Historical Figure
Trent Reznor
b. 1965
American singer-songwriter musician (born 1965)
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Biography
Michael Trent Reznor is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and composer. He came to prominence as the founder, lead singer, multi-instrumentalist, and primary songwriter of the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. The band's line-up has constantly changed, with Reznor being its only official member from its creation in 1988 until 2016, when he added English musician and frequent collaborator Atticus Ross as its second permanent member.
Timeline
The story of Trent Reznor, told in moments.
Nearly killed himself with drugs and alcohol. Got sober in 2001. Shifted to film scoring. Won two Academy Awards for Best Original Score, for The Social Network (2010) and Soul (2020), both with collaborator Atticus Ross.
Released Pretty Hate Machine, Nine Inch Nails' debut album. Recorded most of it himself in a studio after hours. The album went platinum on the strength of "Head Like a Hole." Industrial rock went mainstream.
The Downward Spiral came out. It was recorded at 10050 Cielo Drive, the house where Sharon Tate was murdered. The album sold over four million copies. "Closer" and "Hurt" became defining songs of the decade.
In Their Own Words (7)
I think, fundamentally music is something inherently people love and need and relate to, and a lot of what's out right now feels like McDonalds. It's quick-fix. You kind of have a stomachache afterwards. It's not wholly satisfying. And it's fake. I would hope that the music that inspired me, that got me going, that talked to me, felt like it was coming from some place that had some true emotion and true integrity behind it. I think that can reemerge.
Tribune Interview (29 September 2005)., 2005
While I was working on Downward Spiral, I was living in the house where Sharon Tate was killed. Then one day I met her sister. It was a random thing, just a brief encounter. And she said: "Are you exploiting my sister's death by living in her house?" For the first time, the whole thing kind of slapped me in the face. I said, "No, it's just sort of my own interest in American folklore. I'm in this place where a weird part of history occurred." I guess it never really struck me before, but it did then. She lost her sister from a senseless, ignorant situation that I don't want to support. When she was talking to me, I realized for the first time, "What if it was my sister?" I thought, "Fuck Charlie Manson." I went home and cried that night. It made me see there's another side to things, you know?
On his residency at 10050 Cielo Drive, as quoted in Rolling Stone (6 March 1997)., 1997
I hurt myself todayTo see if I still feel.I focus on the pain,the only thing that's real.
Hurt, from The Downward Spiral (1994)., 1994
You let me violate you. You let me desecrate you.You let me penetrate you. You let me complicate you.Help me, I broke apart my insides.Help me, I've got no soul to sell.Help me; the only thing that works for me.Help me get away from myself.I want to fuck you like an animal.I want to feel you from the inside.I want to fuck you like an animal.My whole existence is flawed.You get me closer to God.
Closer, from The Downward Spiral (1994)., 1994
God money I'll do anything for you.God money just tell me what you want me to.God money nail me up against the wall.God money don't want everything he wants it all.
Head Like a Hole, from Pretty Hate Machine (1990)., 1990
Artifacts (13)
the most gifted novelist alive in the world today
subversive perspectives on historic events, emphasizing the theopoetic human factor. In 2003 Harold Bloom described Saramago as "the most gifted novelist alive in the world today" and in 2010 said he...
the finest Portuguese writer of his generation
and translator Pilar del Río on Friday morning, after which he started feeling unwell and died. The Guardian described him as "the finest Portuguese writer of his generation", while Fernanda Eberstadt...
known almost as much for his unfaltering Communism as for his fiction
d him as "the finest Portuguese writer of his generation", while Fernanda Eberstadt of The New York Times said he was "known almost as much for his unfaltering Communism as for his...
I write two pages. And then I read and read and read.
ide of political and economic structures. When asked to describe his daily writing routine in 2009, Saramago responded, "I write two pages. And then I read and read and read." == Personal life...
Where was all that money poured on markets? Very tight and well kept; then sudde...
was also a supporter of Iberian Federalism. In a 2008 press conference for the filming of Blindness he asked, in reference to the Great Recession, "Where was all that money poured on markets? Very...
He went into the yard of his house, where there were a few trees, fig-trees, oli...
ts in Azinhaga. When his grandfather suffered a stroke and was to be taken to Lisbon for treatment, Saramago recalled, "He went into the yard of his house, where there were a few trees, fig-trees,...
believe[s] that we all have some influence, not because of the fact that one is ...
itical engagement has led to comparisons with George Orwell. When speaking to The Observer in 2006, Saramago said he "believe[s] that we all have some influence, not because of the fact that one is an...
what is happening in Palestine is a crime we can put on the same plane as what h...
ocial or political involvement." During the Second Intifada, while visiting Ramallah in March 2002, Saramago said that "what is happening in Palestine is a crime we can put on the same plane as what...
educated and trained in the idea that any suffering that has been inflicted . . ...
rmy. They have turned into rentiers of the Holocaust." In an essay he wrote expanding on his views, Saramago wrote of Jews: "educated and trained in the idea that any suffering that has been inflicted...
Critics of these statements charged that they were antisemitic. Six months later...
und to keep it bleeding, to make it incurable, and they show it to the world as if it were a banner." Critics of these statements charged that they were antisemitic. Six months later, Saramago...
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