Young composer credits Longford for fuelling his creative career

Reuben Harvey is from Laois, but one of his biggest inspirations to become successful in the midlands has been massively propelled by Longford.

The director and composer has recently scored The Restoration at Grayson Manor, as well as the upcoming The Great House Revival for RTE & BBC.

Only 25-years-old, he wanted to tell his story about how Longford has both inspired and encouraged his abilities to go down this creative career path. 

“Robert Higgins has been a great mentor to me in the past years. I was against him in the Cork National Film Festival. He’d done Drifting. I wanted to stay in touch. This was the first time I'd stepped out of student festivals. This guy could be someone who I could learn from."

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"I’ve stayed in touch in the last 5-6 years. About three years ago, he got in touch for the film Clonfin, and then he booked himself and McGivney for Ballinamuck. We work together on those projects and met up. I look at Robert as where I want to be in 5-6 years."

"Paddy as well. It’s great to see lads from the midlands making it, and doing big projects. Lakelands was a huge step for them, getting their management and agent. Not something you see from the midlands often.”

Helping to be a part of preserving Longford’s history by composing for the Clonfin and the Ballinamuck documentaries has been a privilege. Reuben admired how these ‘brilliant stories’ were retold by historians, which keeps the history alive.

“For making something like Clonfin, people can look back and see how it was commemorated 50 years ago. It keeps the voices alive and stories going. I feel very strongly about it. I’m used to scoring so many things in Dublin but nice to hear a midlands accent.”

As a result of such encouragement and a portfolio from student projects, Reuben found himself applying to volunteer in Laois for a film that was being made there.

However, he received news that they had enough trainees, but by pulling at straws, and with the help of dexterity from playing the piano, he became a hand double.

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When filming ended, Reuben followed up with the director, Glen McQuaid, about the music. Two weeks later, he got the call to do the music. Afterwards, he composed for The Great House Revival, which will be shown in March.

“The Dublin International Film Festival is the premiere festival for feature films in Ireland. Grayson premiered internationally in Texas in October last year at Fantastic Fest. The biggest genre festival in North America. It’s been a long time coming but it feels weird that it’s going to be on the screen.”

Most of Reuben’s work is done from home. He got Logic Pro properly when he was in college, and prefers to know about the projects early to get a feel for the material.

The irony is that he likes his work to be ‘invisible’ to not overshadow the content, but compliment it. Usually, he sits with a director to listen to music on Spotify and go through the script. Afterwards, he gets on his software to build a soundtrack.

With so much success coming his way as a professional composer, he was asked about his future interest in collaborating for a Longford project in the future.

Without hesitation, Reuben said: “Myself and Rob (Higgins) have got a great working relationship. Rob and Paddy are my main contact there (in Longford). But I see myself working with them again, especially their historical stuff. They were my introduction to longform film. If they can keep them coming, I’m absolutely delighted to do work based in Longford.”

The rural midlands are building potential for creative people to grow.