Nine Inch Nails Tease ‘Precise And Unpleasant’ Tron Score

When a third Tron movie finally got the greenlight, there was one large question that fans asked above all others. Not whether any legacy characters would return, nor what the latest evolution of the Grid would be. No, the most crucial question was: who’ll do the soundtrack? That’s because Tron: Legacy featured a legendary score courtesy of Daft Punk, one that electrified the film’s highlights, picking up the baton from synth pioneer Wendy Carlos and her work on the original Tron. But since Daft Punk have gone their separate ways in the intervening years, who could possibly step up next? The answer turned out to be perfect: Nine Inch Nails. Not a Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross score; one specifically from their industrial alter-egos.

The ask first came from Tom MacDougall, President of Walt Disney Music, in the wake of Reznor and Ross’s work on Pixar’s Soul. “A couple of years ago, he came by the studio and said, ‘Do you think you guys would be interested in scoring Tron?’ He didn’t even finish the sentence, I was like, ‘Fuck yes, we’d want to do that’,” Reznor tells Empire. It was the next part that caught him off guard. “He said, ‘How would you feel about if it was credited as Nine Inch Nails, versus Trent and Atticus?’ We weren’t expecting to hear that question.”

As a result, the pair have channeled their band moniker fully for this one. “I’ll give a few spoilers: there’s not one second of orchestra in our score,” Reznor teases. “It sounds precise and unpleasant at times. It’s not an atonal, punishing score, but we spent a lot of time thinking about the undertones of what’s happening in the story. The concept of artificial life infused with feelings and emotions and a sense of questioning their purpose and their replaceability, their lack of soul, in some ways. We kind of riffed on that.” Bring on the downward spiral.

Undeniably, Daft Punk’s Tron: Legacy soundtrack changed the game, a up-to-date conception of what film music could be. Nine Inch Nails are hoping to take it to the next level with Ares. “It’s different [from the previous Tron scores]”, Ross notes, “and in places, perhaps takes a bigger swing for what music can do in cinema. Without sounding fucking pompous. I mean, that was a goal. You know, if you’re going to do it, then you may as well take a big swing.” Prepare for your ears to get de-rezzed.

Read Empire’s full Nine Inch Nails interview – talking Tron, their film scores, and more – in the Tron: Ares issue, on sale Thursday 3 July. Pre-order a copy online here. Tron: Ares comes to UK cinemas from 10 October.