Gotta Start Somewhere Ilan Rubin of The New Regime

No matter how successful entertainers become, they’ll inevitably always remember the first gig—whether it was disastrous, wonderful, or absurdly strange. Gotta Start Somewhere embraces these nostalgic moments by asking established entertainers to retell the first time they ever graced a stage. In this edition, Ilan Rubin of The New Regime (which plays August 18 at Summit Music Hall with AWOLNATION) recalls an ultra-shitty band that he’d rather not talk about. 

Ilan Rubin: The first show that I played was with my brother’s band, which was terrible. I played drums, and was about 8 or 9 years old. It was a “battle of the bands” thing in the gym of Bonita Vista High School. Everyone else in the band was 17 or 18. Somehow, we lost. I have no idea how that happened... but that’s about as much as I remember about it.  

AVC: What was the band called? 

IR: It was a terrible band called Freak of Nature (F.o.N.) Terrible stuff. I hate mentioning that band because of how terrible it was. The last thing I want is for someone to check out this band and say, “Whoa, this is the biggest pile of shit I’ve ever heard!” Because it’s not good at all. 

AVC: Do you remember any of the songs? Did the band play any cover songs? 

IR: They were all terrible originals. I do not remember any of the songs, to be honest. 

AVC: So it’s just a memory that you’d rather forget... 

IR: Absolutely! I mean, you’ve heard how many times I’ve used the word terrible, right? But like I said, I was 9. Can you really blame a 9-year-old for being in a shitty band? 

AVC: How long did F.o.N. stay together? 

IR: For a few years. After about four or five years, I left to join another band. The important part wasn’t that first show itself, but the fact that I played in front of a lot of people at such a young age. That helped playing become natural and easy as I progressed through life. Some people have a hard time playing in front of crowds. It’s more of a shock to them because they play later on, at a time in their life when they can really appreciate and understand what they’re doing. For me, starting young made it more natural. 

AVC: So what happened once F.o.N. disbanded? 

IR: The second band I joined, at age 14, was called Denver Harbor. It was the first band I joined that was signed to a label, and we toured for months upon months. Our first show was at The Scene in San Diego. It was a bit of a warm-up show, because the next day was St. Patrick’s Day, and we played an outdoor venue for a couple of thousand people in Phoenix, Arizona.  

AVC: Was the transition from “shitty local band” to being signed to a major label difficult?

IR:We worked up to the transition. I obviously learned my lesson there, that being signed is not in any way, shape, or form the end game. The experience was a good learning curve, but the show structure was all over the place... which would probably explain why the band was dropped from Universal a year later.  

AVC: Which shows in your career ended up being memorable in a positive way?

IR: When I was in a band from the UK called the Lostprophets, we headlined a festival called Give It A Name. It was held at Earl’s Court, which I’ve known about for over half my life because Led Zeppelin and Queen played there.  

My first show with Nine Inch Nails was also very memorable. It was at a sold-out arena in Auckland, New Zealand. Obviously, we had put in a good amount of rehearsal beforehand. Afterwards, we went to Australia and headlined the Soundwave Festival for a week. Those were big, full-on shows with two-hour sets, the longest sets I’d ever played at the time. It was a whole new kind of operation, with a band of that caliber. 

Warning: Following video is NSFW

AVC: And after joining Nine Inch Nails, it seemed like a spotlight shifted in your direction. But didn’t you hold a Guinness World Record title long before that?  

IR: Yeah. It was with that same shitty band (F.o.N.) I mentioned. I was the youngest person ever to play Woodstock, and I was 11 at the time. I’d been playing for quite a while, but there was this mystique based around how young I was, rather than how I was actually playing. To me, it sounds cooler than it is. What’s the special part, playing, or being young?  

When I was 12, I won a worldwide competition for Modern Drummer magazine. It was looking for the best undiscovered drummer in the world, one in the 18 and under category and one 18 and over. Winning that competition is something that was a lot more important to me. It had to do with skill, as opposed to just being young.  

When you’re that young, you haven’t evolved completely. You go with the flow and do what you’re told. So in a professional sense, I don’t really like talking about the past. It just isn’t that important to me, really. 

AVC: So then this is the perfect interview, since that’s all we want you to talk about, right? 

IR: No I know, I know. But, see... you know, I’m being a good sport about it!