Even Deeper # 3-Fragility Part 5Mar 15 '02 Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line Part 5 is a look at the 2001-2002 period as Reznor ponders his own artistic integrity while completing and releasing his new live album and DVD. Trent Reznor Learns His Role As An Artist & Closes the Fragility Period: 2001-2002 In 2001, NIN and Trent Reznor decided to take a low profile to focus on the upcoming NIN DVD titled “And All That Could Have Been”. In January of 2001, Trent Reznor won an award from the reader’s poll of Alternative Press where he won the Artist of the Year award along with Best Live Act and Artist You’d Like To Stalk If You Were Invisible while his enemies in Limp Bizkit swept the worst award categories as Worst Artist, Worst Album, Worst Album Cover, Worst Live Act, Worst Dressed, and Worst Hairdo for singer Fred Durst. In the interview for editor in chief Robert Cherry, Reznor talked about the DVD project along with his recent conversation with Roger Waters in Revolver magazine and other projects including the Tapeworm project he did with Danny Lohner and Charlie Clouser in 1996. Reznor also talked about his problems with the record industry and the commercial failure of “The Fragile”. Reznor still felt proud of the album he did and he still thinks that 800,000 double albums sold in the U.S. was good enough on a level of commercial success. After the interview for Alternative Press, Reznor continued working on his new DVD and live album while doing projects on the side. One of the projects Reznor took was remixing a single for the hip-hop production team the Neptunes who were about to release their debut album as N.E.R.D. The single for the song “Lapdance” featured a remix by Reznor with his engineering team of Keith Hillebrandt, Leo Herrera, and Dave “Rave” Ogilvie. Around that same time, Reznor was offered to contribute a new song to the soundtrack for the summer film “Tomb Raider” starring Angelina Jolie. Reznor decided to contribute the song “Deep” for the soundtrack that had already featured contributions from Outkast, Missy Elliot, Basement Jaxx, Moby, and a remix of U2’s hit song “Elevation” by Reznor’s former band mate and drummer Chris Vrenna. In late May of 2001, Reznor shot a video for the song “Deep” with director Edna McCallion in Los Angeles where the video was about Reznor and a woman stealing a couple of boxes where it was revealed to have toxic paint and their two cars crash into each other. The video was too extreme for MTV and ended up being re-edited to avoid controversy. Although the video received some attention for its graphic violence and sexual content, it was a modest hit on MTV and on radio although some fans thought the song wasn’t up to standards among many NIN songs in the past. While Reznor continued working on the DVD project, his NIN band mates took on side projects as well away from NIN. Drummer Jerome Dillon worked on a side project with A Perfect Circle bassist Paz Lenchantin and her brother as a low-key rock band while NIN multi-instrumentalist Danny Lohner played a few dates for A Perfect Circle as a guitarist and bassist including a televised performance for “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” where he became the first NIN member, aside from former member Richard Patrick of Filter, to appear on public television. NIN keyboardist and programmer Charlie Clouser also appeared in several projects including a stint as a keyboardist for Atari Teenage Riot leader Alec Empire on a tour of Japan and in late 2001, Clouser formed a project with A Perfect Circle guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen and Snake River Conspiracy guitarist Jason Slater for a project called Revenge of the Triads. Around that same period as Clouser was forming Revenge of the Triads, rumors circulated that Clouser had departed from Nine Inch Nails after seven years of service and as of early 2002, his departure hasn’t been confirmed true by Clouser, NIN, and Nothing Records. After taking a break to mix some tracks for Nothing Records act 12 Rounds in late July of 2001, Reznor continued working on the DVD with directors Rob Sheridan and Jeff Anderson as they edited and assembled production on the live DVD where they broke ground in DVD audio and visuals. Around that same period, Reznor worked on new music for NIN when like everyone else in the world got one of the worst wakeup calls in world history. The terrorists attacks of September 11, 2001 on New York City and Washington D.C. was one of the worst incidents in U.S. history as New York’s World Trade Center Buildings were attacked by two 747 airplanes controlled by terrorists and later, the buildings collapsed along with a plane crashing near Pittsburgh and another crash on the Pentagon on Washington D.C. The attacks was a horrible incident in the world as many people began to feel unsafe in the months ahead with a small plague of anthrax and other things as people wondered why these terrorists hate the U.S. While many of the top artists of the world tried to raise money for the victims of 9/11, there were those who became not only disillusioned by the attacks and the world itself and they also wondered if the charities of 9/11 were really to raise money for the victims or to the stars themselves. In late 2001, Reznor gave an interview to Rolling Stone contributor Anthony DeCurtis about the attacks and Reznor felt a sense of fragility around the world and a feeling of being unsafe at the same time. Reznor also revealed that he lost a colleague of his during the attacks whom he dedicated the upcoming live album and DVD to. On that same interview, Reznor talked about his troubles with the industry and people’s search for meaningful music in the wake of 9/11. He told DeCurtis that in 2002, the music scene is going to go through a transitional period where the TRL music of the past few years would become a parody of itself in the end as he hopes for some exciting music to come. A few days later, Reznor gave an interview to MTV about his plans for new NIN music in the future where he decided to change the direction of the music of NIN and try new things. Although he never revealed when it would be released, it gave fans something to hope for. In December of 2001, Reznor finally finished the DVD, as it was ready for a late January 2002 release. He also finished work on the live album and a companion disc for the live album that featured new compositions and old NIN classics in a stripped down, minimalist approach titled “Still” in a limited edition version of the live album. In January 2002, Reznor gave interviews about the live album and DVD as fans anticipate the live album’s release. Around that same time, Reznor made the cover story of Alternative Press in less than a year as part of 2002’s Most Anticipated Album list where he talked about the live album and DVD including the new album he has began working on. On January 22, 2002, Reznor with Danny Lohner and Jerome Dillon appeared at the Virgin Records Megastore in Time Square at New York City across from the MTV Building where they taped the show TRL. “And All That Could Have Been” DVD, live album, and the deluxe version of the live album was a success for NIN fans as they not only got to see the Fragility v 2.0 tour but to hear the new music NIN made on “Still”. “And All That Could Have Been” closed another chapter in the NIN story as Trent Reznor and company starts to begin another chapter in the history of Nine Inch Nails. Special Thanks to these news publications, magazine and websites for the sources of Fragility: Alternative Press Rolling Stone Spin USA Today Seems Like Salvation News (www.nineinchnails.net/news/) NIN News (www.nineinchnailsnews.com/) The NIN Hotline (www.theninhotline.net/) The Fragile (www.thefragile.com/) Official NIN Website (www.nin.com/) Burning Souls (www.burningsouls.com/)  |
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