Nine Inch Nails Share The Vigorous ‘As Alive As You Need Me To Be’ From Their ‘Tron: Ares’ Score

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross are Nine Inch Nails. They also make a ton of film scores together, but for those projects, they’re credited by their real names, not as the band. They’re taking a different approach for their Tron: Ares score, though, opting to do it as Nine Inch Nails.

It’s not fully clear what that means for the project, but at the moment, we do have a hint: NIN shared the first listen of the soundtrack today (July 17), a song called “As Alive As You Need Me To Be.” It’s something that could fit on a regular NIN studio album, an electronic banger with Reznor vocals.

As for why they’re going about it this way, Reznor told Empire, “A couple of years ago, [Tom MacDougall, President of Walt Disney Music] came by the studio and said, ‘Do you think you guys would be interested in scoring Tron?’ He didn’t even finish the sentence, I was like, ‘F*ck yes, we’d want to do that.’ He said, ‘How would you feel about if it was credited as Nine Inch Nails, versus Trent and Atticus?’ We weren’t expecting to hear that question.”

He added, “I’ll give a few spoilers: there’s not one second of orchestra in our score. It sounds precise and unpleasant at times. It’s not an atonal, punishing score, but we spent a lot of time thinking about the undertones of what’s happening in the story. The concept of artificial life infused with feelings and emotions and a sense of questioning their purpose and their replaceability, their lack of soul, in some ways. We kind of riffed on that.”

Listen to “As Alive As You Need Me To Be” above and find the Tron: Ares (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) cover art and tracklist below, along with NIN’s upcoming tour dates.

Nine Inch Nails’ Tron: Ares (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) Album Cover Artwork

Nine Inch Nails’ Tron: Ares (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) Tracklist

1. “Init”
2. “Forked Reality”
3. “As Alive As You Need Me To Be”
4. “Echoes”
5. “This Changes Everything”
6. “In The Image Of”
7. “I Know You Can Feel It”
8. “Permanence”
9. “Infiltrator”
10. “100% Expendable”
11. “Still Remains”
12. “Who Wants To Live Forever?”
13. “Building Better Worlds”
14. “Target Identified”
15. “Daemonize”
16. “Empathetic Response”
17. “What Have You Done?”
18. “A Question Of Trust”
19. “Ghost In The Machine”
20. “No Going Back”
21. “Nemesis”
22. “New Directive”
23. “Out In The World”
24. “Shadow Over Me”

Nine Inch Nails’ 2025 Tour Dates: Peel It Back World Tour

08/06 — Oakland, CA @ Oakland Arena
08/08 — Portland, OR @ Moda Center
08/10 — Vancouver, BC @ Rogers Arena
08/12 — Seattle, WA @ Climate Pledge Arena
08/14 — West Valley City, UT @ Maverik Center
08/15 — Denver, CO @ Ball Arena
08/17 — Saint Paul, MN @ Xcel Energy Center
08/19 — Chicago, IL @ United Center
08/20 — Chicago, IL @ United Center
08/22 — Detroit, MI @ Little Caesars Arena
08/23 — Toronto, ON @ Scotiabank Arena
08/26 — Baltimore, MD @ CFG Bank Arena
08/27 — Philadelphia, PA @ Wells Fargo Center
08/29 — Boston, MA @ TD Garden
08/31 — Cleveland, OH @ Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse
09/02 — Brooklyn, NY @ Barclays Center
09/03 — Brooklyn, NY @ Barclays Center
09/05 — Raleigh, NC @ Lenovo Center
09/06 — Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena
09/09 — Duluth, GA @ Gas South Arena
09/10 — Tampa, FL @ Amalie Arena
09/12 — Houston, TX @ Toyota Center
09/13 — Fort Worth, TX @ Dickies Arena
09/16 — Phoenix, AZ @ PHX Arena
09/18 — Los Angeles, CA @ Kia Forum
09/19 — Los Angeles, CA @ Kia Forum

Tron: Ares (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is out 9/19 via Interscope Records. Find more information here.