Music Without Limitations.

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The New Regime is a one-man band fronted and created by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s youngest inductee of all time, Ilan Rubin. The latest album, Heart Mind Body & Soul, which was released in four parts over the last year, is now being rereleased in its deluxe form.

For Rubin, the most challenging aspect of recording music has nothing to do with writing every song himself or playing all the instruments. It’s about finding the time to record and tour between his work with two established bands and major touring entities — Nine Inch Nails, which was inducted into the Rock Hall this year, and Tom DeLonge’s Angels & Airwaves. 

For more than a decade, Rubin has drummed for NIN, starting his tenure in the band at the end of his teenage years. Since 2011, he’s also served as a drummer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist in DeLonge’s band. Scheduling his own shows around these commitments has been difficult — but, in 2015, Rubin found a yearlong window on the heels of a two-year world tour with NIN. That’s when The New Regime was first able to tour extensively, supporting major acts including Muse, The Killers, Juliette Lewis, Alice In Chains, The Used, and more. He’d also begun work on Heart Mind Body & Soul, The New Regime’s third full-length, which was quickly picked up by RED Music, now The Orchard, upon completion. 

“People digest music differently and much quicker today than they ever have,” Rubin says, explaining one reason why he chose to look at the album like a chaptered book. “I felt like it would be doing the songs a disservice by releasing everything at once, especially since people seem to enjoy digesting music in small pieces.” While catering to the demands of the music-listening public, Rubin refuses to create vapid, predictable pop tunes to increase his mainstream appeal. 

Heart Mind Body & Soul is anthemic, infectious, and innovative. The title track is a euphoric, unabated rock track colored with bracing guitars and a soaring chorus. “Surreal Disaster,” which at times sounds like a hybrid of Duran Duran and the Strokes, opens with lusciously harmonic wall of vocals before building into a decadent groove. “Sweet Kind of Suffering,” on the other hand, is a slow-burning serenade that haunts with strings, organs, and a transfixing bass line.

“I like everything I’ve done, but this feels like a new beginning,” Rubin said at the time of the album’s initial release. “It feels fresh. I’ve really tried to focus on writing multi-layered songs. If something doesn't have a deeper meaning that you didn't know was there, what makes it worth more than a handful of listens? I want the listener to keep discovering new elements and come back for more.” 

In addition to drawing inspiration from Jeff Buckley, The Police and — yes — Nine Inch Nails, Rubin continues to follow the anything-goes spirit of his primary influences, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, and Queen. As a result, the broad combination of sounds The New Regime elicits is vaguely familiar yet always marked with Rubin’s modernized stamp. “I have so many influences, from classical composers to Depeche Mode, and I see every project as an opportunity to do something different,” says Rubin. “I never want to repeat myself.”

Rubin revels in delivering the unexpected. While he’s a sucker for a strong hook, he inserts just enough dissonance to provide atmosphere and contrast. He won’t hesitate to interrupt a sunny melody with a mournful guitar line — or weave a reflective arpeggio into a pumped-up, celebratory melody. The same goes for Rubin’s lyrics, which are often pensive despite the propulsive rhythm they’re enveloped in. 

“The songs all reflect my take of what is going on these days with people and their relationships with one another,” Rubin says. “In life, very little fits neatly into a box. Nothing is characterized by one shade or one emotion. Feeling melancholic doesn't mean that there aren't glimmers of hope.”

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Icelandic Singer/songwriter and storyteller. Songs of misery and redemption, serenity and wanderlust.

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