Nine Inch Nails Are Back Working On New Music

It’s been a few years since we last received music from Nine Inch Nails, but a new interview with founder Trent Reznor has renewed hope that fresh gear will be on the way before long.

As it stands, the last records released under the Nine Inch Nails moniker were 2020’s ambient double-header Ghosts V: Together and Ghosts VI: Locusts, released on the same day for free download at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to that, the band’s most recent studio effort was 2018’s Bad Witch.

However, Nine Inch Nails members Reznor and Atticus Ross haven’t been sitting on their hands since, with a total of ten film scores credited to the pair arriving since their last efforts as the band.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Reznor has explained that the time spent working on scores and soundtracks has reinvigorated the duo, allowing them to re-enter the studio in earnest.

“We’re taking the inspiration we’ve garnered and funneling it into a Nine Inch Nails project, which we’re working on now,” Reznor told the publication. “We’re ready to be back in the driver’s seat.”

This in turn follows on from comments made by the pair earlier this year in a conversation with GQ.

“I do feel excited about starting on the next record,” Ross explained. “I think we’re in a place now where we kind of have an idea.”

“We’re grateful. We enjoy doing films,” Reznor added. “We can write a better Nine Inch Nails record, I think. We can put on a cooler tour. We are aimed to do that. But man, what if we try to do that?”

Though new Nine Inch Nails music is in the works, it remains to be seen whether a new tour will in fact accompany it. Currently, the band haven’t performed live since 2022, and haven’t visited Australian shores since 2014.

Speaking to Rick Rubin in 2023, Reznor admitted that he feels "grateful" for his career and "appreciative" of his fans, but frequently touring is something that he’s disinterested in, especially due to his role as both a husband and father off the stage.

“Music used to be the thing that was what I was doing when I had time,” he noted. “I was listening to music. I wasn’t doing it in the background while I was doing five other things.”