It wasn't until he was 13 that he realized that he could express himself through music. He had been taking piano lessons for quite some time, being half forced to by his grandparents who had their hearts set on him being a concert pianist. Trent loved music, and when he discovered the band Kiss, his entire world changed. Through high school he spent most of his time by himself, hanging out in the band and art rooms. He went to college in Allegheny majoring in computer engineering. He became even more isolated, however, and finally realized that the college life was not for him. In 1984, he left Mercer and moved to Cleveland, Ohio. At the same time, music was changing. Better electronic equipment was being made, and with his addiction to Kiss and the sounds of the new electronic music, everything seemed to click for him. He finally realized his own calling.
In Cleveland, he shared an appartment with his friend (and future NIN member) Chris Vrenna. They both jumped from job to job while they struggled as artists. Finally, in 1987 he began to write. He had waited for a long time to start because he was afraid that he couldn't come up with anything original, but his urge to create overcame his lack of self confidence. He went through a series of names for himself, but finally deciding on Nine Inch Nails, saying that "it was the only name that lasted more than 2 weeks." Nine Inch Nails finally released its first work. Demo versions of Down In It circled the country. Many phone calls came back in reply. Trent soon had a record label, TVT Records, in 1988. In 1989, his first album was released. It was titled Pretty Hate Machine. It sold over a million copies in its first year. In 1990, the Head Like a Hole and Sin singles were released.
In 1991, Nine Inch Nails began touring in America and Europe. The angst, fury, and sore emotions that filled Pretty Hate Machine was nothing compared to what would be released upon the stage. It was violent and dangerous. Short in stature, he would come out on stage clothed in black, covered in white powder, and he would explode. He broke guitars and keyboards, slammed into his band members, and poured water on them, the crowd, and the electrical equipment heedless of the electrical danger. All of this was accompanied by loud music and harsh, screaming lyrics. The audiences loved it.
Things were not so great back at home. TVT started restricting Nine Inch Nails, and so Trent thought it would be best to leave the label. That would be harder than he thought, however, because his lawyers informed him that it would take up to 2 years of negotiating and up to 3 million dollars in legal fees due to the contract he had with TVT. He had to continue touring to pay for this legal battle, and the tour left him and his band members physically and mentally exhausted. Reznor was on the verge of a mental break down.
All of these problems wrapped themselves around each other, and the result was the EP, Broken, created in secret in 1992 to avoid interference from TVT. It had only 6 tracks, but it was so full of traumatic anger that it blew everyone away. He told Guitar World "I wanted to make a real hard-sounding record that was just one big burst of anger. Not necesarily a well-rounded record--just one ultrafast chunk of death." He suceeded. Broken seemed too harsh to be able to sell, but it made it quickly to the Billboard Top 10 and went platinum. Later in that year, he won a grammy for Wish, even though one of the lyrics was "fist f*ck." Later, Broken's follow up, Fixed, was released, and it contained remixes of the Broken tracks.
Though he had plenty of sucess, Reznor was still battling with his record company. TVT was reluctant to let him go, and things looked hopeless until after the Lollapalooza tour. After the tour, Jimmy Iovine, the part-owner of Interscope Records, loved NIN and wanted to sign them on desperately. He realized that the only way he could get NIN was to buy TVT. Afterwards, he helped Trent set up his own record label called Nothing Records. In the following years, Trent signed up Marilyn Manson and a few other bands and helped them with their records. He now had full control.
In 1994, Trent moved into a nice house in Los Angeles. It was spacious and roomy and he built his studio there. What he did not know, however, was that nearly 30 years before he arrived, a twisted Charles Manson and his followers killed Sharon Tate and four others. Once he had settled in, he locked himself away and began work on the next album. He found himself not being able to communicate with people as he used to, the result of being alone for 14 hours a day. His feelings turned more and more depressed, and it reflected on the music he was creating. When The Downward Spyral was finally released in 1994, it was so full of sadness and self-loathing that it made the view of Reznor completely opposite of what everyone thought. More attention was payed to the moods of the music, and it was completely different than the earlier "angry" music he had created. In The Downward Spyral, it tells a story of a man who searches into the depths of his own soul and hates what he finds, and gives up on everything around him.
It debuted at #2 on the Billboard Chart, and millions of copies sold around the world. At this point, NIN was named the most influential alternative band in the world. The singles March of the Pings, Closer, and Closer to God were soon released, and they were eaten up like candy by the consumers.
After The Downward Spyral, NIN began another tour. Trent Reznor in the first tour was nothing compared to this wild, uncontainable burst of energy that traveled from show to show, busting equipment and people night after night. He seemed the center of an uncontrollable storm, and all of the chaos swirled around him and heeded to his every command. Shows sold out quickly, most selling out in just a few minutes. The tour was proclaimed as one of the best tours ever. NIN was even the headline act at Woodstock 94, where thousands of people were moshing as one moving carpet of mud covered bodies. While his band members will still say that it was their worst show ever, Reznor says time and time again that it was his best. He connected with the people, and while the music may have sounded bad, the emotions coursing through him during that show were better than any he had ever experienced.
The tour lasted a few years, but it was even more physically and emotionally draining than the first tour. Trent bared his soul to the audiences, and he was met back with thousands of fans at each show singing his own hurtful lyrics back to him. Though touring was the best time of his life, he sank even deeper into depression as the tour progressed. Everyone in the band agreed that they had toured too long, and when it was all over, Trent went once again into seclusion.
He could not make himself write again for a while. Instead he worked on I'm Afraid of Americans with David Bowie, and also produced the sound tracks for Natural Born Killers, Lost Highway, The Crow, and the video game Quake. He wrote Burn for Natural Born Killers, and he made a remix cd of The Perfect Drug. During this time, he hated himself. The tour had exhausted him and left him frail and weak, and his friendships with Marilyn Manson and Courtney Love crumbled after the death of Curt Cobain. He was at an extreme emotional low, and couldn't find any way out of it. Finally, he turned back to writing, his only real healing. For 2 years he worked on many tracks for the new album, and finally selected 21 of his favorites. In 1999 after a wait of 4 years, The Fragile came out on double cd. Trent didn't know if he would still have fans after such a long wait. A change for the worse in rock and alternative made him feel out of place. No one had forgotten about Nine Inch Nails, however, and millions of copies sold instantaniously. The Fragile was another complete change in musical style for NIN. It was no longer extremely angsty or extremely depressed, but the album displayed deep inner hurt and deep inner healing all at the same time. The writing process was a chance to heal, and after plenty of inner searching he finally came at peace with himself again. He realized that where he had been was a bad place, and he emerged from it a new man. After The Fragile was out for a few months, he began touring again, confident that he could control himself this time. People who had thought that Reznor had gone soft because of the change in musical style were brought back to reality. The tour was still as wild as it had been, and Trent smashed guitars and keyboards with renewed vigor.
Recently, besides The Fragile, NIN has released new singles for The Day the World Went Away, Starsuckers, Inc., Into the Void, and a 3 cd single of We're In This Together. That makes a total of 17 halos, and a new EP is on the way due out in October, 2000 called Things Falling Apart.
Over a decade of music has made Nine Inch Nails one of the leading bands in the world, and Trent doesn't look like he's going to quit yet. Even he doesn't know what is in store for the future.