Ok, so when I was twenty I was behind a bar slinging drinks, wondering what to do with my life, and writing in my spare time. Ilan Rubin on the other hand, a child prodigy of sorts who has played professionally since he was nine, snagged a Guinness Book of World Record title at eleven for being the youngest person to appear at the historical Woodstock '99 festival, is twenty, he lands a gig as Trent Reznor's drummer for Nine Inch Nails replacing Josh Freese. But that's not all folks.

When this twenty-year-old prolific musician decides he needs to explore his creativity a bit, what does he do? Besides chatting with his bilingual bird, and playing with his two dogs, incidentally one is neurotic and the other is missing a hip, he creates his own side project of course.

Ilan Rubin takes it to another dimension acting as the lead singer, drummer, bassist, and guitarist for his truly solo-project The New Regime. And you thought drummers just kept time and had wacky drum solos. Time to take everything you thought you knew about drummers and toss it out the window. In between playing with Trent Reznor and nurturing his side project, The New Regime, Ilan Rubin had some time to kill with antiMusic.com.

Recording an entire album alone without anyone else to bounce off creative ideas may seem like a daunting task. Not to Rubin. "I always wanted to write and record music entirely by myself. So when I finally sang for the first time, I took it from there and kept writing and recording." Sounds simple right? Remember you are dealing with a musical genius who is self-taught on the piano, drums, bass, vocals, and guitar. And now you can add arranger to the list of accomplishments.

"Once I have the skeleton of the song down, I have ideas for most of the bits on top of music like extra harmonies or vocal parts, guitar parts, and types of sounds, so I experiment with most of the musical toys I've acquired and go for it. I usually come up with something on guitar or piano, write all my melodies till the structure of the song is complete, leave lyrics to the end, and record all the music instrument by instrument." Oh, and did I mention he does all this recording with a computer in his garage?

Recording in a garage poses some dangers that may not be present in a studio setting, like saving your work. "While recording the last three songs on the album my hard drive crashed and I hadn't backed those last three up. Always have a back up drive, no joke."

The music of The New Regime is dark, urgent, and purposeful. According to Rubin, "All the songs on the album are there for a reason. I never want to be categorized or pigeonholed into a sound—where if I did something different, a fan base would feel abandoned." No shot of that happening. Rubin offers a plethora of sounds to tantalize even the most finicky of fans. His inspirations cover a diverse group of musicians and composers including greats such as Led Zeppelin, Queen, Radiohead, The Beatles, Beethoven, and Bach "I get inspired by music I love and the musicians/composers I look up to."

Writing an entire album solo as Rubin did with Coup, can be challenging, yet offers a rare chance for self-discovery. It is also an opportunity to uncover what you like about other musicians. "I draw inspiration from my favorite music and new interesting musical ideas. When playing music I know it's the most fun I have, the most competitive I get, and the most accomplished I feel. What is important to me in a band member is someone who enjoys what they do and takes pride in doing a good job. People who don't put real effort in should go do something else."

And he can even dole out advice for those musicians just starting out, "Things aren't gonna come to do so you better go out and get them yourself. My advice to musicians who are just starting is to actually get good at what you're doing before you make an attempt for anything. Learn from people, don't copy them."

Speaking of copying, I was curious how Rubin felt about digital distribution technology and the influx of pirating and what he thought music companies could do about it. "I'd like to say illegal downloads don't bother me too much, but I understand peoples' irritation. I suppose if I were king for a day, I'd have a system where people who could afford it would be forced to purchase the music they wanted. If they couldn't afford it however, I'd make them save up to buy a ticket for the bands next show in town. I don't really think there is anything the music industry could do about music pirating. People will always find a way to get what they want for free off the internet, but it would be nice if they understood they weren't entitled to it or owed it."

According to Rubin, "You can't beat the efficiency or convenience of digital distribution, but there are few things cooler than an actual album in your hands with nice artwork". And he's right. The artwork on the album, Coup was designed by Jacques-Louis David and manager Aaron Rubin, whom Rubin says, "Have had a very long collaborative history together."

Just a quick note for all you NIN fans and Rubin fans out there. To cop his sound, check out the gear he likes. While it isn't a blueprint for music mastery, it will get you off and running in the right direction. "For drums I'd go with, OCDP, Zildjian, DW hardware, Vater, and Remo. For guitar, I'd go with VOX, Gibson, Fender, Electro-harmonix and plenty of other pedals and toys. For bass, Fender and ampeg. I also like Rhodes, Moog, and a variety of other things."

Future plans for The New Regime is largely dependent on the amount of free time Rubin has while playing with NIN. "When things wind down with NIN I'll figure out when The New Regime could play extensively live. I won't be happy unless it's entirely successful, so I'm working hard and shooting for big things."

In the meantime, you can pick up Coup through a plethora of online stores.

Check out the links below for more information.

Myspace

Official Site

Imeem Video Premieres Playlist

Drum Channel Interviews