The New Regime’s Ilan Rubin Balances High-Profile Band Gigs With Fulfilling Solo Career

For established touring drummer Ilan Rubin, playing with Nine Inch Nails, Angels & Airwaves, and Paramore is fun and lucrative, but it’s just not the same as writing and recording for his solo band The New Regime.

“Making music for The New Regime is the only way I can truly bring myself across as the musician I am,” Rubin tells Yahoo Music. “I love playing drums, especially for the acts I’m affiliated with. But in those scenarios I have a specific role. With the New Regime I have a vision I define and see through entirely.”

Over the past three and a half years, The New Regime has released two full-length studio albums and last year he released the 30-plus minute EP Exhibit A, all between tours drumming for major bands. While Rubin plays drums in The New Regime, he also plays everything else; and while he established himself in the public eye as a drummer, he’s comparably adept on guitarist, bass, keyboards, and vocals.

“For most of my life I’ve been a drummer, but that means for at least half my life I’ve played all these other instruments, too,” he explains. “As a songwriter, this is where I get to present myself most fully. There’s always something new to explore, whether it’s electronics, lyrics, or whatever.”

On March 31, The New Regime will release Exhibit B, a cohesive blend of old and new music styles, including modern rock, electronic music, classic rock, and classical. To give a taste: Yahoo Music presents an exclusive stream of “Strong-Arm Tomorrow,” one of the most eclectic tracks on the EP.

Beginning with a pulsing synthetic beat, the song builds from sparse and simple to lush and layered. And while it’s redolent of Muse and Oasis, it’s hardly derivative, developing instead from some of the same influences as those bands, including The Beatles and Radiohead.

A little more than a week before the release of Exhibit B, Rubin speaks about the genesis of “Strong-Arm Tomorrow,” how he finds time to focus on The New Regime, the rewards of playing with a diverse variety of groups and his entry into the business playing with the now notorious Welsh band Lostprophets.

Yahoo Music: How and when did the inspiration hit for you to write “Strong-Arm Tomorrow?”

Ilan Rubin: It was actually last song I worked on for Exhibit B. It was one of those songs where you’re pretty much done with the project and, when you’re not intending to write, an idea just presents itself and comes very quickly and naturally. I always have a guitar with me when I’m sitting on the couch. So this one time I just started playing and that riff from the verse came out. I enjoyed it, and quickly realized what kind of song I wanted it to be. I knew it would work well over a loop. I figured it would be a cross between something electronic and more traditional rock. It came very naturally.

Did you enter the studio and record it right away?

No, because I left to tour with Nine Inch Nails right after I came up with the idea for the song. Whenever I go on tour I have a hard drive full of song ideas and fragments that are unfinished. When I revisited it, I realized the only thing I still needed was a bridge. I always travel with a bass, a guitar, a couple synths, and a couple of computers so I can be as creative as possible on tour. So, the inspiration struck one night and I finished the bridge.

Exhibit B will be your second EP in just over a year.

I released Exhibit A in May, 2013. That had eight songs and over a half hour of music. I don’t like the terminology of EP because I feel it cheapens what it is. I didn’t call it an album, though, because, for my first two albums I had a very specific idea of what I wanted to accomplish. When it came time to do a third release I knew how busy I was going to be as a drummer from the end of 2012 to the end of 2014. So rather than writing a third album and not being able to promote it for two years, I figured I’d write more music than an album and split it up amongst two releases called Exhibits. Rather than having cohesive ideas, they’re just filled with a group of songs I wrote. After Exhibit B I’ll probably go back to making an LP of some sort. Any time I do something that isn’t a full 10 or 12 songs release, it will probably come back as an Exhibit.

Would you like to tour with The New Regime?

I would love to. I’m current in the process of figuring out when the holes in my schedule are. The last time I had that opportunity was late 2011, but that was a fantastic experience so I really want to get out and play shows as soon as possible, whether it’s with a full band or just me doing sit-down versions of songs on an acoustic guitar.

You and Trent Reznor both write and perform all of your own material. Do you feel a kinship with him?

I love touring with Trent. When I first joined Nine Inch Nails I was 20 years old and I felt like, “Okay, this is the kind of guy I should be working with because he knows what he wants, he knows how to communicate that, and he expects a certain caliber of excellence.” I respect him tremendously, and watching someone do something so well on a nightly basis is a great thing.

Do you play any of your songs for him or do you ever go to him for advice?

We’ve had business-related discussions, but I love writing music entirely by myself. By the time Trent or anyone else hears it, it’s been done, mixed, and mastered. Also, he’s so busy. I don’t want to bother him with something I’m working on when he has 1,000 different things on his mind.

Do you have a different mental approach to playing with Nine Inch nails than you do when you perform with Angels & Airwaves or Paramore?

My job as a drummer in these bands is to provide the foundation for them to sound good. I just learn the songs and play what the music requires. I don’t consciously think, “Okay, how do I play differently for this band?” I just do whatever is needed of me.

What are your personal influences?

Led Zeppelin, Beatles, Queen, Depeche Mode, Radiohead, and classical music. Those are the bricks in my wall of inspiration. Of course there are others. I learn from them and I try to incorporate those influences, but I really want to do something else that has my own stamp and isn’t a combination of these other things.

What’s the biggest snafu that has happened while you were playing with Nine Inch Nails?

When we stated the last leg of the tour in 2014, the first show was in Vegas and it had these moving projection screens that were moved by guys who set them up in different formations. The screens shut off and rebooted, so for a good portion of “Came Back Hard” we had these test images on the cards that read, “Card One,” “Card Two,” “Card Three,” “Card Four.” And this was at the beginning of the set. But the band’s very professional and we carried on, business as usual.

You started your career playing drums in Lostprophets, the band whose lead singer Ian Watkins was arrested in 2012 on charges of attempted rape and sexual assault of a child under 13. When you played in the band did you ever get the idea he was a pedophile?

Ian definitely didn’t seem unstable when I was with them. Looking back at it, is bizarre. He was the initial point of contact for me. He was the one who went out looking for drummers, and then heard my name a few times and got in touch with me. Once I became the touring drummer I gravitated a bit more towards the other guys in the band because Ian was very lead singer-ish in the sense of being arrogant. But I didn’t see anything distinctly odd, other than noticing he was a little difficult to work with. Our relationship kept getting worse and worse, but I didn’t think anything of it and neither did the other guys, and they had all been childhood friends. But I’m glad I got out when I did.

It’s a weird thing to talk about because it was a great stepping stone in my career. It took me out of a national scene in the U.S. and took me to European festivals and tours of Asia and all these great things. And playing with Lostprophets directly led to Trent asking me to join Nine Inch Nails because he saw me play with Lostprophets at the Reading and Leeds Festivals in 2007 and kept me in mind. When he needed a drummer the following year, he got in touch with me. So in terms of my career, playing with Lostprophets definitely served its purpose, but it’s one of those things I definitely try not to talk about because [what Ian did is] horrific and unbelievable.