Mr. Self Destruct
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"Mr. Self Destruct" is a song by American
industrial rock Industrial rock is a fusion genre that fuses industrial music and rock music. It initially originated in the 1970s, and drew influence from early experimental and industrial acts such as Throbbing Gristle, Einstürzende Neubauten and Chrom ...
act
Nine Inch Nails Nine Inch Nails, commonly abbreviated as NIN (stylized as NIИ), is an American industrial rock band formed in Cleveland, Ohio in 1988. Its members are the singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Trent Reznor and his frequent col ...
. It was released on March 8, 1994. Written by frontman
Trent Reznor Michael Trent Reznor (born May 17, 1965) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and composer. He came to prominence as the founder, lead singer, multi-instrumentalist, and primary songwriter of the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. T ...
, co-produced by
Flood A flood is an overflow of water (list of non-water floods, or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant con ...
and recorded at Le Pig in 1993, it is the opening track of ''
The Downward Spiral ''The Downward Spiral'' is the second studio album by the American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released on March 8, 1994, by Nothing Records in the United States and Island Records in Europe. It is a concept album detailing the self-de ...
'' (1994), and predicts the album's "ugly" aesthetic and mostly "angry" tone. The song also gives a lyrical background of the album's protagonist. Its title is a reference to the eponymous opening track from British new wave duo
Soft Cell Soft Cell are an English synth-pop duo who came to prominence in the early 1980s. The duo consists of vocalist Marc Almond and instrumentalist David Ball (electronic musician), David Ball. The band are primarily known for their 1981 hit versio ...
's 1984 album '' This Last Night in Sodom''. Receiving positive feedback from music critics, its title became used as the official name for a
tour Tour or Tours may refer to: Travel * Tourism, travel for pleasure * Tour of duty, a period of time spent in military service * Campus tour, a journey through a college or university's campus * Guided tour, a journey through a location, directed ...
by the act. "Mr. Self Destruct" has been remixed multiple times, with five of them appearing in its accompanying remix album, '' Further Down the Spiral'' (1995), and in 1996 Reznor granted film director
David Fincher David Andrew Leo Fincher (born August 28, 1962) is an American film director. Often described as one of the preeminent directors of his generation, David Fincher filmography, his films, of which most are psychological thrillers, have collectiv ...
(whom he later collaborated along with
Atticus Ross Atticus Matthew Cowper Ross (born 16 January 1968) is an English musician, composer, record producer, and audio engineer. He is best known for his work with American musician Trent Reznor, with whom he first worked on the musical project Tapewo ...
to create soundtracks to four of his films) the permission to use a remix of the song in a
Levi's Levi Strauss & Co. ( ) is an American clothing company known worldwide for its Levi's ( ) brand of denim jeans. It was founded in May 1853 when German-Jewish immigrant Levi Strauss moved from Buttenheim, Bavaria, to San Francisco, California, ...
television advertisement.


Writing and recording

The first ideas for the song were conceived after the act's role in the
Lollapalooza Lollapalooza () is an annual American four-day music festival held in Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park in Chicago. It originally started as a touring event in 1991, with Chicago becoming its permanent location beginning in 2005. Music genres i ...
1991 festival. Production began after the completion of '' Broken'' (1992), when Reznor wrote a short poem. This was transformed into a prototype of "Mr. Self Destruct", along with many other songs. Flood was the co-producer of the song, as with the remainder of the then-upcoming album from Reznor's project. Reznor sought to include
Adrian Belew Robert Steven "Adrian" Belew (born December 23, 1949) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. A multi-instrumentalist primarily known as a guitarist and singer, he is noted for his unusual approach to the instrument, his ...
, and Flood invited him to the house surrounding the studio (
10050 Cielo Drive 10050 Cielo Drive was the street address of a former luxury home in Benedict Canyon, Los Angeles, Benedict Canyon, in the west-central part of the Beverly Crest, Los Angeles, Beverly Crest neighborhood of Los Angeles, bordering Beverly Hills, Cal ...
). Upon entering Le Pig he asked, "Hi, what do you want me to do?". The production team communicated back to Belew, who spoke about what tuning the song was played at. Reznor responded, "Um, I'm not sure. Probably E. See what happens. Don't worry about it. Here's the tape, nddo whatever you want. Go!". Belew eventually recorded what became the odd ending of the song.


Music and lyrics

"Mr. Self Destruct" immediately foreshadows the aesthetic and tone of the rest of the album; the opening of the song features a sample from the
George Lucas George Walton Lucas Jr. (born May 14, 1944) is an American filmmaker and philanthropist. He created the ''Star Wars'' and ''Indiana Jones'' franchises and founded Lucasfilm, LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic and THX. He served as chairman ...
-directed ''
THX 1138 ''THX 1138'' is a 1971 American social science fiction film co-written and directed by George Lucas in his feature directorial debut. Produced by Francis Ford Coppola and co-written by Walter Murch, the film stars Robert Duvall and Donald Pl ...
'' of a man being beaten by a prison guard while flanked inside a jail, cutting immediately to Reznor's aggressive voice delivering the verses and choruses. These parts have a
tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for 'time'; plural 'tempos', or from the Italian plural), measured in beats per minute, is the speed or pace of a given musical composition, composition, and is often also an indication of the composition ...
of 200 BPM (like "Big Man with a Gun"). Reznor's casual vocal delivery contrasting with the cacophonous sounds around it. The only section of the song to feature bass is the bridge, with Reznor's vocal providing the build. The remaining verse and chorus follow, concluding with
pink noise Pink noise, noise, fractional noise or fractal noise is a signal (information theory), signal or process with a frequency spectrum such that the power spectral density (power per frequency interval) is inversely proportional to the frequenc ...
gradually dominating the mix, before a three-second guitar loop, performed by Belew, is introduced; after repeating about fifteen times, the loop abruptly ends as the next track, " Piggy", begins. The song is based on a D
pentatonic scale A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five notes per octave, in contrast to heptatonic scales, which have seven notes per octave (such as the major scale and minor scale). Pentatonic scales were developed independently by many ancient ci ...
. The lyrics of the song introduce the antagonist of ''The Downward Spiral''; who ominously calls himself "the voice inside your head." He represents the urges of sexuality, powers of addiction, and inescapable feelings of guilt and fear. He appears to be violent, even sociopathic, at certain points ("I am the bullet in the gun"), but also claims to represent the purposes of religion, and the ultimate, unattainable goal of all human desire. The lyrics employ consistent repetition; with every line in the verses taking the form "I am the ... and I control you." The chorus maintains the first-person voice as well, creating an aggressive, intimate, almost confessional tone which Reznor sustains throughout the record.


Release and reception

''Sputnikmusic'' said about the song in a review of ''The Downward Spiral'', declaring that "'Mr. Self Destruct''s cryptic declarations of the many addictions we seem to openly enjoy are jarringly poetic, and its blistering chainsaw guitars and machine gun drum loops are an outstanding example of how aggressive yet tuneful industrial music can be." ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...
'' was also positive towards "Mr. Self Destruct", saying that "the soft passages are soft chiefly in the sense of not being loud, as if there were a really great party down the street that you were wimping out on, pumped guitars and cranking boom-thwack drum machines and what not. But almost as soon as you rush to your pre-amp and squeeze in more juice, the loud comes back in, but so unimaginably loud this time that you think your speaker coils might melt, and old man Reilly in the next apartment has already started to bang his broomstick on the wall." "Mr. Self Destruct" was remixed five times for '' Further Down the Spiral'' (1995), including a remix produced by Reznor with the Nine Inch Nails live band, three remixes by
JG Thirlwell James George Thirlwell (born 29 January 1960), styled as JG Thirlwell and also known as Clint Ruin, Frank Want, and Foetus, among other pseudonyms, is an Australian musician, composer, and record producer known for Juxtaposition, juxtaposing a ...
, and a re-work partially produced by
Aphex Twin Richard David James (born 18 August 1971), known professionally as Aphex Twin, is a British musician, composer and DJ active in electronic music since 1988. His idiosyncratic work has drawn on many styles, including techno, ambient music, ambi ...
.


Media usage

In 1996, a remix of "Mr. Self Destruct" ("Self Destruction, Part Two") was used with permission from Reznor in a
Levi's Levi Strauss & Co. ( ) is an American clothing company known worldwide for its Levi's ( ) brand of denim jeans. It was founded in May 1853 when German-Jewish immigrant Levi Strauss moved from Buttenheim, Bavaria, to San Francisco, California, ...
television advertisement, which was directed by
David Fincher David Andrew Leo Fincher (born August 28, 1962) is an American film director. Often described as one of the preeminent directors of his generation, David Fincher filmography, his films, of which most are psychological thrillers, have collectiv ...
(noteworthy at the time of the advertisement's release date for directing his 1995 breakthrough movie ''
Seven 7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. It is the only prime number preceding a cube. As an early prime number in the series of positive integers, the number seven has symbolic associations in religion, mythology, supers ...
''). Fincher later directed the
music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...
for " Only" in June 2005, and along with
Atticus Ross Atticus Matthew Cowper Ross (born 16 January 1968) is an English musician, composer, record producer, and audio engineer. He is best known for his work with American musician Trent Reznor, with whom he first worked on the musical project Tapewo ...
, Reznor later collaborated with him for the soundtracks to the films ''
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'' (2010), ''
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo ''The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'' (original title in ) is a psychological thriller novel by Swedish author Stieg Larsson. It was published posthumously in 2005, translated into English in 2008, and became an international bestseller. ''T ...
'' (2011), '' Gone Girl'' (2014) and ''
Mank ''Mank'' is a 2020 American biographical drama film about screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz and his development of the screenplay for the 1941 film ''Citizen Kane''. It was directed by David Fincher based on a screenplay written by his lat ...
'' (2020). In 2004, "Mr. Self Destruct" was featured in '' Man on Fire'' (2004), a film Reznor was involved with.''Man on Fire'' closing credits


Personnel

All credits adapted from the liner notes of the main album. *
Trent Reznor Michael Trent Reznor (born May 17, 1965) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and composer. He came to prominence as the founder, lead singer, multi-instrumentalist, and primary songwriter of the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. T ...
— vocals, guitar,
bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...
, keyboards, programming, co-production *
Adrian Belew Robert Steven "Adrian" Belew (born December 23, 1949) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. A multi-instrumentalist primarily known as a guitarist and singer, he is noted for his unusual approach to the instrument, his ...
— "texture generating guitar" *
Chris Vrenna Chris Vrenna (born February 23, 1967) is an American musician, producer, engineer, remixer, programmer, and founder of the electronic band Tweaker. Vrenna played drums for the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails from 1988 until 1996, and was ...
— samples *
Flood A flood is an overflow of water (list of non-water floods, or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant con ...
— co-production *
Alan Moulder Alan Moulder (born 11 June 1959) is an English record producer, mixing engineer, and audio engineer. Early life Moulder was born on 11 June 1959 in Boston, Lincolnshire. He was educated at Boston Grammar School. He had an interest in music from ...
— mixing


Notes


References


Bibliography

* * * * {{authority control 1994 songs Industrial metal songs Nine Inch Nails songs Songs about drugs Songs about suicide Song recordings produced by Flood (producer) Song recordings produced by Trent Reznor Songs written by Trent Reznor