Charlie Clouser Reveals How Trent Reznor, NIN Helped Shape His Film Scoring

Saw X composer Charlie Clouser revealed how Nine Inch Nails and Trent Reznor helped shape his work with film scores. ComicBook.com's Chris Killian sat down with the musical mind to discuss his approach. With work in the horror genre, feel becomes massively important. Tension has to be there and the industrial sound of Reznor's work does a lot for coloring in the necessary threats. But, also the respect for NIN and what they've accomplished makes for an easy partnership. Layered sound and design are calling cards for the group and that ethos is reflected in the composer's other work as well. Check out what he had to say up above.

"It definitely did. And look, working with Trent and the rest of the Nine Inch Nails camp was a huge opportunity and an amazing experience. Put it this way, there's not a lot of bands that I would have joined. You know, basically Nine Inch Nails and maybe Kraftwerk. But, they weren't hiring."

"This is partly because of Trent's ethos of musical sound design and using nonmusical sounds in a musical context. Especially around the era that I was working with him. You know, taking influences from the art of noise or whatever. Where there's sounds that weren't intended to be a kick drum sound. But, it's now turned into a kick drum sound. And that whole studio wizardry, technology heavy approach, is something that I was always drawn to anyway."

Trent Reznor's Unique Approach

For Clouser, that unique approach added to the allure of working with Nine Inch Nails. "It was the perfect vehicle to explore in that world. But, also the way in which Trent constructs songs, even if it's a pop song. It's unconventional and he kind of subverts the expectations," Clouser mused. "You know? It's not verse, chorus, guitar, solo, chorus. It's the arrangement and the linear flow of his music is often at odds with the established way of doing things. That, along with the tendency to creating ambient backdrops for partially realized pieces of music.

"We did this a lot on the fragile album. There were little interludes that referred to themes which were more fully explored in other songs," he expanded. "So, we would create these sort of to use a tired word, "cinematic backdrops" for those kinds of moments. And that was something that I was, you know, hugely interested in and is very relevant to the way in which I construct music and sound even in film projects today."

What Happens In Saw X?

Here's the description for the latest entry: "Set between the events of Saw I and II, a sick and desperate John travels to Mexico for a risky and experimental medical procedure in hopes of a miracle cure for his cancer – only to discover the entire operation is a scam to defraud the most vulnerable. Armed with a newfound purpose, the infamous serial killer returns to his work, turning the tables on the con artists in his signature visceral way through devious, deranged, and ingenious traps."

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