DARK KINGDOM
GQ US|April - May 2024
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross-best friends and Nine Inch Nails bandmates-found unlikely creative fulfillment (and a couple of Oscars) by reassessing what they had to offer as musicians. Now they're thinking even bigger, and imagining an artistic empire of their own making.
ZACH BARON
DARK KINGDOM

EVERY WEEKDAY, Trent Reznor makes his way from his house, a cottagey sprawl behind a white wall in a canyon on Los Angeles's Westside, to a studio he's built in his backyard. There he meets his best friend, bandmate, and business partner, Atticus Ross, and they get to work. Reznor and Ross observe the same hours, Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. "We show up," Reznor told me. "We're not late. We're not coming in to start to fuck around." It's a methodical, orderly existence that Reznor could not have foreseen in the '90s, when he was fronting Nine Inch Nails and struggling with a drug-and-alcohol problem that was his answer to success. "I would do anything to avoid writing a song," Reznor said. "I'd rewire the studio 50 times."

Now Reznor has a wife, Mariqueen Maandig, five kids, and multiple jobs. He is sober. Since 2010, when the director David Fincher asked Reznor and Ross to score The Social Network, for which Reznor and Ross won an Oscar, the two men have had steady employment composing for film. This year, Reznor and Ross are also starting a yet-to-benamed company, built around storytelling in multiple disciplines: film production, fashion, a music festival, and a venture with Epic Games.

This story is from the April - May 2024 edition of GQ US.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

This story is from the April - May 2024 edition of GQ US.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

MORE STORIES FROM GQ USView All
How New York's Social Life Went Members-Only
GQ US

How New York's Social Life Went Members-Only

A new wave of private restaurants, workspaces, wellness centers, and nightclubs has taken New York City by storm. Emily Sundberg gets inside most of them-and helps us understand why so many young New Yorkers are gleefully shelling out membership dues.

time-read
10+ mins  |
Summer 2024
COLMAN DOMING REACHED THE SUMMIT NOW WHAT?
GQ US

COLMAN DOMING REACHED THE SUMMIT NOW WHAT?

After three-plus decades in Hollywood, Colman Domingo finally found his work validated with an Oscar nomination-and became the new king of red-carpet style. Here, he gives us an exclusive first look at Loro Piana's luxurious new camping collection, and talks about the career opportunities he's been preparing to seize all his life.

time-read
9 mins  |
Summer 2024
WHY IS EVERYONE ON STEROIDS NOW?
GQ US

WHY IS EVERYONE ON STEROIDS NOW?

Suddenly, steroids and a slew of other performance enhancers are moving out of the shadows and into the fitness routines of a new category of enthusiastic user. Across the internet and in gyms, how did body-modifying drug use become so ubiquitous, so effective, so...normal? And can it really be a good thing?

time-read
10+ mins  |
Summer 2024
NEW YORKS GREAT BRICK-AND-MORTAR SHOPPING REVIVAL
GQ US

NEW YORKS GREAT BRICK-AND-MORTAR SHOPPING REVIVAL

The clothes are glorious. The vibes are immaculate. And the options are endless. We visited five of the city's buzziest shops for a look at the summer's best new threads worn by their stylish staffs, and to find out what's driving the return of NYC street retail.

time-read
10+ mins  |
Summer 2024
THE OUTLAW TALES OF PESU PLUMA
GQ US

THE OUTLAW TALES OF PESU PLUMA

He grew up listening to Ice Cube and Travis Scott, unless he was singing along to the corridos that immortalized larger-than-life Mexican legends. Now, the mullet-rocking superstar is fast becoming as famous as his rap idols-and as compelling as the folk heroes he used to sing about.

time-read
10+ mins  |
Summer 2024
LET THE LUXURY GAMES BEGIN
GQ US

LET THE LUXURY GAMES BEGIN

This summer, as athletes and fans descend on the Paris Olympics, LVMH is spending a fortune making sure its brands are enmeshed in the Games. It's the grandest convergence of sports and luxury ever-but what can it tell us about the Arnault family's broader ambitions

time-read
10+ mins  |
Summer 2024
KEVIN COSTNER BETS IT ALL AGAIN
GQ US

KEVIN COSTNER BETS IT ALL AGAIN

For years, Kevin Costner had an obsession he couldn't shake: A four-part film epic called Horizon that has so far cost him $38 million of his own money. Now, he talks in-depth for the first time about why he left Yellowstone and why he's placing one of the most grandiose bets in Hollywood history on himself.

time-read
10+ mins  |
Summer 2024
MEET THE WILDEST CHARCTER IN THE WORLD'S MOST INFLUENTIAL MUSIC SCENE
GQ US

MEET THE WILDEST CHARCTER IN THE WORLD'S MOST INFLUENTIAL MUSIC SCENE

Right now, to be the most important new voice in Afrobeats means you might just be the most important new voice in global music, period. That title currently belongs to Asake, a Nigerian singer with bonkers style and a penchant for making speaker-melting hits.

time-read
8 mins  |
April - May 2024
MARNI'S FRANCESCO RISSO WILL NEVER GROWUP
GQ US

MARNI'S FRANCESCO RISSO WILL NEVER GROWUP

The eccentric Italian designer is proving that the very serious business of fashion doesn't have to be very serious at all.

time-read
9 mins  |
April - May 2024
WELCOME TO LAUREN HALSEY'S NEIGHBORHOOD
GQ US

WELCOME TO LAUREN HALSEY'S NEIGHBORHOOD

The red-hot 36-year-old artist has achieved global success with a very local approach: applying imaginative, laserlike focus to a few square blocks of her hometown. In doing so, she renders and reflects what it's actually like to live and work in-and never, ever leave-South Central Los Angeles.

time-read
5 mins  |
April - May 2024