UTTERMEDIA

Trent make toilets. Reznor make air conditioning units. You may or may not know this. You may or may not know Trent Reznor. Chances are, you’ve heard of him recently.

David Fincher, probably best known for Fight Club, and best forgotten for Alien 3, called upon Trent Reznor to pen an original score for Facebook movie, The Social Network. Once frontman of industrial pioneers Nine Inch Nails, his more recent works saw strong collaboration with Atticus Ross, a British-born producer.

A film based on the modern phenomenon of social networking with a dozen blasé references to coding and programming was certain to have a fairly technically meticulous soundtrack. Reznor is no stranger to this. Once a straggly long-haired goth, frontman to a camp industrial band, his roster matured slowly but surely with a somewhat techie approach to recording, utilising live instruments and convoluted effects through pedals, filters and pre-amps.

Since Nine Inch Nails released “The Fragile” in 1999, it isn’t unusual to hear instrumental soundscapes reaching 6 or 7 minutes per track. Perfect OST material, which was only really properly realised with Tony Scott’s “Man On Fire” and Zack Snyder’s “300”.

Reznor has (in my mind) created perfect overtures for all those movies you write in your head whilst on the bus, in bed, or just day dreaming. Clear highs and rumbling lows, it seemed criminal that only a handful of producers had sourced his music for scenes. Renowned artists such as Clint Mansell and Philip Glass have been masters at this craft for some time, so it’s perhaps a difficult accolade to pinch. This is the difference between scores and soundtracks; a score has to be just right, just perfect, to fit. A soundtrack just needs to evoke basic emotions. It’s fairly easy to chuck Sum 41 over a frat party scene in any early ’00s movie.

Some of the tracks on The Social Networks score are from NIN’s “Ghosts I-IV”, released a few years ago. I didn’t know they were in the film until I saw the film. But it soon became apparent that the earlier work was an automatic “audition” for the job. The track in question, with eastern plucky guitar riffs, fitted just perfectly into the oriental restaurant scene. A match made in Chinatown.

Reznor’s dark history is still fondly apparent in his instrumental work. The harsh scratchy guitars and pounding beats are long gone, but the twisted melodies and unusual flat harmonies are still clear. Apply this to an upbeat drumtrack, and you have the perfect accompaniment to young people getting drunk and getting rich. Music to feel cool to.

Facebook, Nine Inch Nails, Napster… none of them wanted to get rich. Zuckerberg didn’t care for ads. He just wanted adds. Trent Reznor didn’t care for money. He just wanted to make music. Sean Parker created Napster and changed the face of the music industry, forcing artists and labels to become bitter or better. Nine Inch Nails felt the pressure too, and evolved. 

Around the time of Ghosts I-IV, NIN also released “The Slip”; an album available free, for £5, for £10 or for £50. How much do you pay? That’s your choice. A short amount of Googling will unearth Reznor’s new-age approach to acquiring digital media, similar to the techniques of Thom Yorke and Radiohead. Soon after, NIN launched remix.nin.com, a user-submission website where fans can upload remixes from original band multitracks. 

All of the above ties in a nice parallel with Facebook; user-submitted content. The users make the choices and create the content. The creator just provides the tools and the platform.

Perhaps if a hugely successful musician (no discredit to Reznor) had scored The Social Network, things would have turned out differently. For one, Reznor is largely still unheard of – he’s a ‘blank’ to most people. They have nothing to reference him to or to base him on, nothing to skew their opinion. Secondly, he’s been gently honing his own skills out of the public limelight with relatively successful albums and tours notching up his discography whilst the rest of the world are unaware. Underground is the only way to really describe it, the same way that ‘The Facebook’ began, things start in bedrooms, back rooms, and make-shift studios.

Facebook is all about socialising, which in a sense is ironic, as you are confined to your computer more often than not when you are using it. Sure, you can use a mobile device or smartphone, but it’s still an individual experience in engaging with others. The early angsty and bleak NIN material was all about isolation, and I for one can imagine Reznor holed up in a dark room, “programming” until the early hours, much like Zuckerberg. And now, suddenly, Facebook is huge, and so is Reznor.

Two very awkward but very talented gentlemen coming into their own and finding their calling. Once, Trevor Reznik in cult movie “The Machinist” was the only sly reference to Nine Inch Nails in film. Now, two entrepreneurs coincide in a way that neither would ever have expected. I like this.