Reznor described the band's early intentions for the project as "an experiment", and explained the group's process: "When we started working with the music, we would generally start with a sort of visual reference that we had imagined: a place, or a setting, or a situation.
Reznor opísal raný zámer celej skupiny na projekte ako experiment a pokračoval v opise tvorenia slovami: "Keď sme začali pracovať s hudbou, väčšinou sme začínali s usporiadaním vizuálneho odkazu, ktorí sme si predstavili: miesto alebo prostredie alebo situáciu.