Trent Reznor has teamed up with Atticus Ross, Oscar-winning composer Gustavo Santaolalla (Brokeback Mountain, Make a Murderer) and post-rock veterans Mogwai to score Leonardo DiCaprio’s new climate change documentary Before the Flood. Reznor spoke about the project in a new interview with The Daily Beast, and naturally, Donald Trump’s name came up.

The Republican presidential candidate famously said that climate change was an invention of the Chinese. Meanwhile, his running mate, Mike Pence, doesn’t believe in evolution. “How do you even engage in a dialogue when that’s the stance?” Reznor told The Daily Beast’s Marlow Stern.



Reznor went on to call Trump’s candidacy “surreal,” adding, “I’ll admit that I was entertained during the Republican debates and the whole process of whittling them down. It’s kind of fun to see a grenade go off and see these guys—I hate every one of them—be eliminated and humiliated. But it stopped being funny months ago. It’s sad to see the discourse be dragged this low. It’s absurd that this is even happening.”

Asked if was worried about Trump’s lasting effect on the country’ s political landscape, Reznor responded, “I’m absolutely terrified about that. Hopefully Trump will flame out any minute now, but the effect of him—or he himself—is not going to go away, and there’s going to be an awful lot of very energized followers. We all know they’re not going to say, ‘Well, let’s support Hillary [Clinton] because she’s the president now.’ She’s walking into a terrible situation.”

While he supports Clinton, Reznor admitted that he does not feel as passionate for her as he did for Bernie Sanders or President Barack Obama. “Since it’s down to two people, there’s no question that 100 percent of my support is going towards her. I’ll admit that I was more enthused about Bernie in terms of the sense of upheaval and revolution. I’m not saying anything that isn’t very obvious here, but that passion and that ignition of feelings—of wow, we could affect change—is the same way I felt before Obama got in. I feel less passionate about Clinton, personally. It feels establishment and generally I think that turns people off. ”

Elsewhere in the interview, Reznor was asked whether Nine Inch Nails would release a new album before year’s end. He responded, “I am working on music right now. That’s all I can say!”