Ilan Rubin

Childhood and early life

Rubin grew up in Bonita, California. He began playing drums at the age of eight, when he discovered his father's 1968 Silver Sparkle Ludwig drum kit set up in the garage. After three months of "toying" with the kit, he had taught himself to play and was jamming with his older brothers and by nine was ready to play for F.o.N., a band that eventually would do three stints on the Vans Warped Tour, where, in addition to playing with F.o.N. Ilan would fill-in on drums with bands such as NOFX. In 1999, F.o.N. opened Woodstock on the "Emerging Artist Stage" and, as a result, 11-year-old Ilan gained entry into the Guinness Book of World Records as the youngest musician to ever play on a Woodstock stage.

Still at the age of 11, he submitted a video to Modern Drummer Magazine, taken of him doing a solo during an F.o.N. performance, which was picked by the magazine as the winning entry in its "Best Undiscovered Drummer Under the Age of 18" contest. The winner of the 18-and-over category came from Argentina, and both drummers were invited to perform at the 2000 Modern Drummer Festival, by which time Ilan had turned 12. He has taken lessons from Blink-182's drummer Travis Barker and David Uosikkinen, drummer of famed 1980s band, The Hooters. He is also an accomplished guitarist and classical pianist.

Prior to Lostprophets

Immediately prior to working with Lostprophets, Ilan was the drummer for the band Denver Harbor, which included his older brother, Aaron, as bassist, who had played guitar in F.o.N.; as well as 2 ex-members of the punk band Fenix TX. Denver Harbor was dropped from their label 1 year after their only full-length album, Scenic, was released in 2004 but not before the band did a few round-trip tours of the United States and one week in Japan with a re-united Fenix TX.

Lostprophets (2006–2008)

Ilan was the drummer for the Welsh band Lostprophets (although he is American). He replaced Mike Chiplin, founding member and original drummer, who left the band in 2005 to pursue other musical opportunities. Before finding Rubin, Lostprophets hired session drummer Josh Freese to record the tracks on Liberation Transmission. Then, after Ilan joined, he played the remaining two tracks on Liberation Transmission: "For All These Times Son, For All These Times" and "Everybody's Screaming!!!". The drummer on the demos for this period are unclear with all tracks, depending on the time the demos were made, potentially being recorded by either ex-drummer Mike Chiplin, frontman Ian Watkins (who occasionally plays drums in demos) or Ilan. Either Rubin or Freese may have recorded the B-Side, "Every Song", which comes from the album sessions. Rubin, however, toured from 2006-2008 with the band and appeared in the videos for "Rooftops (A Liberation Broadcast)", "A Town Called Hypocrisy", "Can't Catch Tomorrow (Good Shoes Won't Save You This Time)" and "4:AM Forever". He left the band in late 2008 but not before he tracked all of the drums and helped pen some of the music on the band's fourth studio release The Betrayed.

The New Regime (2007–present)

Ilan's first solo album, under the pseudonym 'The New Regime', called Coup, was recorded throughout 2007 and 2008 and released in November 2008. While touring with Nine Inch Nails and following the conclusion of the "Wave Goodbye Tour Ilan had been working on his second album, 'Speak Through The White Noise' The release date of this album has been confirmed as April 1st, 2011. Prior to this, Ilan released a free single titled 'Remission Of Guilt' through his website. It has been confirmed that this track will not be on the new album. in 2011 he went on Tour with Taking Back Sunday as an opening act. As June 2012 he is recording his third solo record. So far, drums, violin, guitar and bass has been recorded along with vocals.

Nine Inch Nails (2009–present)

On November 15, 2008, Trent Reznor announced via the Nine Inch Nails website that Ilan would be joining industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails as their drummer after the departure of Josh Freese in late 2008. Upon learning of his skills as a multi-instrumentalist, Reznor decided to scale the latest live incarnation of Nine Inch Nails down to a four-piece, where Ilan contributed keyboards and percussion. The new lineup played the final Nine Inch Nails tour dubbed the "Wave Goodbye" tour, starting in Australia and New Zealand, then North America, continuing to Europe and Asia before returning to the U.S. for a final set of dates in smaller venues. During the last show at the Wiltern theatre, Reznor discussed the band's future, including new recordings featuring the current live band.

In February 2013, Reznor announced the return of Nine Inch Nails and revealed tour details. He also revealed that the new lineup of the band included Rubin, Eric Avery of Jane's Addiction, Adrian Belew of King Crimson, and Josh Eustis of Telefon Tel Aviv, as well as returning member Alessandro Cortini.

Angels & Airwaves (2011–present)

On 20 October 2011 it was announced that Ilan will replace recently departed drummer Atom Willard of the alternative rock band Angels & Airwaves. Since joining the band, Angels & Airwaves have released a double EP entitled Stomping The Phantom Brake Pedal. Mostly created by Ilan himself, this release consisted of 5 remixes of songs from the band's previous two records and 3 new tracks that are mostly instrumental and were derived from Angels & Airwaves' first movie, Love. The band had also been working on a new album since early 2013, with Ilan sharing songwriting duties with the band leader Tom Delonge, a first for Angels & Airwaves. The album, entitled The Dream Walker, was released in December 2014, shortly after the Halloween 2014 release of the accompanying film.

Paramore (2012–2013)

On June 28, 2012 Paramore confirmed Ilan would drum on their fourth album, via Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook., As of July 19, he had recorded all the drums on their new album.

Equipment

Ilan Rubin is widely associated with Q drum company, from whom he plays a signature custom kit, and generally plays a simple setup comprising a bass drum, one or two rack toms, two floor toms, and a snare drum. He also plays Remo drumheads, Vater drumsticks, and Zildjian cymbals:

Setup for Nine Inch Nails:

15" K light hi-hats

20" A custom projection ride or 20" K crash/ride or 21" K crash/ride (used as crash)

21" A sweet ride (used as crash)

24" K light ride

20" A custom china

21" K crash/ride (on occasion)

With Lostprophets:

15" K light hi-hats

18" Z3 medium crash

20" A custom crash

20" A custom projection ride

21" A sweet ride

24" K light ride

20" A custom china

Influences

The New Regime live line up

Discography