Originally signed to Polydor as a three-piece, the British group 12 Rounds drew interest from Nine Inch Nails architect Trent Reznor, who placed them on his Nothing imprint once the earlier deal had ended. Their first album, Jitter Juice, moved enough copies to earn festival slots across the UK and a long stretch of road dates supporting the Sneaker Pimps. After Polydor dropped the project, duo members Atticus Ross and Claudia Sarne spent the summer of 1997 tracking an entire album in their basement studio. Reznor heard the results, offered a contract at once, and issued My Big Hero in July 1998. Outside their own recordings, the pair also teamed with Bomb the Bass, handled production on Barry Adamson’s As Above So Below, and worked with the band No Jahoda. Ross’s most visible outside work came through repeated collaborations with Reznor that covered Nine Inch Nails albums, production for other artists, and an Academy Award-winning film-scoring partnership that included The Social Network and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
