Working nights at Right Track Studio as a handyman and janitor, [[Trent Reznor]] used studio "down time" to record and develop his own music. Playing most of the keyboards, drum machines, guitars, and samplers himself, he recorded a demo. Teaming up with manager [[John A. Malm, Jr.]] they sent the demo to various record labels. Reznor received serious offers from many of them. He signed a deal with TVT Records who, until then, were known mainly for releasing novelty and television jingle records.
After the album was released, the aforementioned demo surfaced on a [[bootlegs|bootleg]] called ''[[Purest Feeling (album)|Purest Feeling]]''. It contains the original demo recordings of most of the tracks found on the album, as well as a couple that were not used ("[[Purest Feeling (song)|Purest Feeling]]" and "[[Maybe Just Once]]"). Two other Other batches of demos also exist: one batch ("Down In It", "Sanctified", "Kinda I Want To", and "Twist") can be found on the ''[[Demos and & Remixes]]'' bootleg, and another batch ("Sin", "Terrible Lie", "Sanctified", "Ringfinger", and "Down In It") are on a cassette privately owned by [[Martin Atkins]].[https://exclaim.ca/music/article/early_demo_of_nine_inch_nails_pretty_hate_machine_hits_ebay] Some of the demos on the Atkins tape may be the same as the ''Demos and & Remixes'' batch.
''Pretty Hate Machine'' was recorded in various studios around the world with Reznor collaborating with some of his most idolized producers - [[Flood]] at Syncro Sound in Boston, Keith LeBlanc at Unique Recording Studios in New York, [[Adrian Sherwood]] at Roundhouse Studios in London, and John Fryer at Blackwing Studios in London. Flood was originally supposed to produce the entire album, but couldn't because of his prior commitment with Depeche Mode.[https://www.theninhotline.com/archives/articles/display/530] Reznor used his own journal entries as sources and inspiration for the album's lyrics.[https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jun/21/trent-reznor-nine-inch-nails-youre-seeing-the-fall-of-america] He also listened extensively to [[Gary Numan]]'s album ''Telekon'' while recording the album.[https://www.electronicbeats.net/mr-style-icon-gary-numan-on-trent-reznor/]