Reuben Hollebon knew he wanted to pursue music. But instead he took a little detour that would throw him into the studio but not necessarily in front of the mic. Starting off his career in the music business as a sound engineer, the British singer-songwriter worked with the likes of Basement Jaxx and Courtney Barnett before getting into the recording booth himself. However, he's finally done it and has released his debut album, Terminal Nostalgia. We had the chance to chat with Reuben while he was in New York City.

Age: 31

Hometown: Stalham, England

You were a sound engineer before becoming the recording artist you are today. So what inspired this move?

Before I knew it, I was just doing it. It took me a long time. I was just locked up and practicing and then realized I really wanted to do it. It was more I picked up the guitar and went to music college the month after. But then I wasn't as good as everyone else because they've been playing for years, and I'd been doing it for a month. So I became the sound engineer because I knew how to plug things in and did quite well in that. But the music was always sitting there, and eventually I started to have a vibe. Something was happening with the songs, and I played to a few people. They went great, and I carried on. Then eventually I went on to record my EP, and I thought, "Well, that's me singing now." This is what I wanted to do.

What was the song you wrote about?

The first song [I wrote] is probably "Before the Flood," which is on this album. And that felt like I got through. I even got the original improvised demos of it, and you hear me shushing my cousin, who I played it for. And he thought it was really good. Then I just worked on it, and it sat there for ages. I played it a lot, but it was only on this album that I thought it was the right time to put it out there.

That's interesting because when I ask people this question, they usually say their first song was awful.

Well, this is the first one that I considered I finished.

Starting off professionally as a sound engineer, did that help guide you or changed your approach to your own music?

I got to be with maybe a 100 different artists and see how they play. It showed me how good music can be made. So you just take the simple tips from them, and you don't have to take direct musical tips. You can take the fact that most of the people who make good music had a good diet. Their lifestyles were good, and they seemed to be happy. The people who I knew made good music weren't sad. I kind of tried to take that as the music that can be heart-wrenching actually comes from a good place or optimistic.

Because you worked with so many artists, did you actually show them your songs?

No. A few of them asked about it afterwards. But that wasn't what I was there to do. I was there to help them to make records, not say to them, "Here are my records." Maybe I should've done that. [Laughs]

Your music sounds tender but also moody and atmospheric. What inspired you to go in that route?

I don't really write songs about love. There's one love songs on the record, which is "Come Back Early." But because I don't write songs about love, there are stories of potency. There's much more to grab onto then, "She left me, and I'm annoyed" or "I left her, and I kind of feel bad." The reason I don't do love songs because you can only write when you're in that stage and feeling. Therefore, there are only two days in a month when you could particularly like that song. But stories about people, we always like stories about people.