Post punk pop polymath Gary Numan has told The Quietus that he and Nine Inch Nails mainman Trent Reznor are likely to be heading into the studio to write some material together.
Asked if a recorded collaboration was on the cards, Numan said "Yes. I know he wants to carry on doing music things. We went out a few days after [the LA gigs] with a few other people and the way he puts it is when the dust settles – I think he means his marriage – but I think he’s going to be pretty busy for a while, so it’ll either be later this year or early next."
Will it be a Trent Raznor and Gary Numan album or just a few songs? "Probably just a few songs to start with and see how it goes on. It’ll be cool"
Numan also said that his recent live appearances at Nine Inch Nails’ final London gigs at the O2 were a "fantastic experience", though the band weren’t exactly like he expected: "For some reason, I don’t know why, I just thought it would be a different atmosphere to what it was. And what it was was just really warm and friendly, and Nine Inch Nails and warm and friendly don’t necessarily go together! I should have known better. Everyone was great, the crew, the band, everybody, they made me feel really welcome. It was a fantastic experience, I was riding on that for a bit."
The cherry on the icing on the cake, though, came when he headed to the States for NIN’s very last gigs in LA: "Trent invited me over to Los Angeles, which was fantastic though it took a bit of organising because of the kids and stuff. They made it a much bigger thing, instead of one of two songs it was now more songs, and we’d do different sets each night. Other guests were coming on too, Janes’ Addiction, Mike Garson from Bowie’s band, they were playing bits from my songs! At one point I had Janes’ Addiction, Mike Garson and Nine Inch Nails playing my stuff and Trent Reznor doing backing vocals, it was amazing. It was quite a historic thing, these were their final shows.
"Trent on the last night stopped it at one point and went to the mic and did this really lovely little speech about me and how important I was and I was just standing there trying not to… you don’t want to be really really humble, because it looks as if you don’t appreciate it, and you don’t want to be going ‘oh yes’ because it looks like your full of yourself. It was really awkward."
Check the Quietus soon for a feature on The Pleasure Principle and a Things I Have Learned piece with the Nume on flying.
