Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross Say the culture of the music world sucks

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross turned to movie soundtracks partly out of their frustration with the music industry, the Nine Inch Nails artists said this week.

Reznor and Ross, who were originally known for their rock band from the 1980s, are also the artists behind legendary film soundtracks for films that include The Social Network, Gone Girl, Bird Box, Mank, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Soul among others. “What we’re looking for (from movies) is the collaborative experience with interesting people,” Reznor shared IndieWire. “We didn’t necessarily get that from the music world, for our own choice.”

Reznor went on to say that he and his partner had found themselves disillusioned with the music world. “The culture of the music world stinks,” he said. “That’s another conversation, but what technology has done to disrupt the music industry in terms of not only how people listen to music, but the value they place on it is defeating. I’m not saying that like an old man shouting on clouds, but as a music lover who grew up where music was the most important thing. Music (now) feels largely relegated to something that happens in the background or while you’re doing something else. It’s a long, bitter story.”

The musician added that their film success is partly due to them “working in service of something where we don’t have control over everything, and we work closely with a director or a small team to try to help realize a collective vision, solve that conundrum without the burden of “how to market it?” and all the stuff.

Reznor and Ross are particularly known for their collaboration with director Luca Guadagnino, notably on the Timothée Chalamet thriller Bones and all, this year’s Zendaya-led tennis phenomenon Challengers and the recently released romantic drama from the Daniel Craig era Queer (they will also score Guadagnino’s next film, the modern thriller After the Hunt).

“Luca is not a micromanager,” Ross said. “All films are radically different. Going back to Bones and allI think an acoustic guitar was the extent of his influence on the score (Paris, Texas and Brokeback Mountain was also on the vision board). With Challengerswhen he mentioned dance music, what you face with any film is ‘What’s the best way to tell the story?’ There is no doubt in my mind when I look back that the best way to tell the story Challengers was the vessel of dance music. It just brought the movie to life in a way that felt like — I guess you could use the word visionary about Luca. He has a holistic idea of ​​what his film means and there is no end to his commitment.”