Frogtoon Music

The Fragile (Album) by Nine Inch Nails

Artist Biography For Nine Inch Nails

Nine Inch Nails Commonly Abbreviated As NIN Stylized As NIИ Is An American Industrial Rock Band Formed In 1988 In Cleveland Ohio. Singer Songwriter Multi-Instrumentalist And Producer Trent Reznor Was The Only Permanent Member Of The Band Until The Official Addition Of English Musician Atticus Ross In 2016. Reznor Chose The Name "Nine Inch Nails" Because It "abbreviated Easily" Rather Than For "any Literal Meaning". Other Rumored Explanations Have Circulated Alleging That Reznor Chose To Reference Jesus' Crucifixion With Nine-Inch Spikes   Or Freddy Krueger's Nine-Inch Fingernails. The Nine Inch Nails Logo First Appeared On The Music Video For Their Debut Single "Down In It". Reznor And Gary Talpas Designed The Logo Inspired By Tibor Kalman's Typography On The Talking Heads Album Remain In Light. The Logo Features The Band's Initials With The Second N Mirrored. Talpas A Native Of Cleveland Continued To Design Nine Inch Nails Packaging Until 1997. The Band's Debut Album Pretty Hate Machine 1989 Was Released Via TVT Records. After Disagreeing With TVT About How To Promote The Album The Band Signed With Interscope Records And Released The EP Broken 1992 . The Following Albums The Downward Spiral 1994 And The Fragile 1999 Were Released To Critical Acclaim And Commercial Success. Following A Hiatus Nine Inch Nails Resumed Touring In 2005 And Released The Album With Teeth 2005 . Following The Release Of The Album Year Zero 2007 The Band Left Interscope After A Feud. Nine Inch Nails Continued Touring And Independently Released Ghosts I–IV 2008 And The Slip 2008 Before A Second Hiatus. Their Eighth Album Hesitation Marks 2013 Was Followed By A Trilogy Which Consisted Of The EPs Not The Actual Events 2016 And Add Violence 2017 And Their Ninth Album Bad Witch 2018 . In 2020 Nine Inch Nails Simultaneously Released Two Further Installments In The Ghosts Series Ghosts V Together And Ghosts VI Locusts. When Touring Reznor Typically Assembles A Live Band To Perform With Him Under The Nine Inch Nails Name. This Live Band Has Varied Over The Decades With Various Members Leaving And Returning The Most Recent Lineup Consists Of Robin Finck Who Initially Joined In 1994 Alessandro Cortini Who Initially Joined In 2005 And Ilan Rubin Who Initially Joined In 2009 Alongside Reznor And Ross. The Band's Concerts Are Noted For Their Extensive Use Of Thematic Visual Elements Complex Special Effects And Elaborate Lighting. Songs Are Often Rearranged To Fit Any Given Performance And Melodies Or Lyrics Of Songs That Are Not Scheduled To Be Performed Are Sometimes Assimilated Into Other Songs.
Nine Inch Nails As A Live Band Is Generally Understood To Be A Separate Entity From Its Recording Studio-Based Component. Occasionally Past Band Members Are Invited To Participate In The Process When Not Directly Involved With Recording New Material Nine Inch Nails' Lineup Tends To Change Drastically Between Major Tours. Aside From Trent Reznor Remaining On Lead Vocals Nothing About The Live Band Has Remained Constant Since Its Inception. Reznor Cited The Long Gestation Period Between Studio Albums As Part Of The Reason For These Frequent Personnel Changes. Nine Inch Nails Have Sold Over 20 Million Records And Been Nominated For 13 Grammy Awards Winning For The Songs "Wish" In 1992 And "Happiness In Slavery" In 1996. Time Magazine Named Reznor One Of Its Most Influential People In 1997 While Spin Magazine Has Described Him As "the Most Vital Artist In Music". In 2004 Rolling Stone Placed Nine Inch Nails At No. 94 On Its List Of The 100 Greatest Artists Of All Time. Nine Inch Nails Were Inducted Into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame In 2020 After Being Nominated In 2014 Their First Year Of Eligibility And Again In 2015. Music And Lyrics Nine Inch Nails Has Been Described As Incorporating Alternative Rock Industrial Rock Industrial Dance Industrial Electro-Industrial Industrial Metal Electronic Rock And Alternative Metal. AllMusic's Steve Huey States That "Nine Inch Nails Were The Most Popular Industrial Group Ever And Were Largely Responsible For Bringing The Music To A Mass Audience". Reznor Has Never Referred To His Own Work As Industrial Music But Admits To Borrowing Techniques From Such Early Industrial Bands As Throbbing Gristle And Test Dept. Despite The Disparity Between Those Artists Initially Operating Under The Term "industrial" And Nine Inch Nails It Has Become Common In Journalistic Descriptions Of Reznor's Body Of Work To Describe It As Such. Reznor Acknowledged In Spin Magazine That "Down In It" Was Influenced By Early Skinny Puppy Particularly The Band's Song "Dig It" Other Songs From Pretty Hate Machine And With Teeth Have Been Described As Synth-Pop. Reviewing The Fragile Critic Steve Cooper Noted That The Album Juxtaposes Widely Varied Genres Such As Solo Piano In "The Frail" And Drum And Bass Elements In "Starfuckers Inc." Ambient Music Has Been Featured In Some Of Nine Inch Nails' Music Including On Ghosts I–IV Which Is Specifically Dark Ambient Hesitation Marks The Downward Spiral The Slip And The Fragile. Songs Such As "Wish" And "The Day The World Went Away" Exhibit Terraced Dynamics. Reznor's Singing Follows A Similar Pattern Frequently Moving From Whispers To Screams. He Also Has Used Software To Alter His Voice In Several Songs As Evident In "Starfuckers Inc." And "Burn". The Band's Music Also Occasionally Contains Complex Time Signatures Notably In "The Collector" From With Teeth And Concert Favorite "March Of The Pigs". Reznor Uses Noise And Distortion In His Song Arrangements And Incorporates Dissonance With Chromatic Melody And/or Harmony. These Techniques Are All Used In The Song "Hurt" Which Contains A Highly Dissonant Tritone Played On Guitar During The Verses A B5#11 Emphasized When Reznor Sings The Eleventh Note On The Word "I" Every Time The B/E# Dyad Is Played. "Closer" Concludes With A Chromatic Piano Motif The Melody Is Debuted During The Second Verse Of "Piggy" On Organ Then Reappears In Power Chords At Drop D Tuning Throughout The Chorus Of "Heresy" While An Inverted Ascending Version Is Used Throughout "A Warm Place" And Then Recurs In Its Original State For The Final Time On "The Downward Spiral". On The Fragile Reznor Revisits The Technique Of Repeating A Motif Multiple Times Throughout Different Songs Either On A Different Musical Instrument With A Transposed Harmony Or In An Altered Tempo. Many Of The Songs On Year Zero Contain An Extended Instrumental Ending Which Encompasses The Entire Second Half Of The Three-Minute Long "The Great Destroyer". AllMusic's Review Described The Album's Laptop-Mixed Sound "Guitars Squall Against Glitches Beeps Pops And Blotches Of Blurry Sonic Attacks. Percussion Looms Large Distorted Organic Looped Screwed Spindled And Broken." Lyrical Themes Found In Nine Inch Nails Songs Are Largely Concerned With Dark Explorations Of The Self Ranging From Religion Greed Fame Lust Addiction Self-Deception Aging Regret And Nihilism. Occasionally The Lyrics Depart From Their Introspective Nature To Deal With A Topic Like Politics Which Is The Focus Of Year Zero. Three Nine Inch Nails Albums Are Concept Albums The Downward Spiral The Fragile And Year Zero. The Album With Teeth Was Originally Set To Be A Concept Album About An Endless Dream Occurring In Reality But Reznor Eventually Took This Idea Out Of The Record. Influences Nine Inch Nails' Earliest Influence Was The Punk Rock Band The Clash Reznor Stated That He Started Out Trying To Directly Imitate Them Only To Abandon That Direction Due To His Lack Of A Political Message. Other Early Influences Include Ministry And Skinny Puppy Which Helped Shape 1989's Pretty Hate Machine. The Album's Liner Notes Also Paid Tribute To Public Enemy And Prince. Another Large Influence On The Band's Sound Is Gary Numan Which Is Evident As Reznor Once Said That "after Hearing 'Cars' I Knew I Wanted To Make Music With Synthesizers". The 2005 Single "Only" Exemplifies The Disco-Style Beats And Synthesizers Drawn From Numan's Persuasion. Other Artists Of Significance To Nine Inch Nails Include Acts Such As Depeche Mode Queen King Crimson Devo The Cure Joy Division U2 Bauhaus Adam Ant Coil And Soft Cell. Reznor Has Toured With Some Of His Influences Including A Brief Tour Opening For Skinny Puppy In 1988. In 1995 Nine Inch Nails Went On Tour With David Bowie Who Along With Pink Floyd Had Been A Significant Influence On The Downward Spiral. In 2006 Nine Inch Nails Went On Tour With Bauhaus On Their Summer Amphitheatre Tour. Legacy Nine Inch Nails Has Influenced Many Newer Artists Which According To Reznor Range From "generic Imitations" Dating From His Initial Success To Younger Bands Echoing His Style In A "truer Less Imitative Way". Following The Release Of The Downward Spiral Mainstream Artists Began To Take Notice Of Nine Inch Nails' Influence David Bowie Compared Reznor's Impact To That Of The Velvet Underground. Guns N' Roses Singer Axl Rose Was Influenced Heavily By Nine Inch Nails In Changing His Band's Sound To An Industrial Style In The Mid-90's. Bob Ezrin Producer For Pink Floyd Kiss Alice Cooper And Peter Gabriel Described Reznor In 2007 As A "true Visionary" And Advised Aspiring Artists To Take Note Of His No-Compromise Attitude. Nine Inch Nails Has Been Credited By Music Journalists For Popularizing Industrial Music Despite Ambivalence From Reznor. The Act Has Received Four Awards From 25 Nominations Including Two Grammy Awards For The Songs "Wish" And "Happiness In Slavery" In 1993 And 1996 Respectively. Nine Inch Nails Have Received Two Kerrang! Awards One Of Them Being The Kerrang! Icon In 2006 Honoring The Band's Overall Contributions Since 1988 And Long-Standing Influence On Rock Music. The Band Has Also Received Nine Nominations From The MTV Video Music Awards For Several Of Its Videos Including Two Nominations For The "Closer" Music Video And Five Nominations For "The Perfect Drug" Music Video Including Video Of The Year. In 1997 Reznor Appeared In Time Magazine's List Of The Year's Most Influential People And Spin Described Him As "the Most Vital Artist In Music". The Recording Industry Association Of America Certified Sales For 10.5 Million Units Of The Band's Albums In The United States Which Accounted For Roughly Half Of The Band's Reported Sales Worldwide At That Time. In 2003 Rolling Stone Magazine Placed The Downward Spiral At No. 200 In A 2003 List Of The 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time And By The Following Year Ranked Nine Inch Nails At No. 94 In Their The 100 Greatest Artists Of All Time List. In 2019 Reznor And Ross Received Songwriting And Production Credits For The Number-One Single "Old Town Road" By Lil Nas X Which Sampled Their Track "34 Ghosts IV" From Ghosts I–IV. "Old Town Road" Broke The Record For Most Consecutive Weeks At Number One On The Billboard Hot 100. As Producers For The Song Reznor And Ross Won A CMA Award For The 'Musical Event Of The Year' Along With Lil Nas X Featured Artist Billy Ray Cyrus And Producer YoungKio. In January 2020 After Previous Nominations In 2014 And 2015 Nine Inch Nails Alessandro Cortini Robin Finck Danny Lohner Trent Reznor Atticus Ross Ilan Rubin And Chris Vrenna Were Named As Inductees Of The 2020 Class Of The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. Official Members Official Members
Trent Reznor – Lead And Backing Vocals Guitars Bass Keyboards Synthesizers Saxophone Piano Programming Drums Percussion 1988–present Atticus Ross – Keyboards Synthesizers Programming Bass Backing Vocals 2016–present Additional Touring Lineup
Robin Finck – Guitars Synthesizers Keyboards Lap Steel Violin Backing Vocals 1994–1996 1999–2000 2008–2009 2013–present Alessandro Cortini – Bass Keyboards Synthesizers Guitars Backing Vocals 2005–2008 2013–present Ilan Rubin – Drums Percussion Bass Guitars Cello Keyboards Backing Vocals 2008–2009 2013–present Key Former Members
Chris Vrenna – Drums Percussion Keyboards Samplers 1988–1990 1992–1997 Richard Patrick – Guitars Backing Vocals 1989–1993 Jeff Ward – Drums 1990–1991 Died 1993 James Woolley – Keyboards Synthesizers Programming Backing Vocals 1991–1994 Died 2016 Danny Lohner – Bass Guitars Synthesizers Backing Vocals 1993–2003 Charlie Clouser – Keyboards Synthesizers Theremin Percussion Programming Backing Vocals 1994–2001 Jerome Dillon – Drums Guitars 1999–2005 Jeordie White A.K.A. Twiggy Ramirez – Bass Guitars Backing Vocals 2005–2007 Aaron North – Guitars Backing Vocals 2005–2007 Josh Freese – Drums Marimba 2005 2005–2008 Justin Meldal-Johnsen – Bass Backing Vocals 2008–2009

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Frogtoon Music Album Info: The Fragile

The Fragile Also Known As Halo 14 Released On September 21 1999 Is The Fourth Studio Album By Nine Inch Nails. The Album Features A Rich Array Of Electronic Beats Ambient Noise And Heavy Guitar. While It Received Critical Acclaim From Many It Did Not Receive The Commercial Success That Its Predecessor The Downward Spiral Did Attributed Variously To The Difference In Musical Climate And Insufficient Promotion By Interscope Records .
Prior To Its Release The Single The Day The World Went Away Came Out On July 20 Following The Fragile We're In This Together Was Released In Three Parts On December 14. A Collection Featuring Several Remixes And New Material From The Fragile Was Released As Things Falling Apart On November 21 2000. Reznor Described The Fragile In A 1999 Interview "There's A General Theme To The Album Of Systems Failing And Things Sort Of Falling Apart. In Keeping With The Idea Of Making Everything Sound A Little Broken I Chose Stringed Instruments Because They're Imperfect By Nature. Although It May Not Sound Like It Most Of The Album Is Actually Guitar - And That Includes The Orchestral Sounds And Weird Melodic Lines. When It Came To Instruments That I Didn't Really Know How To Play - Like The Ukulele Or The Slide Guitar - We Were Able To Get Some Really Interesting Sounds By Making The Studio The Main Instrument."
In Terms Of Narrative The Album Is An Unofficial Continuation Of The Downward Spiral. Reznor Compares The Lyrical Content Of The Two Albums "I Wanted This Album To Sound Like There Was Something Inherently Flawed In The Situation Like Someone Struggling To Put The Pieces Together. Downward Spiral Was About Peeling Off Layers And Arriving At A Naked Ugly End. This Album Starts At The End Then Attempts To Create Order From Chaos But Never Reaches The Goal. It’s Probably A Bleaker Album Because It Arrives Back Where It Starts — The Same Emotion. The Album Begins "Somewhat Damaged" And Ends "Ripe With Decay "." In One Interview Alan Moulder Stated That The Album Started Out With 173 Different Pieces Or Musical Ideas And The Cover Of Gary Numan's "Metal" Had Been Completed When The Album Sessions Began. He Also Stated In A Different Interview That 120 Songs Were Recorded So It Is Likely That Some Of The 173 Pieces Were Merely Seeds Of Inspiration That Were Never Developed Into Anything Usable. The Orginal Large Amount Of Song Ideas Was Evidently Whittled Down Before They Even Reached The Demo Stage As Reznor Stated In A 2000 Interview That He Demoed 47 Songs Which He Then Chose From When Deciding Which Ones To Write Lyrics For.
During A Podcast With Skinny Puppy's CEvin Key Danny Lohner Revealed That Reznor Was Inspired By Tom Waits' Bone Machine When Making The Fragile And That "Somewhat Damaged" Was Written And Originally Demoed Around The Time Of "The Perfect Drug". Bone Machine's Use Of Harry Partch-Style Found Object Percussion Influenced The Unique Percussion On Certain Parts Of The Album.
Reznor Stated In An Interview With Guitar World That My Bloody Valentine And Their Album Loveless Also Produced By Moulder Were Influences During The Recording. He Also Revealed That The Majority Of The Guitar Sounds On The Album Were Played On A Parker Fly Guitar Utilizing Its Piezo Pickup. This Guitar Sound Was Also Likely Used On "The Perfect Drug" And Later Showed Up On Some Tracks From With Teeth. Alan Moulder Wrote For The Fragility Tour Program About The Songwriting Process "I Got Involved Pretty Early On. Trent Had One Song Written And About 15 Demos. He Also Had About Sixty 'bits ' Varying From A Riff Or Noise Loop To A More Evolved Drum Pattern With A Bass Or Guitar Line. We Sorted Through These And Decided Which Ones To Work On. Sometimes We Combined Drums From One Piece With A Guitar Loop From Another And A Piano Piece From Another To Make One New Track.
We Also Started A Lot Of Tracks From Scratch. This Is Unusual As I Am Normally Brought In At A Later Stage When The Songs Have Been Written. It Was Great To Be Involved From The 'blank Canvas' Stage. We Would Go Through The Tracks And Pick One To Work On. Then We'd Spend A Couple Of Days Evolving That And Messing Around With The Structure Adding New Sections And Instrumentation.
Because There Was So Much Material To Work On We Never Labored Over Anything Taking The Attitude That If Something Wasn't Happening Or We'd Reached A Block We Would Move On To The Next Track. We Wouldn't Listen Back To What We Had Done To The Tracks For Weeks. Because We Had Been Working Quickly And Constantly Moving On Listening Back Later To What We Had Done Was Always A Surprise. We Quite Often Had Forgotten What We Had Done. Every Time We Listened Back We Got Excited As It Was Always A Lot Better Than We Remembered. We Would Carry On Doing That And Some Tracks Would Get Eliminated As We Went On Until Trent Had Vocal Ideas And Lyrics. These Songs Would Be Completed And Not Listened To For A Couple Of Weeks To See If The Ideas Stood The Test Of Time. If We Were Happy We Would Start To Mix The Song Adding And Refining....Even Lengthening Or Changing The Structure As We Mixed.
As My Time On The Album Spanned Over 2 Years It Is Difficult To Describe A Typical Day Since That Varied As We Progressed. At The Beginning Though There Were Different Types Of Days Depending On How Trent Was Feeling. At This Stage A Lot Of Time Was Spent Writing And Creating Songs. Obviously It Is Impossible For Anybody To Be In Songwriting Mode Every Day Without Going Stale. So To Keep Creativity Up And Vary Things A Little We Would Have 'Art Days ' As They Were Referred To. This Would Involve Forgetting About Being Tied Down To Creating Within The Usual 'song' Structure And Trent Would Do Anything That His Mood Took. Good Examples Of Some Things That Came Out Of That Way Of Working Was "La Mer" And "The Day The World Went Away".
Other Days If Trent Didn't Feel Like Writing We Would Have 'Sound Creating' Days. This Could Involve Starting The Day Off With A Shopping Trip To A Music Shop. One Time We Decided To Make Unusual Percussion Tracks. We Went And Bought Lots Of Percussion Instruments The Stranger The Better. Then Back At The Studio These Were Put In A Room With Other Things Such As Boxes Road Signs Trash Cans Water Bottles Spades And Badly Tuned Drums. Trent Would Then Hit Whatever Took His Fancy And Would Make A Rhythm Out Of It. We Got Lots Of Great Rhythm Tracks From This That Songs Were Written On Top Of For Example "The Fragile" And "I'm Looking Forward To Joining You Finally"."