Spookey Ruben, an alternative singer/songwriter who also works as an experimental filmmaker, creates melodic pop songs shaped by lo-fi textures and new wave influences. Born Alan Deil in Ottawa, Ontario, he passed much of his childhood in Germany along with additional European locations, following his father’s engineering position with the European Space Agency. During his teenage years, long hair combined with a passion for speed metal earned him the nickname Spookey. He assembled multiple heavy metal groups before entering film studies at York University in Toronto. While enrolled there, Ruben began experimenting with four-track home recording, and the resulting tracks eventually drew interest from TVT Records. The label issued his first full-length project, Modes of Transportation, Vol. 1, in 1995. Additional TVT releases included the 1997 split single and live set Wendy McDonald - Live in Japan plus the 1999 album What’s a Boy to Do? His subsequent studio efforts, Bed in 2001 and Breakfast in 2002, were later combined and reissued in 2006 as Bed and Breakfast on the Hi-Hat/Zomba imprint. The 2003 album Alone at the Zoo featured co-production from Tortoise member John McEntire. A string of EPs followed: Ausfahrt Walsrode in 2006, Mechanical Royalty in 2009, and Shackleton in 2010. On the filmmaking side, Ruben helmed a sequence of short films for Canada’s Exclaim! network in 2008 under the collective title Spookey Ruben’s Dizzy Playground, with guest appearances by Ariel Pink, Feist, Melissa Auf der Maur, and additional musicians. He resurfaced in 2012 with the full-length album Welsh Rarebits.
