NIN Biography



Micheal Trent Reznor was born in Mercer, PA. Reznor began his musical journey at the early age of 5 years old, when he started playing the piano. His parents divorced that same year so Reznor was raised by his maternal grandparents. Later he learned how to play the tuba and the saxophone.

The first band he joined called themselves, "Option 30". Trent studied computer engineering at Allegheny College. After that, Reznor moved to Cleveland, where he played in a lot of groups, including "Problems", which achieved small-time fame with by performing "True Love Ways" in the film "Light of Day". But Reznor was looking for something more adventurous than Problems' plain hard rock, and by the summer of 1988 he had "formed" Nine Inch Nails, to explore the industrial and techno scenes.

Reznor did nearly all of the writing, performing, and producing on "Pretty Hate Machine" himself. Reznor brought in other musicians only when needed or to tour. NIN played gigs supporting, the Jesus & Mary Chain, Skinny Puppy, and Peter Murphy. In the early 1990's, the song "Head Like A Hole", off of "Pretty Hate Machine" was giving nine inch nails commercial exposure. The album stayed on the Billboard charts for more than two years. NIN was also the top T-shirt-seller on the first Lollapalooza tour in 1991.

The next NIN release was held up in a legal battle with NIN's record label at the time, TVT. Nevertheless, Reznor and manager John Malm started their own label, Nothing Records in 1992, and began signing bands, including Prick, Pop Will Eat Itself, and most notorious, Marilyn Manson. NIN did release an EP called "Broken", during the fall of 1992, which earned Reznor his first Grammy, The song "wish" won Reznor his first grammy for Best Metal Performance. Reznor, TVT, and Interscope (which had signed a deal to distribute the Nothing label) eventually came to an agreement that allowed Reznor and Nothing to move on while TVT kept a financial interest in future NIN albums.

In the spring of 1994, NIN released their second album titled "The Downward Spiral".The album took Trent Reznor out of the underground and pushed him into the pop mainstream. The album was recorded in the Los Angeles house where Charles Manson's followers murdered actress Sharon Tate. It debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Top 200 album charts. Reznor wound up on the cover of Rolling Stone. The band appeared at Woodstock '94 and the show was described as a mud drenched, awesome show. Trent Reznor was quoted saying this about the success, "Although we've become a fairly big band, it's been done outside the channels of the mainstream media. I really feel like I've done things on my own terms."

After the whole Downward Spiral thing, Reznor helped produce the soundtrack for Oliver Stone's film, "Natural Born Killers", (including the NIN tracks "Something I Can Never Have" and "Burn"). Reznor also had a short-lived affair in 1995 with Courtney Love, Hole frontwoman and Kurt Cobain's widow. And finally, Reznor's last project, "The Fragile", was released sometime in September of 1999. Damn, can't believe it's been that long. I, personally bought it the day after it's release. "Things Falling Apart" has also been released.