The saga of Nine Inch Nails drummer Ilan Rubin leaving the industrial band to play for the Foo Fighters has played out very interestingly. Now, Dave Grohl is speaking out about the change, saying that Rubin finally “started spreading his wings” when he joined the Foos.
In a new interview with Studio Brussel, Grohl offered some “funny” insight into the differences between playing with his band and playing with NIN. Essentially, he boiled it down to stylistic differences that require separate drumming approaches.
“So [Ilan] was with Nine Inch Nails for 17 years or something [before he joined the Foo Fighters],” Grohl explained. “And with Nine Inch Nails, their music, it requires this very sort of pattern-specific grooves and rhythms, and the drumming, it has to be very linked up, and click track and everything like that. And it just has to be mechanical.”
Ilan Rubin joined the Foo Fighters right before they recorded their new album, ‘Your Favorite Toy’
“So when he joined our band, it was the first time that he hadn’t played live with a click track in 17 years, “Grohl continued. So he starts playing with us, and he still had this mindset that it has to be sort of patterned and sound like the record. I’m a drummer too. He would do something, and I’d go, ‘Ilan, keep doing that.’ He’s, like, ‘Are you sure?’ I’m, like, ‘F*** yes. Go crazy. Just go f***ing crazy.’”
That affirmation and freedom, Grohl says, made a world of difference for Rubin. “And you could see – he’s f***ing started spreading his wings. And now it’s, like – he’s such a phenomenal drummer. His capabilities are off the f***ing charts.”
Grohl then added, “He’ll do drum solos sometimes during shows, and I’m just laughing, like, ‘How the f*** did you just do that?’ It’s unbelievable. So, yeah, he has this new sort of liberation and freedom with us that he’s just shining. He’s incredible.”
This all goes back to last year, when Rubin left Nine Inch Nails for the Foo Fighters, and ex-Foo Fighters drummer Josh Freese joined NIN, whom he’d previously played with many years prior.
Addressing the matter in a previous interview, Rubin asserted that the press around the switch had been overblown. “There is no story, honestly. I think it’s just a very logical thing,” Rubin said. “There was nothing behind it. And it’s very logical,” he said.
Rubin went on to add that this was “certainly not a swap” in the way people perceived it. “I left my tenure with Nine Inch Nails to join Foo Fighters,” he explained. “Nine Inch Nails needed a drummer, and the drummer they got was the guy who was no longer with Foo Fighters. And that’s literally what it was.”
The post Why Ex-NIN Drummer Ilan Rubin Was Able to ‘Spread His Wings’ at His New Gig, According to the Band’s Frontman appeared first on VICE.
