The Journey of Reuben Loire
Reuben Loire – Guitar, Electric Guitar and Vocals.
“I first started playing guitar when I was 11 years old. I had just started sixth grade, and we were discussing with our teacher things we could do for the parents at our end of year graduation. It was suggested that we start a class band and play some songs. Although I had only held a guitar once or twice at that point and had a very modest musical knowledge, (the only two albums we had in my house growing up were
Frog Stomp by Silverchair and a Best of Van Morrison CD), I stuck up my hand to play guitar, and signed up to guitar lessons the day after. What was calling me to
play music? I really wasn’t sure at that point, but I had some feeling that creating something as a group that we could share with others was exciting and enlivening.
After I finished primary school I moved to Tyalgum, where I was homeschooled with other children in a co-operative circle of free spirits. After a year or two, a few friends – Kymrie, Mobius, Magus and Tristan – started a band called ‘The Heart Collectors’. As they were all quite a bit older than I was, I looked up to them – I loved to listen to them play and watch them perform. I was lucky enough to come into the studio when they were recording their first album with a few other kids and help do some clap tracks for a few of their songs. I listened to them frequently, and it wasn’t before long that their songs got stuck in my head and I began to work out their pieces on the guitar.
After the first album, Magus (the guitarist at the time) left the band to pursue his studies and the band started playing as a trio with Tristan on guitar. Meanwhile, music had become my primary focus – I was obsessed with learning finger style guitar, had also taken up singing lessons and started playing in a band with my other homeschool friends. I had decided by this point that music was what I wanted to do.
After nearly two years, The Heart Collectors announced they would be recording their second album in Austin, Texas. They went for three months and spent one of those months in a beautiful studio called Rancho Milagro – we followed the story closely back home on Facebook. When they returned home, I got a text from Kymrie asking me if I would be up for playing guitar with them at the launch of their second album so Tristan could play banjo and mandolin. I was over the moon with the offer. Since then, I’m still playing guitar with The Heart Collectors – travelling, performing, and even finding myself in Blue Rock Studios, Texas, recording the Back To The Garden album. I still feel like I’m living a dream!
Now the inclination I had to start learning guitar in the first place makes sense, every time I play with the guys I feel how together what we create and bring to others is so beyond what we can do alone. I feel excited and impassioned by using music to make people happy, and I feel gratitude every day for being given the gift to play music like this.”
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