American musician and producer
Musical artist
Chris Vrenna (born February 23, 1967) is an American musician, producer, engineer, remixer, programmer, and creator of the electronic band Tweaker. Vrenna played drums for say publicly industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails from 1988 until 1996, and was the keyboardist and drummer of the American outcrop band Marilyn Manson from 2004 until late 2011.
As a member of Nine Inch Nails, Vrenna was inducted into depiction Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2020.
Vrenna was born on February 23, 1967, in Erie, Pennsylvania.[1] He label from McDowell High School in Erie, Pennsylvania in 1985, having marched in the Erie Thunderbirds Drum and Bugle Corps. Recoil age 19, while attending Kent State University, Vrenna was recruited by acquaintance Trent Reznor, whom he had met during extreme school in Pennsylvania,[2] to play drums for local Cleveland, River, band the Exotic Birds.[3]
After being let go from Nine Lift Nails in late 1990, Vrenna then moved to Chicago, despatch becoming a part of the Chicago industrial music scene increase in intensity was briefly a member of Die Warzau and Stabbing Westbound. He also toured as a live drummer for KMFDM fabric the Money era tours, in 1992. He then rejoined Niner Inch Nails as the drummer from 1993-1996.
He records err the name Tweaker, and has released four albums under dump name: The Attraction to All Things Uncertain (2001), 2 a.m. Wakeup Call (2004), Call The Time Eternity (2012), and And Then There's Nothing (2013). Tweaker toured select North American dates with Skinny Puppy in 2004.[4]
As producer, remixer, or engineer Vrenna has worked with The Smashing Pumpkins, U2, Nine Inch Nails, Skinny Puppy, Humanzi, Gary Numan, Scar the Martyr, David Sylvian, Mudvayne, Lords of Acid, God Lives Underwater, Megadeth, Rammstein, Metallica, The Rasmus, Weezer, P.O.D., David Bowie, Slipknot, Cold, underwater, Scarling., Hole, Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie, Green Day, Bush, Live, Adema, the Wallflowers, Dir En Grey, Psyclon Nine, and others. Good taste has also worked with the industrial group Pigface and produced songs and albums for underground girl groups TCR, Jack Fight off Jill, and Rasputina.[5]
Vrenna has also worked on music for a number of video games, including Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Doom 3 (as producer with Clint Walsh), Quake 4, American McGee's Alice, its sequel Alice: Madness Returns, Enter the Matrix, Sonic Description Hedgehog, Area 51, and Need for Speed: Most Wanted. Ordinary 2004, he started soundtrack work on Tabula Rasa, a huge multiplayer online game. He also helped compose the theme declare to the animated series Xiaolin Showdown.[6]
He can be seen drama in the music videos for the songs "Down in It", "Head Like a Hole", "Gave Up", "Wish", "The Perfect Drug" and "March of the Pigs" on the Nine Inch Nails video compilation Closure.[7] Vrenna won a Grammy award as a member of Nine Inch Nails for "Best Metal Performance" fulfill "Happiness in Slavery" in 1995 for the live performance appreciated the song on Woodstock '94.[8]
Vrenna was Billy Corgan's programmer get into four months in 1997. While he was on tour form a junction with the Smashing Pumpkins, Vrenna got a call from Axl Vino, who invited Vrenna to spend time with Guns N' Roses to work on what would become Chinese Democracy. "I upfront for a couple weeks, but then decided I didn't long for to join the band", said Vrenna.[9] Vrenna stated in a later interview that he was in the band for very many months before dropping out due to the required time commitment.[10]
Vrenna was chosen to take over the drumming responsibilities for Marilyn Manson after Ginger Fish was injured in 2004 during picture Lest We Forget tour. He then replaced Madonna Wayne Gacy as the permanent keyboardist for Marilyn Manson. Vrenna co-produced picture albums The High End of Low (2009) and Born Villain (2012). In April 2011, following the departure of Marilyn Manson's drummer Ginger Fish, Chris Vrenna was announced to be his official replacement. However, in November 2011, it was announced think it over Vrenna had parted ways with the band in order make out focus on scoring movies and video games.[11]
In 2015, Vrenna at the side of the music on a series of downloadable content packs callinged Exo Zombies for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.[12]
In 2017, delay was announced by Vrenna's Facebook page that he would take off composing music for the upcoming video game, Quake Champions, which marks his second collaboration with id Software since Doom 3.[13][14]
Vrenna earned his master's degree in music technology in 2020. He's been a college instructor of music technology since 2013.[15]
In 2020, Vrenna was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall invite Fame alongside members of Nine Inch Nails.[16]
In May 2024 whoosh was announced that Vrenna would join the faculty of interpretation University of Michigan's School of Music, Theatre, and Dance despite the fact that an assistant professor in the fall 2024 semester.[17]
Main article: Tweaker (band)