Speaking to the Quietus, Trent Reznor has said that his recent work on the soundtrack to the Facbook film The Social Network will influence the next record by How To Destroy Angels, the project he shares with soundtrack co-writer Atticus Ross.
Significantly, Reznor told us that working on the film was a rejuvenating experience after years of frustration with the music industry. "My life has revolved around music, and I knew that this is what I wanted to do, or some variation of this, from my earliest memory. I liked playing music, I related to it, it is the soundtrack to everything I have done, and every memory has music associated with it, but being in a band and being in the music business and getting older, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve realised that some of the magic has gone, that I’ve become cynical or jaded, or felt that the climate for making music beats you down," he said.
But the transformative affect of the soundtrack on David Fincher’s film about Facebook changed Reznor’s outlook: "Watching how the music we made transformed this film from the rough cut we saw, which had no music, when the film felt a certain way, to seeing this whole different impression of the film come out. At first, the film felt comfortable and familiar, college kids doing their thing, fucking people over, but when we put ‘Hand Covers Bruise’ in there it felt completely different. It felt that there was something going on under the surface, it felt that there was a frailty and vulnerability to it, and I was blown away at how music could do that."
He adds that this even came as something of a surprise: "I knew it could, but I hadn’t been involved in putting the ingredients together and making it happen. It seemed to make people respond positively to the film and our work in it, and it has felt flattering, it has felt good, it has felt energising and I get goosebumps when I think about it. It was a nice charge that I needed – music is a powerful thing, and sometimes I forget that in my day job. It has been a great inspiration and I’m sure it’ll transfer into what we’ll do next, because it feels as if we’ve been recharged now."
Collaborator Ross adds, "It’s funny because we were talking about directions for [the How To Destroy Angels] record because it was something that I brought up. It was so much fun doing the soundtrack, and I think it challenged us in ways that we had in us, but weren’t at the forefront of one’s mind. There are no clear plans for what the sound of that record will be born out of is experimentation, which is what we’re working on at the moment. But I love the idea that some of the expansiveness and I’m really proud of how the film and the album came out. The idea of including some of those lessons seems entirely appropriate to me."
Check the Quietus tomorrow for the full interview with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross on The Social Network soundtrack.
