“All of a sudden, it was a huge thing. There was nothing, and then all of a sudden, it was like everybody’s walking around with NIN shirts. After I mixed the record — it was maybe six months later — I was like, ‘What is the N.I.N.? What is that?’ And my wife is like, ‘Oh, that’s Nine Inch Nails.’ I said, ‘Nine Inch Nails?! I did that!’”
This article was previously published on October 20, 2020 as an exclusive for CULT members.
October 20th marks the 31 year anniversary of Pretty Hate Machine, an album that needs no introduction. [But we’re going to write one anyway.]
What can DarknessCalling.net say about PHM that hasn’t already been said? It’s undeniably one of the most significant albums of all time, despite the towering presence of its younger brother The Downward Spiral. While TDS may be Nine Inch Nails’ most celebrated work, we would argue that Pretty Hate Machine presents a more vulnerable, honest portrait of Trent Reznor who — in 1989 — was roughly 24 years old and still finding his place in the world:
“Really, Pretty Hate Machine was born from tinkering around in the studio at night,” he once told Rolling Stone. “I stayed up late at night, trying to figure out who I was, what I had to say as a songwriter. And things started to pop out.”
Audiophiles and NIN fanatics know the name Flood, but less-discussed is Keith LeBlanc, the producer who added a significant amount of magic to Reznor’s debut, particularly when it came to “Head Like A Hole.”
Trent Reznor, November 2019: “I went back in and re-tweaked ‘Head Like a Hole.’ Keith LeBlanc did a mix that felt right, one that turned up the aggression a little bit more, and that’s the version that is out.”
LeBlanc was involved in production, mixing, and sound engineering on five of Pretty Hate Machine’s ten tracks, and LeBlanc’s right-hand-man was none other than Kennan Keating, an accomplished audio engineer in his own right. Keating has worked with everyone from ZZ-Top to LaToya Jackson, and he contributed some small but impactful tweaks to Pretty Hate Machine that have been cemented in our memories for 31 years.
DarknessCalling.net was lucky enough to chat with Keating about his work, his memories of those PHM sessions, and what the future holds. Read on below.
DARKNESS CALLING: Thank you for giving us the opportunity to speak with you about your work. Outside of NIN, I know that you have a diverse range of credits, and you did a lot of work for TVT Records, in particular. At the time, I assume Pretty Hate Machine was just another TVT job for you?
KEATING: Well, I did a lot of work for Keith LeBlanc, who was the drummer for The Sugarhill Gang. We were doing mainly dance, R&B, and hip-hop at Unique [Recording Studios], and that was the draw there. Trent was into that, so that’s why he came in to work with Keith, who is a master at hip-hop rhythms.
Keith LeBlanc had also been working with Chris Lord-Alge, who I assisted for about a year while I moved up to engineer. Chris just got super busy. Everyone wanted him, and Keith knew I could get the “Lord-Alge sound,” so it was on.
I was on several projects with Keith, and then one day, he said, “Hey, I’ve got this other project. It’s not a lot of money, but would you mind doing me a favor and just do it?” I said, “Sure, I’ll do it.” I had no idea what it was.
Then Trent shows up. Kind of a mild-mannered guy. You would have never thought that this kid was going to be Satan’s lovechild for the public. [Laughs.] He was kind of a normal guy. Very smart. Educated, obviously. Well-spoken. A very smart kid.
“...my jaw hit the floor. I just said, ‘Oh, man. This guy’s for real.’”
KEATING: Honestly, Trent had his shit so much more together than most people that come into the studio. I mean, this man was a one-man business, and you could tell from the get-go. It was when he told me that he played all the guitar that my jaw hit the floor. I just said, “Oh, man. This guy’s for real.”
Keith was there to add a few touches to it [Pretty Hate Machine], but Trent had basically everything already on his computer when he came to the studio. We were just doing sweetening and mixing for the album.
Trent was very sure of himself. I remember that. He knew what he wanted — exactly — for the most part. I was able to do a few creative things, but a lot of the stuff that I was trying to do, he was like, “No, I don’t want that.” [Laughs.]
But he was very easy to work with. He might rein me in on some of my more excessive mix choices, but he always listened first and commented later. Also, I was tickled to work on the same album with Flood, who I really love as an engineer and producer. Trent clearly knew how to pick them.
All in all, I’m pretty proud of the soundstage that I set up for Trent’s songs, along with the effects and various treatments that I used. And he was generally pretty happy with everything. But when he wasn’t, he let me know real quick!
DARKNESS CALLING: Do you remember any of your little ideas that maybe did stick, or that made it onto the album?
KEATING: It’s not so much the ideas, but the treatment of sounds. I’d put a little reverb on this or put some delay on that. I’m usually pretty creative with my mixes, and I put a lot of myself into them. I had a few things that he let me get away with, but otherwise, he was kind of like, “I want it like this, and that’s how I want it.” And that was fine with me. I actually like that — when people know exactly what they want. Then you know you’re not going to be coming back to re-do something.
DARKNESS CALLING: I know that Trent has sometimes been described as a dictator, but it’s still very exciting to speak with someone who was involved in shaping some of those sounds and delivering the final recorded product to us. Do you have any fly-on-the-wall moments — memories you could talk about that wouldn’t get you or me in trouble?
KEATING: [Laughs]. No, it really wasn’t anything like that. It was definitely not a social thing. A lot of sessions are — artists will bring their posse with them, and you’ll hang out and party and whatnot. But it was nothing like that. He would show up and we would work all day, basically. A dictator’s not far from the truth. [Laughs.] But like I said, he had done all the work beforehand, and I recognized his genius immediately. We had a great rapport. He would tease me, and I’d tease him, back-and-forth. It was a brutal work schedule, as I said, but fun was had.
DARKNESS CALLING: I know that TVT wasn’t used to managing anything quite like NIN at the time, and of course Trent fought for a long time after that to get away from TVT. What would you say about your experiences working with the label?
KEATING: I’ll tell you one thing I didn’t really like was the fact that I didn’t get the proper credit on the mixes. I mixed five of the songs on the record [“Head Like A Hole,” “Down In It,” “Kinda I Want To,” “Sin,” and “The Only Time”], and they roped me in with everybody, whereas I felt that I should have been listed on the songs as “mixed by.” But that was because TVT Records was kind of a little lax about stuff. The independent labels in those days — you had to chase them around to get anything done.
DARKNESS CALLING: As it currently stands, I think your formal credits list you as an audio engineer for those five songs. What’s neat about that is that three of those tracks are some of NIN’s biggest singles, so even as an audio engineer, it’s still an incredible accomplishment in its own right. With that said, it’s a shame if you weren’t properly credited.
KEATING: Yeah, I would have really preferred to be listed as “mix engineer,” because that was my speciality that I was bringing to the table. Although I did do it as a favor in a way, it’s funny how these things blow up. It’s always the thing that you least expect that — all of a sudden — “Wow, this blew up.”
DARKNESS CALLING: I know you were mixing a lot of things back then for Unique Recording Studios (1984-1996).
KEATING: Yeah, that was a very creative environment over there. We had all the latest tech gear there. Every time something new would come out — and a lot of new stuff was coming out — the guy that owned the studio, Bobby Nathan, was always the first to get this stuff. As soon as he heard about it, he would get on the phone and get one in the studio to try it out.
Pretty Hate Machine was mixed in Studio C, which had just gotten an upgrade from the Neve console to a SSL board with the ABC buss network, so I could separately process the track, vocals, and FX on the 3 busses feeding the master. It very much came in handy!
Unique Recording Studios was kind of a destination. A lot of artists were trying to be cutting edge, and plus we were the cheapest studio in town, too, which the other studios weren’t very happy about. [Laughs.] But we got a lot of business that way. Plus, as engineers, we all learned the MIDI stuff before anybody else knew how to do it, so we were MIDI’ing, putting samples out… All the hip-hop guys were coming in to us because it was cutting-edge technology. Now everybody has it, but back then, it was kind of special.
DARKNESS CALLING: What else can you tell us about the recording process on PHM, in terms of the technology back then?
KEATING: I’m pretty sure that Trent brought in his own computer. He had it all on a computer. I think he dragged his actual desktop into the studio, and we were there for the better part of a week. He downloaded a lot of stuff, and we recorded a few tracks, but mostly the vocals and everything were all downloaded off his computer.
At the time, there weren’t a lot of people doing that. We were working with two-inch tape. So what we did was transfer all his files to tape. That was a big process.
DARKNESS CALLING: So, it’s kind of like he was trying to go all-digital already, and you had to kind of reverse the process a little bit to make it fit into your typical workflow for how things would get done in the studio?
KEATING: Exactly.
DARKNESS CALLING: Speaking of which, I wanted to ask you about your feelings regarding the older, analog recording technology compared to now, where pretty much everything is digital.
KEATING: It’s much easier to do it now. But I liked the fact that there were a lot of happy accidents with tape. There were things that would happen that don’t happen now in the digital world. But I try to create happy accidents when I’m working in the computer now, too. Sometimes, you just set up something randomly, like bringing something up on a channel that’s not intended to be brought up, just to see how it sounds. I like working with a lot of effects and stuff. It’s always fun playing around, trying to get the vibe on things.
It’s important to try and get a vibe for the music that’s not necessarily what the artist intended, because the artist sometimes gets it halfway there, and then all of a sudden, they’re like, “Holy cow! I never thought of it that way!” I always try to get away with as much as I can, and if the artist says, “That’s too much,” then I’ll back it down. I don’t mind going over-the-top just to try something. I’m a musician and the effects are my way of “playing the tracks.”
DARKNESS CALLING: It’s how you get to express yourself as a musician would.
KEATING: Exactly.
DARKNESS CALLING: As far as your general role as an audio engineer, even today, you can fill a lot of different roles in the process, I’m sure.
KEATING: I bring my ear to everything I do. I do play guitar, so I’m a musician, as well. I also play the keyboard, so I bring kind of a musician’s perspective, which can add some suggestions or arrangement ideas to the project. A lot of the stuff I’ve worked on, I’ve also played guitar on.
DARKNESS CALLING: I know you run your own company, Absolute Audio, in NYC. Do you work primarily with artists in New York, or has the Internet allowed you to work with musicians from all over?
KEATING: I do a lot of stuff over the Internet, but in New York, too. I’m based in Long Island right now, so I do a lot of in-and-out. I’m working on a gospel thing right now, a blues thing, and a rock band’s project [Modern Beast]. I’d love to explore working with new artists, too.
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