A few weeks ago, Trent sat for a crowdsourced interview with Digg’s Kevin Rose. It looked like a success, but (surprise) NIN fanboys weren’t satisfied with the questions. Never one to shy away from interacting with his followers, Trent agreed to answer ten more questions direct from his fan forum (via TwentyFourBit.). The interview was conducted via webcam from the musician’s hotel room in Florida. The first question (Will NIN ever play “Lights In The Sky” live?) leads to the spoiler that there will be no “Closer” on the NIN|JA tour. The followup has to do with unreleased material, and that gives Trent an opportunity to dis Prince and Rivers Cuomo.
“I’m not Prince or Rivers Cuomo who brags about having hundreds of great songs. And to that I would say, Prince, if you have a hundred great songs or a thousand, how about picking a few and putting them on your record that you’ve put out because your last several have sucked. Same for you, Rivers. I say that constructively, you know.”
Jokes Trent afterward, “I may be happy and engaged, but I can still be a prick.” (Good thing he wasn’t asked about Chris Cornell.) More insightful Q&A follows (“I’m trying not to become a parody of myself… I’ve watched my peers spin off into doing stupid shit to try desperately stay relevant or try to catch in…”) so watch the whole thing below:
The NIN|JA tour kicks off Friday in West Palm Beach (dates here). Trent just gave away some tickets via Twitter, and he’ll do it again tomorrow.
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O TRENT!
Wait, the Red Album only had ten songs. Most of them were terrible, but still, unless he’s counting Alone and the other B-Side releases, it shouldn’t count.
Um, how’s that again? 10 songs isn’t an album?
I haven’t heard Rivers brag about hundreds of great songs in his catalog.
Prince is understandable because of fucking LotusFlower or whatever the shit, with 50 songs or something, but 10 =! a lot.
This guy is everywhere, stop it already. It is irritating enough reading digg and seeing news about this guy every day just cos he think he is some kind of a “revolutionary” in music. lol
finally! a posting about NIN. I was starting to think we weren’t going to get one this hour. thanks NINgum!
As a huge fan of NIN, it’s ridiculous to say but I miss the years after “The Fragile” when no one knew what the fuck Trent was doing.
trent is a machine. i guess being sober really does wonders.
I agree wholeheartedly about Rivers Cuomo tendency to pick awful track listings for albums. Just listen to Miss Sweeney, Pig, Everybody Wants I Chance To Feel All Alone, Listen Up, Lover In The Snow, Longtime Sunshine, or any other number of awesome songs that he left off of albums. He still writes great music, but he just doesn’t release it usually.
That being said, he never said that he has 100′s of great songs, so I don’t know where that came from. Also, maybe I just don’t get it, but I never really liked NIN, so I don’t really think that he can talk.
I definitely remember reading an interview with Rivers right around the time of ‘Make Believe’, Rivers claimed to have written at least four or five songs a day for months on end during in between the ‘Green Album’ and ‘Maladroit’.
This page is a list of all the songs Rivers has mentioned recording over the years:
http://www.weezed.com/rc/old/indexx.html
Yeah man. When was doing that whole Havard thing he said he had at least 375 songs on his laptop. Everything since Pinkerton has blown anyways.
i was in every butthole
If only you knew what you were talking about……Pork And Beans,Everybody Get Dangerous and Greatest Man are only 3 of the awesome tunes on the red album.
Perhaps if you knew what was involved with making a great record,i would allow you to get away with that comment,but you soooooo don’t!
Months of songwriting and playing/perfecting the arrangements of the songs,weeks of rehearsing/recording them with amazing engineers and producers… i suppose you think these people just sit around all day doing bongs and occasionally knock out a tune when they can be bothered…?
Go play your Mika and Calvin Harris cd’s dude,and leave the deep ironic and intelligent music to people like me XXX
Wow, you think Everybody Get Dangerous is better than The Angel & The One? You’ve got pretty good taste, man.
How is that Trent has become, like, the coolest fucking guy in rock? Seriously, out of any rock star of that magnitude, he’s one of the few that actually seems like a real guy that I’d like to hang with.
zik-
You mean the years he spent being an unproductive, shut-in alcoholic? Well, I guess he did put out the song “Deep” on the Tomb Raider soundtrack.
Um, yeah those years were great….
46:50 = record executives round the world, “damnit! Now, what are we gonna do. First, Radiohead. Now…this too?”
trent reznor still makes music?
Just think, Rivers Cuomo could have made this the third Weezer album……….
1. Blast Off
2. Troublemaker
3. Lover in the Snow
4. Pork & Beans
5. Longtime Sunshine
6. Crazy One
7. Angel & the One
8. I want to take you home tonight
9. I can’t stop partying
10. Superfriend
11. I was made for you
12. The Greatest man that ever lived
That would have been an absolute classic album and would have fit nicely with both the blue album and pinkerton.
sorry Trent but Pinkerton > The Downward Spiral
MY mom’s hotter than YOUR mom
Actually, that’s a pretty close call… I’m not sure where I stand on that.
Actually, that’s a pretty close call… I’m not sure where I stand on that.
I can tell you that Weezer’s self-titled is better than “Pinkerton”, though.
trent reznor isn’t one to talk, his last few albums have been pretty bland.
and i’m not saying the ones before those didn’t suck.
its like watching your best friend grow up a bit, i love it.
i am going to miss seeing nin, but it is time. now if people next to me at the show can get the lyrics right ill be right as rain.
Why isn’t anyone defending Prince? I mean… I’m not going to, but someone really should. I’m only reading the latest “Wacky Trent” update because the headline said he dissed Prince. Rivers wasn’t even mentioned, but that’s what seems to have struck a nerve.
I think that all the NIN fanboys and all the Weezer/Rivers fanboys should just duke it out Anchorman-style.
I’d love to defend Prince , but a statement was released that he would personally delete and enfoce a copywite infringment lawsuit upon any bloggers who defend him.
“I’m trying not to become a parody of myself..”
and yet here you are.
but what does Billy Corgan have to say about all this??
i’m still unclear as to why Trent would pick out Prince or Rivers Cuomo to pick on
billy corgan is now updating his manifesto…expected to exceed 32 pages … with an index
I’m all about Weezer, but yeah, his Rivers comment is dead on. The stuff on the Alone albums is great, but remember all the demos Weezer would host on their site after the Green album and after Maladroit? Those were mostly solid tracks that destroyed the stuff that ended up on Make Believe and the Red album.
Dude, are you joking? You think the best lyrics are coming from fucking WEEZER? I think you should aptly remove your head from your asshole. Fucking prick douchebag….
Trent loves The Horrors and he should- their new album is incredible.
No one disses Mr. Cuomo and gets away with it!
first apple, now weezer guy AND prince? trent reznor must have an anger quota to fill this week
Trent should have replaced the words “Rivers Cuomo” and “Prince” with “Billy Corgan” and “Billy Corgan’s Space Godzilla Ego.”
This post would’ve made more sense that way.
Sorry to waffle from the snarky narrative, but toward the end of the interview Reznor states that he used to want to work with Prince and he thinks he?s a genius. I don?t think his criticism of Prince was calculated ? just a ?thinking out loud? sort-of-thing. I?m sure everyone here grips, in passing, about artists/bands they dig.
No, I never do that. I’m always fully aware of how my fans will interpret my rants.
O, dear Trent, always causing controversy and taking everyone off the bubble….
I prefer Rolling Stone. At least even Trent’s die-hard fans over there acknowledge he’s being an a-hole for no reason. Over here, no one’s allowed to diss precious Trentie.
Trent Reznor keeps writing variations on the same depressing theme and he?s been a bore for some time. ?Pretty Hate Machine? has a song Reznor stole from Skinny Puppy and ?The Downward Spiral? doesn?t have the any staying power. Most of his cds only sell to his hard-core fans. Reznor shouldn?t be complaining about the quality of other peoples? music. I?m not wild about any of NIN?s work and I wrote Reznor off long ago. Maybe instead of griping about other musician?s efforts, Reznor should be more concerned about his own one-dimensional music.
While I agree with Trent that Prince is lost in the fog of his prolific nuttiness, and while I think Trent is a serious pop visionary, he ultimately doesn’t belong in the same sentence with Prince when it comes to classic tunes, overall output and influence, raw genius, etc. Rivers is a more apt comparison to Trent. They’re both great, but Prince is playing a whole different sport than either of them.
I dig NIN, some Weezer, and Prince. But truth be told … I haven’t bought a Prince album since “Rainbow Children” — never bought a Weezer album — but I have bought a couple of NIN albums and really like How to Destroy and Angel. I do agree with Jonah though — Prince may play some bunk music — like this lame “Hot Summer” track — but he has earned a position as a pop marvel. Prince has three masterpiece albums: “Sign o’ the Times”, “1999″ and “Purple Rain” — and a boatload of great singles. Plus, I saw a Prince show where he dry-humped on top of a 10-foot speaker. What’s better than that?