Trent Reznor has always lived in a dark place. The world the Nine Inch Nails frontman inhabited for most of his career was one filled with paranoia and self-loathing, fuelled by addictions to drugs and alcohol. It was wrapped in intense, chaotic industrial, gothic metal that established him as a highly influential musician.
Now 42 and clean for five years, Reznor still dwells on the darker side of life, and his music is as brooding and discomforting as ever. But the Nine Inch Nails' latest album, Year Zero, has a less introspective view. Reznor's consuming anxieties are channelled into an Orwellian look into the future shaped by the current state of the world. It's a bleak, dystopian vision that could be the basis for a sci-fi thriller, and has been shaped into a live show that Reznor will bring to Hong Kong next week as part of a world tour.
It's as if Reznor sobered up, took a look around and was terrified at what he saw. 'The fiction is based on realities that are already in motion,' he says. 'When I sat down and started working on a new record I tried to work on the format of an album, which is a bit outdated these days. I wanted to make a statement.'
After toying with the idea for a while he decided to focus on 'the state of America and where we're headed'. He says it's not a good destination. 'We've been hijacked by [the] criminals in charge right now. There's a feeling of shame and embarrassment at what's happening,' he says. 'I thought I'd look 15 years ahead at would happen if we [continue] on this road.'
The picture he paints is grim. From biological terrorists to military rule and shadowy background figures, the album presents a nightmarish scenario.
Reznor says that the lower-middle classes of America - from places such as the town where he grew up in Pennsylvania - are being duped. 'They don't have to worry about things because they're happening on the other side of the TV set,' he says.