EASE DOWN THE ROAD

Not much else should matter when Nine Inch Nails architect Trent Reznor dials your digits, not if you count yourself a musician. Too much to learn. Too much experience to be had. Too much sound to soak in. When Reznor, already the most notable artist/producer hybrid of his time, calls, pick up and listen. The phone of seasoned bassist/multi-instrumentalist Justin Meldal-Johnsen, known foremost for his work with Tori Amos, Beck and Ima Robot, rang early this year.

“When I first met Trent back in May I had certainly heard that he was a very cool, thoughtful and intelligent fellow. I don’t think I really knew how cool, thoughtful and intelligent he really was. It was all sort of magnified for me,” Meldal-Johnsen recently told whatzup while discussing Nine Inch Nails’ forthcoming November 18 show at Fort Wayne’s Memorial Coliseum. “Like many people, I had suffered through years of a sort of media preconception of Trent. I found myself completely amazed at the depth of the guy and the humanity he shows – even upon our first meeting. It’s funny how the media just cannot resist a spin; they can’t resist commentary about drug-fueled nights with Marilyn Manson, destroying a hotel room, the novelty of recording in the place Sharon Tate was murdered in, you know.

“All these things create this very mythical persona for Nine Inch Nails, you know, this very macabre, dark, insular, isolated and hateful persona for Trent Reznor. I find it very limiting and insulting to what kind of man the guy really is. He’s a very worldly and artistic force of nature. He’s an amazing dude who has a lot to offer the world in terms of his art.”

A lot to offer, you say? A six-year absence following the Nails’ third studio record, The Fragile, ended with the hotly anticipated release of 2005’s With Teeth – hardly the return Nails fans anticipated after such a lengthy break. Then, in 2007, something happened. It started with the release of a 16-song concept album titled Year Zero, already the best-reviewed work of Reznor’s career. Months later Reznor returned with a Year Zero remix album – a celebration, of sorts, of the return of Nails. Then, amazingly, and again only months later, Reznor had another record, Ghosts I-IV, ready to hit shelves. A double album compiling 36 complex instrumentals, Ghosts worked as a victory strut, presenting a sound and production academic enough in composition and execution that – after almost two decades, mind you – Reznor found a whole new fanbase for his ever-evolving sound.

Growth, quality and quantity. That, friends, is what Meldal-Johnsen meant when saying that Reznor had “a lot to offer.”

But that’s not all. Two months after the release of his conceptual instrumental album, Reznor’s Nails released a full-blown studio album titled The Slip for free. Yes, free. The words hit everywhere on the Internet and in print: “This one’s on me.” Reznor, possibly taking cues from the similarly forward-loo ing Radiohead (who released a name-your-own-price album last year), made this, his seventh and most accessible studio record, available on his website for free, later releasing it on CD for the devout and old school alike.

For those of you counting, that’s 62 new studio songs in less than two years – 10 of which can still be acquired at no cost by heading over to www.nin.com. And, similar to the first two Nails albums, Pretty Hate Machine and The Downward Spiral, people love these records dearly.

“I think of it as a trailblazing move,” Meldal-Johnsen said when asked about the free release of The Slip. “It all has to do with his connection to his fans, really. He is one of those people who gives a lot of himself away; he felt it was important to give back to the fans for their support, and it seemed like the precise moment to do so. Also, it keeps the game really exciting. It’s a great gift for the people who have been there for Trent for so long.”

Though Meldal-Johnsen, a still very young-looking rocker with a rap sheet impressive as anyone in the old Stax crew, is still new to the band, he’s thrown himself completely in to Reznor’s industrial world.

“I take being in Nine Inch Nails very seriously. I can’t just simply play the songs,” Meldal-Johnsen explained when asked about the task of taking Reznor’s intricate productions from the studio to the stage.

“It’s much more about owning them, becoming them. That’s a process. You don’t just get there by learning 70 songs, you have to take some time to make them yours. That’s where I’m at now, I’ve crossed the threshold. The songs don’t just go by and get played anymore, you know, I play them. It’s music that requires a real personal investment. The process has been very interesting and educational for me, and I get to see what that means to the audience.”

Best described as a born musician raised by “hippie parents” in San Francisco, Meldal-Johnsen caught his first break right after graduating from high school. At age 18 the young musician was already working/studying with renowned string arranger David Campbell, making friends along the way with Campbell’s son, a then-unknown young man known today as Beck. From there Meldal-Johnsen kept working and exploring, playing in bands here and there, eventually picking up full-time with Beck following the success of Odelay!.

Known today as one of modern rock’s most in-demand studio musicians, Meldal-Johnsen has played on a number of classic albums and with a number of notable artists, including Tori Amos, Garbage, Foo Fighters, Air, Frank Black, Macy Gray and Ima Robot, a band he founded with other Beck regulars. Clearly, Reznor only picks the best – Meldal-Johnsen included. This is not an ego thing for Reznor; rather, the man just demands the best in order to keep his always elaborate stage show functioning smoothly as possible.

“Nine Inch Nails works because it’s a benevolent dictatorship; the vision all comes down to Trent. Trent holds the keys, he knows what he’s doing and he knows how to drive the ship,” Meldal-Johnsen said when asked about the dynamics of the band. “Trent knows what he’s doing at all times, which is what turned me on really quickly.

Seeing his work ethic and seeing how passionate he is about excellence and pride – not perfection for perfection’s sake – is really symptomatic of someone who is very much a 21st Century creative force.

“You can’t just sit in your ivory tower and release an album every few hours. You have to create an inclusiveness with your audience and involve them in the process. Give them secret bits of insight and share with them often, that’s what the world is like now. Trent is a master of these things, and it shows in his work ethic.”

In addition to his songs, which nowadays range anywhere from industrial to prog-rock to ambient and hard rock, Reznor very much considers the visual aspect of his art, the peak of which is the production of the current Nails tour.

“The stage show on this tour is very expensive, elaborate and prone to technical problems,” laughed Meldal-Johnsen. “No, now that the tour is so well established all the interested technical problems are ironed out. The show involves not only the biggest, brightest lighting rig you’ve ever seen but also three giant high-resolution LED screens that move up and down. At different parts of the show we are placed in front of them, in between them or behind them. They create 3D atmospheres and respond to the musical stimulus, among other things.

Two of the three screens are transparent, so you can place musicians behind them and, based on how you light them, can see them in different ways. It’s a very sensually rich show that has moments of extreme energy and violence and moments of real beauty.”

Sounds trippy. You can check out clips on YouTube.com, but being there is the only way to go. Bright lights. Big sounds. Ghostly-looking digitally enhanced men playing guitars.

“When this tour is over, and I can’t say when that will be, it may be hard for me to separate the experience into individual memories,” Meldal-Johnsen explained. “The thing I’ll walk away with is the amazing kinship that Nine Inch Nails enjoy with the audience. Being privileged enough to be part of that interaction is very meaningful to me. I look out from the stage and I see what’s going on for people. I can read the body language and I know how vital it is to people.

“Trent’s music is like a lifeblood to his fans. Having a connection like this is really deeply gratifying and intensely personal. I’ll never forget it. And once this tour is done I’ll already be looking forward to whenever the next one comes around.”

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