Nine Inch Nails have shared a professionally shot performance video capturing a July 2017 rehearsal of "The Lovers," a haunting highlight from this year's Add Violence EP. Directed by Brook Linder, the clip combines tight shots of Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Co.'s run-through with bursts of red and blue lights for a haunted-disco feel — in other words, it's totally on-message.
Reznor and Ross broke down "The Lovers" on a recent episode of "Song Exploder," discussing the song's themes, gear setups, and more. "I had written a kind of poem, I guess, and what it was about was the inevitability of addiction or seduction: where one could try to resist, but you're gonna wind up succumbing," Reznor said of its origins. "The setting was a visual one, of New Orleans: a place I lived for many years – hot summer nighttime, gas lamp burning, 100 degrees two in the morning, humid, earthy ... and I know that feeling well. I also know the feeling of being a full-fledged addict living in New Orleans in the summer, and not wanting to do something but [being] unable to stop myself."
Listen to the whole episode below.
Add Violence, which was released last July, marks the second installment in a planned trilogy of EPs that kicked off with last year's Not the Actual Events. (The third release is currently TBA.)
