/BLEEDTHROUGH
/Q+A

Q: Okay, so what is this?
A: I already explained that somewhere else.

Q: Why are you doing this?
A: It started as a drunken boast to my friend Shaun. I’d just gotten the Matthew Good art in the can and announced that as a Christmas present, I was going to make him this could-have-been record; audio, packaging, everything. I also made a lot of threats to the government and set a few fires. I’m not allowed in that Build-a-Bear anymore.

Q: Are you going to take this seriously?
A: Probably not.

Q: […]
A: […]

Q: [begins leaving]
A: Listen, at its core, this is a gift from one minutiae-obsessed Nine Inch Nails fan to another. That meant creating a product that held up to a level of scrutiny bordering on psychosis. From the conceptual throughline to the legal copy, everything about Bleedthrough is meant to feel like it fell out of an alternate universe.
I’ve always wanted to build out a large body of work for a client like this. Actually, for this client. 

Q: Okay, so some of these questions came from the internet. Which you know, because you personally screened them for anything that could make you look bad. Okay, Reddit user arachnophilia wanted you to explain your song choices.
A: In the record’s alternate timeline, the last thing fans heard was a single-disc live album in 2002. That point of demarcation helped define what couldn’t be on the album. The selection narrowed further when the narrative significance and tone came up. The songs needed to serve the proposed themes and feel right in the context. For the better part of half a year I thumbed those song names around a playlist on my phone trying to get them to tell a story. This is it.

Q: Okay, a couple people asked how you did this. Oh, wait, this person just asked “how could you do this?”
A: The audio was mixed together in Acid, a serviceable enough multi-track audio program I’ve been using since high school. Everything on the record is pulled from an official NIN release or their soundtrack work, nothing’s been remixed.
The bulk of the visuals went through an android app called GlitchLab at some point. No presets were used, and most images and their component parts were reprocessed dozens of times over. Elements like the background of the LP’s cover went through a Rube Goldberg machine of image processing only to have most of its detail blown out and finished with an organic grain.
Everything was assembled and fine-tuned in Photoshop with some help from the Exposure X7 plugin. Photoshop’s canvas extension AI was used for some pieces, and the Krea AI tool was used purposefully as a way to glitch, but otherwise this was standard image editing.

Q: Okay, a few people have emailed asking about purchasing copies of Bleedthrough as a vinyl, CD, whatever other objects you can trap sound in. Wax cylinders? That’s one. Anyway, can they buy it?
A: Bleedthrough is not for sale in any form, nor will it ever be monetized. It’s a project, not a product. If you want a physical copy, you can download audio files and packaging PDFs from this website.
I have no right to sell the audio I’ve assembled, nor is it legal for me to sell a product with the NIN trademark. The band have been exceedingly supportive of fan projects like The NIN Live Archive, and this is intended in the same spirit.

Q: Has there been any kind of an official response to this project?
A: I have been officially sanctioned by three G7 nations and Build-A-Bear Workshop Inc.

Q: Weren’t you making a music video for this?
A: [deflects]

Q: Someone on ETS asked where the remixes for the singles came from.
A: Those were all standouts from remix.nin.com, all of which can still be found on the Internet Archive, apparently. They massively break the continuity of the project, but counterpoint: they’re amazing.

Q: What’s next for this project?
A: What do you mean what’s next?

Q: Are you going to do more singles? Maybe another record?
A: No, it’s over. I’ve gotta go find something else to do now.

Q: So we’re done?
A: Yeah.

Q: So what do you want to do now, you wanna go get a slice?
A: I’ll get a slice if I can get a fountain drink. I don’t like cans.

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