Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross Tease New Nine Inch Nails Album & 'Cooler' Tour

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross discussed all things Nine Inch Nails in an expansive interview for GQ’s Creativity issue. They revealed that they’re “excited about starting on” a new album and plotting a “cooler” tour.

In addition to preparing new music, the duo hinted at their plans to start their own music festival, as well as collaborations with Epic Games, The Bear creator Christopher Storer (TV), and director Mike Flanagan (likely a horror film).

Also in the pipeline are the plans to launch a clothing line called Memory Fades, a record company, a music festival and a production company called With Teeth. It’s a lot, but with so many ideas floating around Reznor and Ross’s minds, it sure sounds like a good time to be a Nine Inch Nails fan.

Nine Inch Nails last released music in 2020, dropping two instrumental LPs: Ghosts V: Together and Ghosts VI: Locusts. Those albums followed 2018’s Bad Witch, which featured vocals from Reznor.

After embarking on soundtrack work, the singer said he felt more inspired to work on Nine Inch Nails music. Expressing himself creatively through soundtracks “managed to make Nine Inch Nails feel way more exciting than it had been in the past few years,” he stated. “I’d kind of let it atrophy a bit in my mind for a variety of reasons.”

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

Reznor added that the pair are “bored” and ready to “try some stuff.” He said, “We’re grateful. We enjoy doing films. 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?”

Reznor revealed Nine Inch Nails’ plan for the music festival: “Where we’re going to debut as performing as composers along with a roster of other interesting people.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Reznor mentioned his love for INXS’s third album, Shabooh Shoobah—the band’s first to be released worldwide.

The frontman reflected on what makes him feel nostalgic and said, “I really loved the first INXS album in 1983. I was a senior in high school, and when I listen to it now, I could almost start crying because it fucking reminds me of driving in a shitty fucking car in the summer in Pennsylvania.”

You can read the interview here.

Reznor’s new statement regarding touring should entice fans, as last year, he said that the band had no plans to tour.