Before founding Nine Inch Nails, Trent Reznor spent the 1980s quietly building the skill set that would later define his sound. He grew up in Mercer, Pennsylvania, as a classically trained pianist who also played saxophone and tuba, but his real passion became synthesizers and studio technology After moving to Cleveland in the mid eighties, Reznor worked at the recording studio Right Track as a janitor and assistant, using his off hours to experiment with equipment and teach himself engineering.