Trent Reznor sat down with the Daily Beast this week to voice his opinions on Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump. Reznor is no stranger to speaking his mind, personally and politically, in both his music and in the media. However, past feuds with the likes of Fred Durst and Courtney Love have fallen by the wayside, as Reznor voiced his opinions on the American presidential candidates.
The Oscar-Winning composer has teamed up with Leonard DiCaprio and post-rock icons Mogwai, to work on global warming documentary Before the Flood, and was outraged by the topic being “so politicised—and the repulsive climate that’s emerged […] it’s alarming to see society devolve in a lot of ways” as a result of Trump’s widened mainstream exposure.
Reznor discussed the difficulty he and the film’s creators- including director Fisher Stevens and executive producer Martin Scorsese- faced in convincing and publicising the consequences of climate change, blaming “the fossil-fuel industry and the Republican agenda” claiming that they had “done a masterful job of polarising elements of the country” and rounding on their elected leader.
Reznor did initially concede that he was “entertained during the Republican debates” earlier in the political cycle, but that the entire situation was now “absurd” and “stopped being funny months ago.” Reznor also disclosed his long-term fears for the political landscape of America, even if he doesn’t win the election, due to the mogul-turned-presidential candidate’s “awful lot of very energised followers” and worrying that the more environmentally conscious Hilary Clinton would be “walking into a terrible situation.” Due to the seemingly unshakeable loyalty that Trump’s followers have to him.
The Nine Inch Nails frontman joins an increasingly long list of musicians to speak out against Trump, with the likes of Franz Ferdinand and Death Cab for Cutie, being driven to release their own protest songs, as part of the ’30 Days, 30 Songs’ project, releasing a new protest song against Trump every day for a month.
As well as Before the Flood, Reznor is also confirmed to be scoring Boston Marathon Bombing biopic Patriots Day, with long term musical collaborator Atticus Ross. With regard to the rumoured recording of a ninth Nine Inch Nails album “I am working on music right now, that’s all I can say!” This lack of confirmation may disappoint some expectant fans, following the claims made by Reznor on Twitter in late 2015.
New NIN coming in 2016. Other stuff, too.
— Trent Reznor (@trent_reznor) December 18, 2015
This was the first murmur of new NIN work since 2013’s Hesitation Marks, but ‘other stuff’ could also allude to the aforementioned film scores, or even a potential new How to Destroy Angels project, featuring Reznor’s wife Mariqueen Maandig, as well as Ross and frequent collaborator Rob Sheridan.
