Spookey Ruben

Wikipedia:

Spookey Ruben (born Alan Frederick Deil, January 14, 1972) is a Canadian musician and experimental filmmaker. Best known for his song and music video "These Days Are Old", Spookey's adventurous songwriting and eccentric production techniques often contrast high vs. low vocals, analogue keyboards, found sounds, sampled beats and string instruments such as electric and Spanish guitar. Spookey has released seven full-length solo albums and toured throughout Europe, Japan and North America. Spookey's diverse body of work ranges from directing music videos to working as a pop producer, songwriter, remixer and film composer.

Early life

Due to his father's work as a ESA space engineer Spookey grew up in Germany, Holland, and Washington, D.C. In his childhood, Spookey's parents insisted he take up an instrument and so he chose classical guitar. At age 13 he got his hands on his first electric guitar and spent the remainder of his teenage years playing in an array of hardcore and speed metal bands (most notably Transilience). It was at this time that he received his nickname "Spooky", a result of his high-school friends teasing him about his metal-head appearance with his long hair and Satanic T-shirts. At age 19 he moved to Toronto and enrolled in film school at York University, but kept musical ideas rolling on a 4-track recorder.

Recording Artist

Spookey's home recording experiments led to the making of his solo debut album Modes of Transportation Vol. 1 (TVT Records) which was partially engineered and mixed by Gadi Foltys, Don Kerr, Brad Nelson and Mark Plati (David Bowie). International critical acclaim followed, hailing the album as the 'Pet Sounds of the 90s' and crowning Spookey as Canada's King of Lo-fi pop. In 1996, Ruben contributed to the AIDS benefit album Offbeat: A Red Hot Soundtrip produced by the Red Hot Organization. Disputes with TVT resulted in his leaving the label and years of apparent silence. Eventually, Ruben simultaneously released two separate CDs entitled Bed and Breakfast (Hi-Hat/Zomba) that were later repackaged as a double album. Alone at the Zoo, co-produced by John McEntire of Tortoise/The Sea and Cake was released as a special limited 'album of demos' in 2003. On June 16, 2009 his latest full-length album, Mechanical Royalty, was released in Canada on Hi-Hat/Sonic Unyon. He has since released a new EP Shackleton and is playing live dates in North America and Europe.

Filmmaker

In 2008, Spookey Ruben began filming a series of short films (Spookey Ruben's Dizzy Playground) for Exclaim! and AUX Television. There have been seven episodes, which include musicians from various bands.

Episodes