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\u201cComposing,\u201d he added, \u201cand being able to be on those weird assignments has really invigorated us, I think, as artists and people.\u201d<\/p>\n
These are edited excerpts from the conversation.<\/p>\n
What was the first film score that you remember impacting you?<\/strong><\/p>\nTRENT REZNOR<\/strong> \u201cHalloween\u201d came out when I was kind of too young to see it, and it scared the living [expletive] out of everybody. John Carpenter\u2019s score crept into what was going to affect my whole musical trajectory. The use of synthesizers and tension and weird dissonance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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ATTICUS ROSS<\/strong> Mine was similar: My dad took me to \u201cJaws\u201d when I was definitely too young to be there, and I remember how terrifying that was. But film music did transcend the screen for me kind of early. In the days of VHS and being a teenager, films like \u201cMidnight Express\u201d or \u201cBlade Runner,\u201d I was definitely conscious I was being transported to a different world and that music was part of that language.<\/p>\nWhen you did \u201cThe Social Network,\u201d you both went from never having scored a film before to winning the industry\u2019s highest honor. What was that ride like?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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REZNOR<\/strong> I know I can speak for both of us when I say we\u2019re uncomfortable congratulating ourselves or believing that we did good at something. It\u2019s just kind of how we\u2019re wired.<\/p>\nROSS<\/strong> We were so invested in the film from a creative point, and we knew zero about the film business and awards campaigns. So it was kind of like taking acid that lasted six weeks, with those kind of highs and lows. \u201cNow you\u2019re going to a lunch where so and so is going to be talking about this, and now you\u2019re going to a tea, but do I have to wear a suit to that?\u201d<\/p>\nREZNOR<\/strong> The wonderful experience of \u201cThe Social Network\u201d was working with an incredible partner, David Fincher, who is one the smartest people I\u2019ve ever met, and was also one of the most nurturing. We felt like, \u201cWe don\u2019t want to be the ones to ruin your movie because we don\u2019t know what we\u2019re doing.\u201d Fincher taught us to trust our instinct and lean into that.<\/p>\nTo win the biggest award at the end of it was deeply into surreal territory. It felt amazing. And it also taught us that you\u2019re still the same [expletive] the next day, but now you have a trophy on your shelf. The same hole is still inside your spirit. It didn\u2019t fix you, although it felt nice for a minute.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not to downplay it at all, but it trained us in the bigger picture. To come to where we are now, which is: Why are we doing this? What\u2019s the goal? It\u2019s not to have another trophy. It\u2019s to have the experience of working with interesting people that you learn from. That learning and that feeling of doing the best work we can do, that fills that hole up.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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What about your work on \u201cTron: Ares\u201d makes it a Nine Inch Nails score?<\/strong><\/p>\nREZNOR<\/strong> We met [the president of Disney Music] Tom MacDougall when we scored \u201cSoul\u201d for Pixar. He came by a few years ago and said, \u201cWould you be interested in scoring a new Tron film?\u201d Yeah, we would be. Then he said: \u201cJust have a think about this. Would it make sense to be Nine Inch Nails versus Trent and Atticus?\u201d And I said, \u201cWhy do you<\/em> think that would be a good idea?\u201d He said, \u201cI\u2019m introducing the idea because we want to infuse it with personality and we want to take some risks on the film musically, and maybe it would lead to a different place.\u201d<\/p>\nBy the time we actually started working on it, what started to reveal itself was that it changed the choices we made in terms of some of the sounds, and the inclusion of vocal songs.<\/p>\n
Nothing against Prince, but the last thing I would want to do is, you know, \u201cMusic Inspired by Batman.\u201d Like, nothing to do with the film. It needs to feel like the DNA of what the score is. Our role is to help tell the story through score. And it yielded something that wouldn\u2019t have happened if it were called Trent and Atticus. It gave the license to put some actual songs in there.<\/p>\n
ROSS<\/strong> The whole of the European tour, every moment we weren\u2019t on a stage, we were in a traveling studio, in a hotel room trying to finish \u201cTron.\u201d<\/p>\nREZNOR<\/strong> It\u2019s a lesson that\u2019s impossible for us to learn. \u201cHey, \u2018Tron\u2019 is going to be done in February. OK, cool, we\u2019ll start up a tour in May.\u201d What do you think happens? \u201cNow \u2018Tron\u2019 is going to be done in July.\u201d You\u2019d think we\u2019d know better, but we don\u2019t.<\/p>\nHas composing scores changed the way you watch movies? Can you still get lost in a film, or are you always picking the score apart?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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REZNOR<\/strong> When I\u2019m not on tour, I try to go at least every other week to a theater to watch a film, just because I like to get out of my head for a couple hours and not be me \u2014 get lost in something where I feel guilty if my phone buzzes, you know? I don\u2019t pay attention to the score if I\u2019m lost in the movie. I normally only do if it strikes me as: \u201cWow, this sucks. I\u2019ve been taken out of the story because the music is demanding that.\u201d Or the more rare occasion: \u201cWow, this is good.\u201d Followed now by a tinge of jealousy. I think the last one I saw that did that was \u201c28 Years Later.\u201d The music for that was excellent.<\/p>\nHave any other recent scores made you feel that way?<\/strong><\/p>\nREZNOR<\/strong> What Cristobal Tapia de Veer did with \u201cWhite Lotus\u201d had an incredible effect on how you felt about the show. The playfulness, the mischievousness, the absurdity of it \u2014 I think really did a lot to make that show be as effective and beloved as it is.<\/p>\nROSS<\/strong> \u201cWhite Lotus\u201d is a good example, because when that show came on \u2014 the opening titles \u2014 I\u2019m already in.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.nytimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since 2011, when their first film score \u2014 the striking, unsettling music for David Fincher\u2019s drama \u201cThe Social Network\u201d \u2014 earned them an Oscar, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have enjoyed a remarkably prolific and consistent run as composers for movies and TV. They\u2019ve showed impressive range across well over a dozen scores, including the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2132852,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[405960,356577,21912,365059,356576,405958,384999,405959,405961],"class_list":["post-2132851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-atticus-1968","tag-content-type-personal-profile","tag-movies","tag-nine-inch-nails-music-group","tag-pop-and-rock-music","tag-reznor","tag-ross","tag-trent","tag-tron-ares-movie"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Nine-Inch-Nails-Are-Filling-the-Hole-in-Their-Souls.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2132851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2132851"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2132851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2132853,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2132851\/revisions\/2132853"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2132852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2132851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2132851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2132851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}