Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have been super busy recently with film and TV scores as well as new material from Nine Inch Nails. Forthcoming PBS show 'The Vietnam War' (out in September) is their latest project, which was rather interesting for them to develop.

Atticus Ross and Trent ReznorAtticus Ross and Trent Reznor working on 'The Vietnam War'

The pair are scoring Ken Burns' 10-episode historic series 'The Vietnam War' which hits later this year, after co-directer Lynn Novick said she was after 'someone who sounded like them'. It was such projects as 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo', 'The Social Network' (which won Trent and Atticus an Oscar in 2011) and 'Gone Girl' which inspired the series creators to contact them, and they mercifully agreed despite having had a busy few months.

'I don't think he finished the sentence before I said, 'Yeah, we're in'. That's a no-brainer', Trent said in an interview with New York Times. He and Atticus decided to take up a new formula while writing the score - composing it it while the show was being developed as opposed to afterwards. As inspiration, they were given field recordings to influence the direction of their sound. 'Mortars, helicopters, people talking - we would process those sounds and use them as rhythmic starting points', said Atticus.

Last year, they scored the environmental documentary 'Before the Flood', alongside Mark Wahlberg's latest movie 'Patriots Day'. Plus, they unveiled a new Nine Inch Nails EP entitled 'Not the Actual Events', which is the first record from the band featuring Atticus Ross as a bona fide member. 

More: Listen to Nine Inch Nails' new single 'Burning Bright (Field On Fire)'

'Not every opportunity to score a film feels like it's an artistic endeavor', Trent added. 'Rather than just accumulating projects, we've tried to select things that challenge us and feel exciting.' Plus, they insist that working on so many things has informed each project.

'The tone of concern in 'Before the Flood' led perfectly into the pure dread, evil and melancholy that we explored in 'Patriots Day', which also provided us the momentum to make the Nine Inch Nails record ugly and confrontational', he continued. 'We could go deeper in each pool knowing it wasn't forever. We could take a break from the end of the world by going into a terrorist bombing, or take a break from that by making an 'I want to kill myself' album.'

'The Vietnam War' premieres in September 2017 on PBS.