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 title: Paradise Lost
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For years there's been talk of mysterious noises emanating from 
nothing studios- sound constructed during the making of NIN records 
that wasn't right for those albums and yet was too cool to let die. 
A.P. extracts the true about the Tapeworm project. 
"Trent's joke was that it was a parasite feeding off the bigger 
organism." 

Tapeworm: rumor or fact? 
Trent Reznor: Fact. The ever-present Tapeworm project. We've got some 
things done, and there are millions of tracks waiting for vocals from 
a few different people from Maynard [James Keenan] from Tool to Page 
[Hamilton' from Helmet; from Phil [Anselmo] from Pantera to myself. 
Danny [Lohner] and Charlie [Clouser] are the main musical force behind 
that. 

What are the origins of Tapeworm? 
Charlie Clouser: When we're listening back to our rough racks you can 
immediately tell when something is not NIN. There's a certain tonal 
flavor to the stuff, even though the textures have changed since the 
last album. And when we listen back to a lot of our stff we go, "This 
is cool. We'd like to use this, but it's obviously not NIN." In 
theory, Tapeworm will provide that [outlet]. 

Whose brainchild was it? 
Danny Lohner: I had these songs that I had started, and Charlie was 
gonna do his thing. The actual name probably came from Trent, but we 
were just trying to get something happening and wanted to it with 
Trent. 

What's the name all about-there's not much actual "tape" in this 
studio, is there? 
Lohner: There's joke was that it was a parasite feeding off the bigger 
organism. But, yet, there's zero tape involved, actually. 

How far back does this stuff go? 
Clouser: There's tons of shit all the way to when Manson was doing 
Antichrist Superstar, I think '95 or '96. That's kinda when we first 
moved into the studio. While Trent was involved with the Manson 
people, we would be generating song ideas. 

Was anyone else involved? 
Lohner: Yeah, 'cause when we did the last tour, there was five of us: 
Trent, me, Charlie, and two other guys; Robin Finck and Chris 
Vrenna-and they've since left. We had hoped to involve those two guys, 
as well. 

What's the general sound like? 
Clouser: From heavy stuff and hip-hop stuff to Kate Bush songs- it 
remains to be seen. But the thing we did with Maynard-more electonicky 
but with heavy guitars-is the blueprint. But it was has to be defined 
as something different enough from NIN for Trent to be involved. 

So is Trent actually playing on most of this stuff? 
Lohner: Well, he does the odd guitar here and there, and he's got 
vocal melodies, but he hasn't actually sung the words. Whether that 
means he uses his voice or gets someone from another band to come in 
and do it... 
Clouser: It could potentially provide Trent with a way of being 
creatively involved in writing and production without necessarily 
having to micromanage every aspect of it in the same way that he does 
with NIN. We may contribute various aspects to NIN songs, but it's 
very much under his guidance and subject to his review and tweakage. 
This might provide a way for him to not necessarily get in there with 
the tweezers. 
Lohner: I think he would welcome that. Because he seems to certainly 
enjoy the one song that we
Posted to t.d.n: 07/27/99 17:09:00