2004.04.25 - Anderswolleck Blog - Interview with Chris Vrenna [excerpt]

DRE: What made you quit Nine Inch Nails?

CV: It was just time. I met Trent when I was a senior in high school and then we were playing in a band even before Nails. It was just one of those things.

DRE: I read that you were doing tweaker even back in 1998.

CV: Yeah I left the band and went to LA. I didn't know what I wanted to do but I know I wanted to do something different. I didn't really enjoy New Orleans, where Trent built a huge studio. It was a great studio, we did Coil there, The Pricks and a Manson record.

DRE: A Coil record!

CV: Yeah it never came out but it was so cool.

People are always trying to get me to talk shit but there was nothing bad about it. After I moved to LA it was some random Sunday morning when I was nailing the last picture into the wall, it hit me that I was going to call the record labels and tell them I was available. Then the next second the phone rang and it was the tour manager for the Smashing Pumpkins asking me to travel with Billy Corgan and be a midi programmer. I said yes and I only had that phone number for a week! The guy told me You'll be on a plane tomorrow morning because we need you in Portland. I said ok and he called me back an hour later. I ended up not needing that list of record labels. I was with the Pumpkins for six months. Then during that time I checked my machine one day and Axl Rose called and that's when that whole Guns N' Roses thing happened.

DRE: What did you do with them?

CV: When Axl was rebuilding the band every week I was the first guy that was going to be the new drummer after Matt Sorum left. So I was going to be the programmer, drummer and Moby was going to produce. It was like the first incarnation of new people. Duff was even still there and Buckethead wasn't.

DRE: Got any shit to talk about that?

CV: [laughs] There's nothing to talk about. Everyone was really nice but I just didn't really want to do that. I just got out of ten year group and if I was going to do it I would have had to sign a long term commitment. I said if you've already spent eight years trying to make a record and you're only still doing this, then it could be another eight years. It was not long after that when I started jotting down stuff about tweaker.