Trent Reznor says his method of songwriting often leads to tunes that "aren't that catchy."
The Nine Inch Nails mainman admits his “vision” of how a song should turn out sometimes takes precedent over how catchy it ends up.
Reznor wrote the soundtrack for David Fincher’s new film Gone Girl starring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike, out now. An he says he takes the same attitude to writing movie scores as he does to penning NIN hits.
Reznor tells CBS: “With Nine Inch Nails I realise that a lot of times my strategy of writing a pop song isn’t to start with a hook and mechanically try to make this product that’s catchy.
“It’s more that I start with a feeling or sometimes a visual, and then I try to dress that visual with sound, and a song comes out the other end. That’s probably why my songs aren’t that catchy.
“With film work, it’s really just replacing that vision that I come up with, with looking at the vision these guys have come up with. A lot of it is deploying the same strategy, so it’s not completely dissimilar. It’s interestingly challenging as well.”
Reznor has also written music for films The Social Network and Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Earlier this year, Reznor urged upcoming bands to “break the rules” rather than write “safe” music to attract positive reviews.
