Trent Reznor Talks Girl With the Dragon Tattoo on KCRW

The Social Network, his first effort as a composer, which earned him and partner Atticus Ross a Golden Globe and Academy Award.

Trent told Jason Bentley today on Morning Becomes Eclectic that said the rewards were “unexpected and flattering” since they had veered into a world where they “didn’t know what they were doing” and were just following their instincts. But he seems to be on a roll considering the great things we’ve heard about his latest project – the soundtrack for David Fincher’s hotly anticipated adaptation of Steig Larsson’sThe Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

Fincher also directed The Social Network and Trent talks about the “immense amount of mutual respect” they have for each other. He says they started experimenting before Fincher started shooting the film in Sweden. They created over an hour of music before ever reading a script, just based on the book. The benefit is that the music could be “woven in with everything else right from the beginning”. However, Trent says they’ve done nothing for the last year except work on the film – refining, revising and changing the music.

He says they goal was to create a score that would disappear into the film, so it “spills over into sound design” with the exception, it seems, of the track that opens the film, a cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” featuring vocals from Karen O. The idea came from Fincher, who suggested doing a “really aggressive cover” of the track. Trent said, at the time, he thought covering the classic song seemed like a “recipe for failure” but clearly it worked!

Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl recently talked to the Hollywood Reporter about Trent, saying “it’s safe to say that he is my generation’s most talented musician-producer-songwriter.” It’s a pretty gigantic statement to make, but it’s hard to disagree. It’s really exciting to see a musician like Reznor exploring new territories and he seems to be enjoying it too.

Check out the full interview in the archives here.

RR