Nine Inch Nails touring member Alessandro Cortini has opened up about the possibility with returning to the studio with frontman Trent Reznor.

“My creative relationship with Trent really doesn’t have a path,” Cortini tells Pitchfork. “If it’ll happen, it’ll happen.”

Cortini, who’s played guitars, bass and keyboards with NIN live since 2013 after a previous stint in the band from 2005-2008, can be heard on 2008’s Ghosts I-IV and 2013’s Hesitation Marks. Every release since then, however, has been almost entirely recorded by just Reznor and Atticus Ross.

“Trent and Atticus have reached such a creative balance that if they’re fulfilled emotionally, I don’t think there should be any exterior contribution,” Cortini says.

Cortini does admit, though, that he used to feel “like you’re dating someone but they don’t want to be in a relationship with you” during his early days in NIN.

“You’re like, ‘I’m playing with you — why am I not in the studio with you and Atticus doing stuff?'” Cortini explains. “But Ghosts was a big turning point for me and how I approach music. Trent’s creative output is a function of how he feels, not the people around him.”

“I love Trent to death and I know he loves me, too,” Cortini continues. “We all do music because it’s who we are. And we find ways of doing it that are a function of what we need emotionally.”

Cortini adds that NIN has been working on future touring plans amid the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’ve gone back and forth, trying to do something and then having to postpone or cancel,” he says. “I’m sure it will come.”

Cortini was one of six NIN members to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame last year alongside Reznor.

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