Chris Vrenna (1967, Eerie, Pennsylvania) is the drummer-turned-producer and remixer (Marilyn Manson, Smashing Pumpkins, U2). Previously he drummed with industrial metallers Nine Inch Nailes for a long time, departing in 1997.



At age 13, already having already played drums for seven years and enraptured by new-wave classics like Depeche Mode's "Construction Time," Chris Vrenna saw a picture of Bill Bruford, the legendary drummer for Yes and King Crimson, playing a stop-sign-shaped Simmons electronic drum kit. On Wired.com (2001) Vrenna recalls:

"The idea that it could sound like anything, sound like you'd never heard before" was incredibly appealing to Vrenna. "A regular snare drum - everybody knows what it sounds like."

He mowed grass all summer to save up enough money for the kit. "And from then on, I was attracted to anything with a flashing light and a button and something I could hit." Vrenna met Trent Reznor, the eccentric force behind Nine Inch Nails, in 1985 or 1986. In an interview with Faces Magazine (1994), Vrenna reveils how both musicians met:

"I was still a senior in high school. I'm from Erie, Pennsylvania and he's from Mercer, which is forty-five minutes south from Erie, and there's a town in the middle of our two towns. And I was playing in a band there, and the keyboard player from that band and Trent were friends already and I got introduced to him. He would always come see our band and we would drive to Cleveland to see him play. When Trent started NIN, he basically was the band. (...) We were roommates and I helped him do demos in the studio. He had all his gear in his bedroom in our little apartment, and that's pretty much where he wrote "Pretty Hate Machine". After we shopped it and got the final deal, he went to England to record. He came back and put a live band together. It was he and I, and we got a guitar player and keyboard player at that point."

Vrenna would stay for a long time with Nine Inch Nails.



When shock rocker Marilyn Manson recorded the album

"Antichrist Superstar" in 1996, Manson drummer Ginger Fish went back to Vegas. Hence Chris Vrenna played on two songs as a session drummer: "Kinderfelt" and "Reflecting God".



That same year Vrenna was finishing his last track with Nine Inch Nails ("The Perfect Drug") when drummer Brian Reitzell (Redd Kross, Air) invited him to record a track for Flyin' Traps, an album featuring all-star drummers such as Stephen Perkins and Matt Cameron. That moment the seeds of the project Tweaker were planted. Vrenna moved to Los Angeles shortly after and began a career as a full-time producer, part-time solo artist.



Under the moniker of Tweaker, Vrenna composes and releases his own music nowadays. A first issue from Tweaker, the "Linoleum" EP featuring David Sylvian, hit stores in August 2001.



Producing and remixing

Vrenna's credits as a talented producer and remixer continued with a who's-who of bands including Marilyn Manson, Hole, Killing Joke, Rasputina, U2, Weezer, Nelly Furtado, P.O.D., Slipknot, Xzibit, Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg, David Bowie, Lords of Acid, Skinny Puppy and more. In 1997, Vrenna worked as Billy Corgan's programmer in a collaborative effort with The Smashing Pumpkins which in turn earned him a Grammy for best Hard Rock Performance for the track "The End Is the Beginning Is the End."



In addition to his credits behind the scenes, Vrenna also stepped into the spotlight on stage as the drummer not only with Nine Inch Nails, but also Pig Face, Die Warzau, KMFDM, Smashing Pumpkins, Stabbing Westward, Marilyn Manson and most recently with Gnarls Barkley. He also composes music and plays live in his own band Tweaker featuring different singers such as Robert Smith (The Cure), David Sylvian (Japan), Burton C. Bell (Fear Factory), Will Oldham (Bonnie "Prince" Billy), Buzz Osborne (The Melvins) and Johnny Marr (The Smiths) for various tracks on his two records The Attraction To All Things Uncertain (2001) and 2am Wakeup Call (2004).



If that wasn't enough, Vrenna also produces soundtracks and composes music for several video games including Doom 3, Quake 4, Enter The Matrix, Sonic the Hedgehog, Area 51, Pure Ride, Need for Speed Most Wanted, and American McGee's Alice.