Rob Sheridan

1. I'm not really the same person I was back in my blogging days, but I do really miss long-form writing. I think all of us who were involved in the glory days of blogging miss it. It's definitely one of my missions going forward to find an outlet for that.
2. It was just... time. There was a lot of really personal stuff going on for me, outside of NIN - divorce, midlife crisis, etc - and my head wasn't in it at the time. I realized I really needed to get out of LA. The subsequent couple years of disappearing into the forest and growing a lot as a person was really good for me. Sometimes you don't realize how much you need a change.

Absolutely.

Yeah, I am. Not sure what the future holds, but I definitely would work with Trent again. Haven't seen him in quite some time, so I'm looking forward to the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in May!

I know it's time to let it go!

It's a really good question, and I genuinely don't know. I think one of the things that made Year Zero special in the context of multimedia storytelling was that we didn't approach it as marketing. We purely wanted to create an art experience, and took advantage of an album marketing budget to make it happen. Because there was no company making sure we were pushing a product enough, or marketing research people making sure we covered specific demographics or did certain things in certain ways, we were free to create the experience we wanted, and that made it more pure and authentic to the fans who followed along. That's rare, because building a campaign on that scale is VERY expensive, and you certainly don't see record labels (or movie studios, etc) handing out that kind of money and asking for no control anymore. I think people are yearning for real-world experiences that extend out across media and outside of the internet the way ARGs did, but it's really difficult to make them happen in today's climate, especially without just coming across as crass marketing.

There are so many of both... I'll have to get back to you on the best, there are quite a few highlights. I've gotten to do some really amazing things, see all kinds of landmarks and go on all kinds of adventures. It's pretty much been a dream come true. But all that traveling is exhausting, so there are plenty of stories of fatigue and injury and stomach flus, or planes that seemed about to crash or cramped buses with no A/C in the middle of European summer... Worst experience? Getting a bottle smashed into my face in Tokyo and getting stitched up in a Japanese emergency room at 5am with no one speaking a word of English - then subsequently looking like a bandaged monster for the next couple weeks - that wasn't one of the highlights, really.

You're welcome! NIN has one of the most awesomely supportive fan bases out there, and ever since I was a teenager the internet's been a huge part of that. Artists embracing the internet lead to fans embracing the artists, and everyone wins. It's always just seemed like common sense to us!

We are still working on "The Fragile." It's hit a number of delays, but it's still on our plate. We've gone back and forth with A+R on the prototype for the package, but we still don't have it right yet. It will not be similar at all to PHM - it will be much cooler.

Share their work! The hardest thing amidst the speed and noise of the internet is getting noticed. If there's an artist you love, spread the word where you can. If you love artists who make products, like video game developers or authors, give their stuff good reviews/ratings in the places they're sold. Little things like that help boost their work in a world of algorithms.

Oh, also - TELL THEM how much you love their work! I forget to do this sometimes, I appreciate things people create and just take for granted - especially if they're successful - that they hear enough how awesome they are. But artists who aren't as well known don't hear it nearly enough, and that bit of encouragement can mean a lot.

It's a tough one, but I think I'm more of a Picard guy. It's mostly a generational thing though, I grew up on TNG.