Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross pivoted to movie soundtracks partially out of their frustration for the music industry, the Nine Inch Nails artists said this week.
Reznor and Ross, originally known for their 1980s rock band, are also the artists behind legendary movie 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 film] is the collaborative experience with interesting people,” Reznor told IndieWire. “We haven’t gotten that from the music world necessarily, for our own choice.”
Reznor went on to say he and his partner had found themselves disillusioned with the music world. “The culture of the music world sucks,” he said. “That’s another conversation, but what technology has done to disrupt the music business in terms of not only how people listen to music, but the value they place on it is defeating. I’m not saying that as an old man yelling at clouds, but as a music lover who grew up where music was the main thing. Music [now] feels largely relegated to something that happens in the background or while you’re doing something else. That’s a long, bitter story.”
The musician added that their movie scoring success is in part because they’re “working in service to something, where we’re not in control of the whole thing, and we’re working intimately with a director or small team to try and help realize a collective vision, solving that riddle without the burden of ‘how’s it going to be marketed?’ and all the things.”
Reznor and Ross are especially well-known for their collaboration with director Luca Guadagnino, notably on Timothée Chalamet thriller Bones and All, this year’s Zendaya-led tennis phenomenon Challengers and the recently released Daniel Craig period romantic drama Queer (they will also score Guadagnino’s next film, the contemporary thriller After the Hunt).
“Luca’s not a micromanager,” Ross said. “All the films are radically different. Going back to Bones and All, I think an acoustic guitar was the extent of his influence on the score [Paris, Texas and Brokeback Mountain were also on the vision board]. With Challengers, when he mentioned dance music, what you’re faced with, with any film, is ‘What is the best way to tell the story?’ There’s no question in my mind looking back that the best way to tell the story of Challengers was the vessel of dance music. It just brought the film to life in a way that felt like, I think you can use the word visionary for Luca. He has a holistic idea for what his films mean, and there’s no end to his commitment.”
