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→Early history of the album
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, a [[bootlegs|bootleg]] called ''[[Purest Feeling (album)|Purest Feeling]]'' surfaced. It contains early tour rehearsal recordings of most of the tracks found on the album (including an early version of "Ringfinger" entitled "Twist"), as well as a couple that were not used ("[[Purest Feeling (song)|Purest Feeling]]" and "[[Maybe Just Once]]"). Various sets of demo recordings also exist. Versions of "Sin", "Terrible Lie", "Sanctified", "Twist", and "Down In It") are on an uncirculated cassette, one copy of which is privately owned by [[Martin Atkins]][https://exclaim.ca/music/article/early_demo_of_nine_inch_nails_pretty_hate_machine_hits_ebay]; versions of "Down In It", "Sanctified", "Kinda I Want To", and "Twist" can be found on the ''[[Demos & Remixes]]'' bootleg; and another batch of assorted early tracks, including non-rehearsal recordings of "Purest Feeling" and "Maybe Just Once", was leaked in 2025.
A 2011 dissertation by Rock & Roll Hall of Fame museum employee Jason Hanley[https://dspace.sunyconnect.suny.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/b096437e-e280-48ed-8a6a-c4ed87b49736/content], written while a student at Stony Brook University, gave additional background info on the album's early stages. Unheard and unshared demos from Cleveland in early 1988 were played for him by original NIN drummer [[Ron Musarra]], and among these were a track called "I'm Not Listening" and an early version of "That's What I Get" entitled "I Can Make Myself Forget". Also included were versions of "Kinda I Want To" and "Purest Feeling". According to the dissertation, the next iteration of the album recordings took place in London with John Fryer, and it is implied in the footnotes that this set of demos is on the "Demos & Remixes" bootleg. It is therefore assumed that the demos on the cassetted cassette owned by Martin Atkins are earlier.
==Recording==