STACK J#165 Jul 2018

MUSIC NEWS

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INTERVIEW

Atticus Ross discloses how he and bandmateTrent Reznor refused to rest on their laurels while creating their fresh EP, BadWitch . NINE INCH NAILS

W ith the final entry in their triple-EP sojourn, Nine Inch Nails’ Atticus Ross says he and bandmate Trent Reznor made a very deliberate hairpin turn away from what would have been an easy conclusion. “When we were back in the studio [after a run of live shows], we were working on this album, and… we decided we didn’t want to tie everything up nicely,” he tells STACK . “Trent picking up the sax for instance – something he hadn’t done for a long time, and playing around with what that instrument could be… obviously at times it’s dry, other times it’s heavily processed. We would just pop back into the idea of experimentation and trying to

find something that felt exciting, interesting to us.” This is how Bad Witch was crafted: with a determined focus on exploration, as something of an acid test to discover new ways in which artificial and analogue sounds can be manipulated – preferably to jolt or disturb. And if even a microscopic element might seem random, you can be sure that it is not. “There’s nothing, generally, in a Nine Inch Nails song, that hasn’t been thought about,” Ross says. “Everything plays into a narrative. And often, with any piece or an album or a song, we’re thinking in terms of a longer narrative. It’s the same with a live performance… [or] if you go to a

narrative" of Bad Witch – it's a journey for the listener, after all – but points towards the "collage" in the second chorus of Sh-t Mirror for concealed clues, and, of course, the album art: "The idea of primitivism is explored within the album – you can probably put that together by looking at the images on the cover." ZKR

good film there’s a journey that takes place,” he says, and adds drily: “And I’m not using that reference because we happen to work in film sometimes.” Ross attests that before he was even officially a part of NIN, watching the band made him feel like he was watching a film. “It was a band, but I felt like it was more than a band,” he explains. “I was getting a full meal, in terms of every sense – it’s a stimulation of all the senses, in a visceral manner.” He's very careful not to reveal much about the "longer

Bad Witch EP by Nine Inch Nails is out now via Caroline.

progression of the band’s creative songwriting force. Eyes are set on the future.” First single Over It describes a protagonist exhausted with a self-destructive partner – a message echoed in many different places on the album, including The Very Last Time (“I’ve put myself through this for the very last time”). Tuck says it’s a situation he’s come to know too well. “I think everyone’s guilty of holding on to things, because they mean something to them – whatever it may be in life,” he says. “But ultimately, letting go of something, not putting yourself through something that causes you mental stress, is quite a profound, liberating thing. I’m human like everyone else is, and I experience things in life like everyone else, regardless of what people may think of me because of what I do as a career. That kind of

INTERVIEW

Frontman Matt Tuck explains how observing his own mindset, and its lapses and successes, informed the writing of new album Gravity . BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE

encompasses what this album’s about – it’s a very real album. It’s a very pure, from-the-heart album about me, what I’ve been through, where my head’s been at. Hopefully people can connect to it in a far more emotional way than they’ve ever done on a Bullet record before.” ZKR

N ow 12 years into the game and up to their sixth studio album, Welsh metalcore act Bullet For My Valentine have made a very calculated effort to ensure the weight of a hugely successful international career doesn’t stifle their style – although frontman Matt Tuck

admits they do keep one eye on the past. “I think the whole thing behind this new record was moving forward into the future, and always respecting and taking into consideration the history of the band,” the guitarist and vocalist says. “ Gravity [is] a massive evolution – a

Gravity by Bullet For My Valentine is out now via Search And Destroy/ Spinefarm/ Caroline.

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JULY 2018

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