Born in the Netherlands, a little boy seemed far away from where his musical roots lay now. As a child he used to crawl around the radio receiver and got touched by the sounds of the 60's, resulting in a keyboards-stint, learning to play Beatles songs. Though, when the notes of Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix hit his ear drums, guitar was all he wanted to do and started playing that instrument at the age of ten. Then after he heard Muddy Waters' and BB King's music, blues and guitar was all that mattered and Ruben was on a mission to dig out those blues roots for life.
Ruben fronted his first blues band 'Greyhound' at the age of 17, and at the age of 19, he and his friends formed 'the Doubleshots', with which the played blues, roots & rock n roll covers and original work. Starting out as a trio, later a quartet, they released 2 EP's and played numerous bars, clubs and festivals throughout the Netherlands, sometimes playing up to 4-5 shows a weekend. With 'the Mellotones' they toured throughout Europe in his early twenties and learned more and more about songwriting and Southern Blues and Rock music.
Inspiration seemed endless when Ruben formed 'the Cosmic Brothers', a funky hammond trio in 2006. Inspired by legends such as Ray Charles, Jimmy McGriff and Albert Collins, Ruben not only dove more into jazzy swing and bluesy funkyness, but also felt the need to keep working as a songwriter. After endless line-up changes and no steady band, he was back on his own, but this time with a bag full of experience and connections.
Ruben traveled throughout the U.S. a few times, reaching North-West (Portland, OR & Seattle, WA) throughout the old South, to the deep southern states of Lousiana and Texas. Along that road, he played with many infamous but great and sometimes famous and/or great musicians but most important made many great friends. Recently, thanks to a friend in Holland a demo of his songs ended up at Silvox producer Caspar Falke's desk, which resulted in a collaboration to record a debut album which is to be released this Spring.
