NINE INCH NAILS

"I saw Nine Inch Nails live for the first time in 2022. Out of the three shows that I went to, I managed to take home two setlists. That was the tour that my account first started to garner an audience, and I thought that things couldn’t possibly top that experience. But then the Peel It Back tour happened, and it surpassed everything I expected.

The Peel It Back tour gave me everything and more. For the first leg of the tour, I traveled across the country to attend shows in Detroit and Cleveland, staying with some of my best friends in the world and spending quality time with them and their families. I saw the lush greenery of the Midwest and thought about how nice it must be to experience regular rainfall. For the second leg of the tour, I found myself finally breaking free of old patterns and blossoming far more than I thought possible, and the tour legs weren’t even a year apart. Seeing one of my favorite artists live with, dancing with, singing with, crying with, and hugging strangers with my friends is an experience I can’t replicate any other way. Across every date I went to, I handed out pins and stickers, traded friendship bracelets, and made new friends. To this day, I receive messages from people across all ages, either remembering me, the pins or stickers I handed out, or the compliment I gave to them.

For me, connecting people throughout the digital age has always been a passion. It’s why I took all my knowledge from making amateur fanpages as a kid and applied it to studying journalism and communication. To be able to put it into practice and impact fans’ lives is a whole different story. While studying and working in real-world journalism, I always thought my dreams of music journalism and archival work on a massive scale were unachievable and too ambitious. I always collected 90s music magazines because it was the kind of work I wanted to emulate, even when I was the Editor-in-Chief of an amateur newspaper. I was told by all my professors and mentors that if I pursued journalism professionally, it would be difficult to outdo, for example, an inexperienced yet influential Twitter user with loud opinions who was considered a journalist. While they weren’t exactly wrong, I look at what so many fans have helped me build. Ninternet, Inc. is my pride and joy. Aside from my work on Instagram, I wanted to dabble in something out of my comfort zone and take a leap of faith. I finally wanted to do what I’ve always wanted to do: build a tour journal that acts like a guestbook-style archival site that will outlast social media. Though I have a lot to thank social media for, the good ol’ web has survived all social media platforms. I wanted to trust myself, trust my audience, trust the fans, and know that those twenty thousand followers on my page aren’t just a number.

This project collected 312 responses from fans across the globe, from all walks of life. Thanks to so many fans who view my work as credible, helpful, reliable, and, best of all, appreciated, I was able to achieve a huge dream of mine.

It’s one thing for me to scroll through an Instagram carousel of carefully curated content about someone’s experience at a show, from the music in the post to the caption and the media order, versus actually reading a raw, photoless story. I manually read, input, and (very slightly) edited every single response to this project. I laughed and cried, too, and had to take breaks due to the nature of some of these stories. I saw a younger version of myself appear in some stories, and I took wisdom from what a future version of myself could look like. Though 312 doesn’t seem like a lot on paper, when you try to picture 312 people in a room, or in your house, or in pennies, it is far more significant than you ever imagined.

The stories you see on this site have not been altered in any way, other than formatting. Typing styles have been kept, even some typos, because that is the charm of archival work. Why change things to make them ‘perfect’ when that erases all of their personality and earnestness? As someone who loves journalism, I always kept in mind how every person has a story. Thank you for helping me see this project through; it helped me prove that’s true.

The magic of Nine Inch Nails is alive and well. This artist brings together all kinds of people, creating a community that allows newcomers and experienced goers to thrive. I can’t wait to see what else the band has in store!

From my heart to yours, I truly hope you enjoy reading these stories as much as I did, and I hope a stranger’s story resonates with your own, whether you submitted something or not. See you all soon, whether that be IRL or on the Ninternet."