"I think that something that sets NIN apart from other groups of
its ilk is that as much as I try not to do it, I still end up
writing a pop-song vein. Also I'm not coming from the same point
of view as they are. I'm not saying its better, its just
different. What I'm doing is taking a song and arranging it,
rather than building up a groove and chanting over it."
"I wanted to make a little spot in the context of the record
where there was this break in the action," Trent explained to Musician.
"In the midst of this buildup of these ever-growing, terrible machines,
I just wanted to remember that there is somewhere...else."
"I'm still cleaning the mud out of my ears," Trent told USA Today.
On how he got the name Nine Inch Nails-
"I don't know if you have ever tried to think of band names, but
usually you think you have a great one and you look at it the
next day and it's stupid. I had about two hundred of those.
Nine Inch Nails stood the two week test, looked great in print
and could be abbreviated easily. It really does not have a
literal meaning. It seemed kinda frightening. It's a curse trying
to come up with band names."
On his music-
"I can make something loud but how can I make it the loudest,
noisiest, most abrasive thing I've ever heard? Can I go ten steps
past the gorriest horror film that you have ever seen that its
more disturbing than cheesy? I know I can; I've done it. If
you're not ready for it, it's terrible, it's noise. On a
couple listenings, if you get that far, you hear through the
distractions and find a beauty under the surface of ugliness."
On performing-
"Often by the end of a show when the last thing you feel like
doing is going onstage, and your throat's sore and at some point
you look out in the crowd and they know the words and they're
shouting them back at you, and they're having the experience
of flushing it out of their systems- its probably the best
feeling of my life"