Mills has enjoyed a special relationship with Nine Inch Nails since first contacted by Trent Reznor and NIN’s then designer Gary Talpas in 1994. That first conference call exchange led to Mills producing a raft of mixed media works towards uses on the The Downward Spiral album, which was released to great acclaim in 1994. This was quickly followed by commissions for the first single from the album, The March of The Pigs, also released in 1994. A cover for the remix album Further Down The Spiral was then commissioned and created against a tight deadline in 1995. Work for the packaging of Closure, a double video of live footage, followed in 1997: the videos also included works made for The Downward Spiral.
A hiatus of 15 years passed before Trent reestablished contact in late December 2012 to check whether Mills might be willing and able to undertake another body of work for a project that, at the time, was still merely
tentative and that might not actually materialise: this became the Hesitation Marks album, released in 2013. Characteristically Mills became totally immersed in the commission, producing over 30 new works for possible use. Working in close collaboration with NIN designer Rob Sheridan, Hesitation Marks was released in multiple versions, each using different artworks made by Mills and several singles were also released each utilising new artworks.
Following on from Hesitation Marks Reznor invited Mills to create a limited edition multiple that would act as a focus for all the works made for the album. Working with Jeff Anderson of Artist-In-Residence, Mills has been developing this work since July/August 2013. The multiple, which is to be called Cargo In The Blood (The Reverse Is Also True) will include a 320 page 5 colour hardback book, and will be available in early to mid 2014.