Admittedly an unlikely choice, mono.kultur #03 is dedicated to Trent Reznor, the mind behind American industrial rock outfit Nine Inch Nails. Starting out in 1989, the band toured themselves into the spotlight, climbing into the American top ten despite their rather challenging, dark and aggressive sound. With their masterpiece ‘The Downward Spiral’, however, Reznor descended into severe drug and alcohol addiction, withdrawing for several years to overcome his affliction. He returned in 2005 with a new album, pioneering ever since new territory in terms of using the Internet as a tool to establish a direct connection to his audience.

With mono.kultur, Trent Reznor talked about coming to fame too fast, the overcoming of his addiction and recording in the house where Sharon Tate was murdered.

For this issue, we commissioned a fantastic series of portraits of Nine Inch Nails fans after attending a NIN show.

Interview by Michael Tschernek / Photography by Dominik Gigler / Design by Kai von Rabenau

“True mastership lies within limitations, a German poet once said. The Berliners of mono.kultur seem to have turned this thought into their own considering how the subject is described by an impeccable layout. [...] It would also mean to miss out on a publication which ignores the usual constraints (commercial or economical) and which consequently produces issues that are very different to the usual formats, in content as well as in design.”
— Magazine