Sat outside a coffee shop in the middle of Cheltenham, a guy with scruffy pink hair wearing a Bart Simpson sweatshirt sits strumming on his guitar, singing lyrics to a song that doesn’t exist yet.

“When I leave the house, I always have to make the decision whether I’m going to bring my guitar or not,” he says. “Sometimes I just want to be quick and don’t want to have to lug it around.

“But then sometimes I might feel like having a busk, or a song idea might come to me, and then it feels like a waste not having it with me.

Today Reuben Lovett did decide to bring his guitar into town, which is lucky as he happened to have a song come into his head as he sat with his coffee.

The Cheltenham based singer songwriter has delved into a huge number of genres in what is still an early time in his musical career.

He continued: “I’ve been playing quite regularly for a long time – I’ve been gigging since I was about 14/15 years old, with numerous acts.

“I’ve been in an indie rock group, a hardcore band, a Libertines-style project. I’ve played bass, guitar, sung lead vocals, played shakers – loads of different roles.

“I’ve worked with a lot of different people. I recently sang a hook on a JPDL and Yogi Beats (local hip hop group) tune which made me feel amazing just to be asked.”

Reuben’s love for music and performing grew from a young age, and he was busking at events like the Malvern County Fair aged just 12, covering folk artists like The Levellers and Tracy Chapman.

Learning guitar at primary school, he has a lot of praise for one man who really helped him develop his musical talents.

“I was taught by a guy called Colin Hartley – he’s well-known around Cheltenham for being a musician. A couple of years ago he moved to somewhere in Scandinavia in the snow.

“But I had guitar lessons from him, he taught me about the trade a little bit, taught me about structuring songs and being rhythmic. It was all very folky and grassroots, he definitely fired me up to do my own stuff.

“He got me my first open mic night, and even got me a set at Wychwood when I was 15.”

Now 22 years old, Reuben is predominantly focused on his music as a solo artist and as frontman of his side project, The Confusion.

“I’ve always played on my own but since 2017 I’ve been on the way of doing more solo work as a singer songwriter,” he explained.

“The Confusion is like an extension of my solo music. It’s people that I love and I know are solid musicians, and when they’re available they’ll come and play with me. It’s always seriously punk and experimental, with very little rehearsal.”

Song writing is definitely a hot topic for Reuben – like most artists the process can be equal parts frustrating and rewarding – and it’s something he openly discusses passionately.

He said: “At the moment I write more emotionally. The song I’m writing at the moment, I had a verse come to me in 10 minutes which is unheard of for me – it usually takes me three months to write a tune.

“The greatest challenge is my confidence and when I lose it, I don’t feel like there’s any point in writing and then that feeling gets me down even more.

“But when I come out of it I feel great again and I’ve got loads of motivation to work. It’s silly really.”

As a child Reuben was a member of the Everyman Youth Theatre, something he says helped him learn about “outward confidence”.

Theatre is still a passion in Reuben’s life, and he was commissioned to write for the Gloucester Rooftop Festival last year.

Although he says he would definitely like to get more involved in the theatre later on, for now music is all he is focused on, and he hopes to release new music this year.

“I’ll be releasing a solo EP, my second one,” continued Reuben. “I don’t feel my first EP is representative of what I do now.

“I want it to capture the raw, edgy side of what I do. All the songs are about moving on from a situation, going somewhere that’s fresh.

“It’s definitely hard writing about my own emotions and trying to avoid clichés – I don’t write about girls or relationships or anything like that.

“I’d rather write something that can be relatable for a greater period of time, a song that would stay relevant for 10, 20 years and still mean something to me then.”