drawn the rock star's attention is a major record label's practice of boosting prices for Nine Inch Nails records in foreign countries.

Protesting against the price-hike, Reznor posted a message on his blog saying that the only remedies record companies can think to heal "their mostly self-inflicted wounds seems to be to screw the consumer over even more."

In a bid to distribute new Nine Inch Nails music on the Internet, USB ports containing songs from Year Zero were hidden at European shows for fans to upload and share. Assuming that the tracks had been leaked illegally, the Recording Industry Association of America took legal action against the uploaders forcing Nine Inch Nails's own label to defend the fans. For Reznor, the possible death of major record companies due to digital piracy is not something he loses sleep over.

"The record labels have been left behind because they are unwilling to see that the paradigm has shifted," he says. "As a musician that has watched the lion's share of any money from record sales go to the record label and not the artist, I'm not particularly devastated by the fact that the labels look like they won't be around much longer.

The age of the compact disc, he says, is over. Unlike in past decades when record companies could earn enormous amounts of money from album sales, Reznor believes that the new generation of music lovers is simply refusing to pay as much, if anything, for their music. "What you're seeing in America now is that most people don't want to buy music," he says.

"Any person under 21, they've grown up in a culture where it's easier to steal than it is to go and buy it and what they are buying is something that they don't want to buy anyway - plastic CDs that they then have to put on their computer."

Reznor says that while in China he is "looking forward to see how fans experience music, to see how it comes to them." What he may find, according to a recent report commissioned by the UK Trade Ministry, is that many fans on the mainland source music either through pirated CDs or illegal downloads.

But if you're thinking that someone who has made a fortune from his art would frown upon these practices, you might be surprised.

"I want as many people to hear my music as possible and if you can't get it in a store, if you can't get it in China, steal it - give it to your friends, pass it along if you like it, turn people onto it," he says.

"That's why I made it, not to keep it to some elite little minority. Keep it, give it to whoever you want."

Optimism for the digital age, a political urgency and a drug-free lifestyle - the next thing you know, this mature, clean-living Trent Reznor will put an end to his trademark trashing of equipment at the end of his performances.

Well, maybe not.

"Sometimes a guitar gets lost here and there - you know, some habits are hard to break," he says.

(China Daily 08/24/2007 page20)