Ruben Wijga : Biography + Photo

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Ruben (1987) started taking violin lessons when he was nine years old. During that time, he also started touching some keys of an old Casio. His interest in pianos and grand pianos also began here. At the age of 16 he finally got his piano, and in this same year he had his first piano lesson. After two years, he quit these lessons, and carried on as a self-taught musician. He also quit his violin lessons after 9 years of playing Vivaldi, Paganini, Mozart and Mendelssohn. In 2001 he joined a youth orchestra with his violin for 5 years. After a tour to Rome and Budapest he decided to quit, so he could focus on Liverish. During this period he composed a couple of songs for string ensemble. In 2004 He joined the melodic metal / progressive rock band Liverish. He writes songs, solos and lyrics for this band. in September 2008 they played their last gig. Since he joined Liverish he discovered the world of synthesizers. In 2006 he completed his home-studio, and started to record his improvisations. With these improvisations he builds songs by adding some other sounds, adding structure, mixing / mastering etc. The inspiration for these songs comes form pictures, poems, dreams, experiences, etc. In June 2008 He became the keyboardist of the Dutch band Snakes & Sirens, but quickly the band brook up. Ruben managed to go on with half of S&S and half of Nemia, a band who wanted him earlier as their keyboardist. After a couple of months, in October 2008, Insomnia was born. They recorded their first EP in January 2010. In February 2010 Ruben became the live keyboardist of Floor Jansen her new band ReVamp.