Nothing Records was an American record label specializing in industrial rock and electronic music, founded by John Malm Jr. and Trent Reznor in 1992. It is considered an example of a vanity label, where an artist is able to run a label with some small degree of independence within a larger parent company, in this case the larger company being Interscope Records.
Nothing Records went largely defunct in 2004, after a lawsuit by Reznor against John Malm. The label became inactive as a whole following several further releases; 2007's Beside You in Time music video was the label's final release.
Background Nothing Records is most famous for its two original signings, Trent Reznor's own band Nine Inch Nails, and Marilyn Manson.
The label gained semi-iconic status within the industrial rock scene, and even acquired its own online-fanzine in Sick Among the Pure, although this later became a more general industrial fanzine, and ceased to exist at all in 2005. The Nothing label would often reward its fanbase over the Internet — one form of this outreach was Radio Nothing: an exclusive collection of free MP3 music streams, compiled by Nothing label artists, producers and fans.
In September 2004, coinciding with Trent Reznor leaving New Orleans for the west coast, the Nine Inch Nails website announced "nothing studios: 1994-2004", suggesting that Nothing Studios was closed. This later proved to be the end of the associated record label as well. Speculation among listeners that the label could continue ceased when Reznor successfully sued co-founder John Malm for fraud and breach of fiduciary duty (amongst others), ensuring that the Nothing era was over.
In a May 5, 2005 post to nin.com, Trent wrote, "To be clear: my involvement with Nothing Records is over. Is Nothing Records alive or an entity? You'd have to ask John Malm (we're not really speaking that much these days) ... Nothing studios is still in New Orleans and I'm not sure what I'll do with it. I'll figure that out when I finish touring."
While With Teeth and its following singles carry the Nothing Records logo, Reznor has publicly stated that this was at the insistence of John Malm.
Beside You In Time (February 2007) was the last release to carry the Nothing Records logo on its packaging. The logo also appears in the end credits.
The "Survivalism" single is the first Nine Inch Nails release not to be released with the Nothing Records logo.
Since early 2004, the official website, NothingRecords.com, has been closed down.
Artists
In addition to Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson, the label also signed and released albums from 2wo, Pig, Pop Will Eat Itself, Prick, 12 Rounds, Einstürzende Neubauten, The The, and Meat Beat Manifesto. Additionally, Coil was under contract for a record but it was never delivered (though some of the songs from the slated Nothing album appeared in reworked form on The Ape of Naples and The New Backwards). The album Backwards was eventually released in 2015 by Cold Spring Records. John Bergin was also signed briefly under the name Trust Obey, but the album he recorded ("Hands of Ash") was instead released in 1996 on Fifth Colvmn Records with a sticker that quoted Reznor's reaction to the completed work: "Not a great commercial potential."
Nothing also distributed music from Warp Records, Sheffield, England's venerable electronic music label, under an exclusive license in the U.S., with albums by Autechre, Plaid, and Squarepusher (although Warp's Aphex Twin appeared on the Further Down the Spiral release, he was already under a contract with Sire Records in the U.S. at the time). This distribution deal ended when Warp expanded operations into the U.S. market in 2001. Nothing also managed to secure the U.S. release of two albums from England's Blue Planet Recordings. The two albums were slightly different than the UK releases. Plug's "Drum and Bass for Papa" included an extra disc of tracks from earlier EPs, and The Bowling Green's "One Pound Note" omitted one track from the UK release due to problems with sample clearance.
1992-94: Early years Nothing Records was founded by Trent Reznor and his former manager John Malm Jr. in 1992. Amid pressure from Nine Inch Nails' then-label TVT to produce a follow-up to Pretty Hate Machine,Huxley (1997), p. 52 Reznor began to feel the label was hindering his control of the band and requested to terminate their contract, to which they ignored his plea. In response, Reznor secretly began recording under various pseudonyms to avoid record company interference. TVT ultimately put together a deal with Interscope Records (then part of Atlantic Records), in which they would still retain some financial stake, while Reznor worked creatively under a new label. However, Interscope President Jimmy Iovine looked to allow him more creative freedom. Reznor stated:
Part of the deal included allowing Reznor the run his own boutique label under the Interscope umbrella, which became Nothing Records. Reznor and Malm began a series of signings to the label, which included the likes of Marilyn Manson, Coil, Prick, Trust Obey, Pop Will Eat Itself and Mondo Vanilli. Reznor stated of the label, "The whole thing I want to do right now is provide a shell to other bands where they can have the benefit of a major label without being fucked with creatively in any way. Let them do what they want to do, make them aware of the business side of things how the money is spent." The label would go on to set up offices in Cleveland, Ohio and New York City, with a recording studio, Nothing Studios, in New Orleans.
Nine Inch Nails (Broken era) The first release bearing the label's name was Nine Inch Nails' Broken EP. Released September 22, 1992, the EP marked their major label debut and consisted entirely of new material, departing from the electronica and synthpop style of Pretty Hate Machine and instead presenting a considerably heavier sound, which would act as a precursor for Nine Inch Nails' acclaimed second studio album, The Downward Spiral. The EP originally included a bonus 3" CD or 7" vinyl, depending which format was purchased, featuring two bonus songs; a cover of the Adam and the Ants song "Physical" and "Suck," a reworked version of a song Trent originally recorded with Pigface. Later pressings of the release merged these tracks as a single release, although a 2017 vinyl repress by the band once again pressed them as a separate 7".
The Broken film accompanied the EP, directed by Coil's Peter Christopherson. Reznor recalled, "Making the Broken movie was a lot of fun. There was no label involvement or pressure from anyone, it was just he (Christopherson) and I talking. At the completion of filming, Christopherson felt the footage was so realistic, he informed Reznor, "I'm going to send it to you, but it's going to show up in a paper bag unmarked because there could be ... I'm not sure I want the authorities knowing this came from me." After reviewing the film, Reznor stated, "It felt like we'd crossed over into territory that was perhaps too far. And to be honest, at that point I was living in the Sharon Tate house recording The Downward Spiral. Anyway, that's where I was living when this package turned up, and I thought, 'Enough. I don't know that I need this kind of thing.' With the house it felt too stunty, and Peter agreed."
Five of the eight total tracks were edited down into music videos, were widely censored from television airplay, due to their disturbing content. The complete, uncensored film was never officially released, however it was leaked as a bootleg, which became heavily traded on VHS in the 1990s and later became widely available via the Internet. "We shelved it, but little did we know that the Internet would come into existence, and it would find its home on there," stated Reznor. Most of the film's content was later included on the release of the band's 1997 VHS Closure. In 2006, an unofficial version of the film was released on a DVD disc image and distributed via BitTorrent at The Pirate Bay by an anonymous user called "seed0," who also uploaded a DVD version of Closure. The DVD image represented a significant upgrade in visual and audio quality from previous bootlegs and included the video for "Help Me I Am in Hell." It is widely believed by fans that Reznor himself was behind the 2006 leaks, as implied by a post on his official blog: "12/21/06 : Happy Holidays! This one is a guilt-free download. (shhhh - I didn't say that out loud). If you know what I'm talking about, cool."
Contributing to the band's growing mainstream success, the EP sold well upon release, peaking at number 7 on the Billboard 200 charts and eventually going platinum Note: User must define search parameters, i.e. "Nine Inch Nails". "Wish" won the 1993 Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance, as did "Happiness in Slavery" (live performance at Woodstock '94) in 1996. Despite their increasing commercial success, Trent opted against touring in support of the EP, choosing instead to remain at work in the studio.
A companion remix EP, Fixed, was released on December 7, 1992 and featured remixes from the band, as well as J. G. Thirlwell of Foetus, Butch Vig of Garbage and future Nothing label-mates Coil. An additional Butch Vig remix of "Last" was omitted from the EP, although the outro can be heard on "Throw This Away." The complete Vig remix circulated on the Internet as a bootleg file, until Reznor finally released it at remix.nin.com. Vig later addressed the reason for its omission, stating "I started recording a lot of new parts, and took it in a much different direction. When it was finished, Trent thought the front part of the mix didn't fit the EP, so he just used the ending. I'm glad it's on his website. Duke and Steve worked with me on the remix, in the very early days of Garbage."
Nine Inch Nails (The Downward Spiral era) After Broken, Reznor began recording Nine Inch Nails' full-length debut for the Nothing / Interscope Records label, the seminal sophomore album, The Downward Spiral. For the recording of Broken, Reznor had moved into 10050 Cielo Drive in Benedict Canyon, Los Angeles, where actress Sharon Tate was murdered by members of the Manson Family. He named the home studio "Le Pig". Reznor would record The Downward Spiral at Le Pig, co-producing it with Flood. The recordings were inspired by concept albums such as David Bowie's Low and Pink Floyd's The Wall. Guitarist Richard Patrick had left the band after touring completed for Pretty Hate Machine, moving on to form his own band, Filter. Adrian Belew would take over guitar duties for much of the album, while Robin Finck would become the full-time guitarist for the band.
The first single from the album, "March of the Pigs," was released on February 25, 1994. The single featured remixes by Dave Ogilvie, as well as an exclusive instrumental, entitled "A Violet Fluid". A pair of music videos for the song were also shot. The first version was ultimately scrapped, while the second and final version was directed by Coil's Peter Christopherson. Portions of the original, incomplete video eventually surfaced as part of an online, DVD disc image version of the Closure DVD in 2006, which surfaced on BitTorrent website The Pirate Bay.