Reuben Cross

Reuben Cross writes about music as lived experience, focusing on the stories, pressures and cultural contexts that sit behind performances, records and artists rather than on surface news. He works as a music writer for Far Out Magazine, contributing features, interviews and essays that sit across the outlet’s music and culture strands. His wider work as a music journalist extends into independent music platforms, giving him a vantage point rooted in alternative and underground scenes as much as in established names.

Alternative icons and defining performances

Cross’s work often centres on musicians who carry a cult or alternative status and the moments that crystallise their reputation. In his piece on Elliott Smith’s appearance at the 1998 Academy Awards, he writes around the performance as an uneasy collision between a shy songwriter and a high-profile Hollywood ceremony, using close detail — such as the proximity of Jack Nicholson in the audience — to underline the tension of the occasion. He takes a similar interest in artists like Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band, examining their legacy through what their music unlocked creatively rather than through simple nostalgia or mythmaking. These features lean on narrative framing and specific scenes, foregrounding how singular performances or decisions come to define how an artist is remembered.

Across these articles, Cross tends to prioritise storytelling over technical critique. He describes eras, atmospheres and relationships, showing how a particular show, recording session or tour becomes the lens through which a career is reassessed. This approach positions him as a useful contact when the story of a project or artist hinges on context and character rather than on release dates alone.

Interviews and emotional language in music

Alongside historical and retrospective pieces, Cross conducts in-depth interviews that focus on how artists think and feel about their work. A recent conversation framed around the project Utopia is introduced as an exploration of “the emotional exploration of language”, signalling his interest in how musicians articulate their inner world as much as their sound. In this format he lets artists speak at length about themes, process and intention, guiding the discussion towards the emotional and conceptual scaffolding behind a record.

These interview pieces tend to sit with artists who are building a distinctive voice rather than chasing generic promotion cycles. Cross will pick up on recurring motifs, phrases and aesthetic choices, drawing out what they reveal about the person behind the music. For campaigns that hinge on narrative depth, lyrical themes or a strong conceptual framing, his style aligns with longer, reflective conversations rather than quick quote-led coverage.

Records, reissues and collector culture

Cross also contributes to Far Out Magazine’s coverage of physical formats and collector culture, particularly around tentpole events such as Record Store Day. In a staff feature built around £150 Record Store Day hauls, he selects the Air release Moon Safari – Live & Demos, describing the original album as “one of the defining records of ‘90s downtempo and electronic pop” and positioning it as a counterpoint to the more hedonistic French house of acts like Daft Punk. His write-up emphasises why a particular pressing or collection of demos matters to listeners, tying format-specific details back to musical history.

Within this type of piece, Cross balances personal enthusiasm with clear contextualisation, explaining where a record sits in an artist’s catalogue and in broader genre narratives. He pays attention to rarities, live sessions and demos, which suggests a taste for material that deepens the story around a classic album rather than simply reissuing it. This makes him a relevant target for stories about archival projects, special editions and releases aimed at listeners who care about the physical object as much as the music itself.

Crossovers with books and screen culture

While music remains his core beat, Cross’s bylines at Far Out Magazine extend into the books section, showing an interest in how literature and screen culture intersect with the music world. One recent article examines why George Orwell chose the year 1984 for his novel, using that detail to explore the historical and imaginative stakes of the choice. In other pieces he writes about figures from film and entertainment, reflecting the outlet’s broader positioning at the intersection of music, film and books.

This strand of his work mirrors the cross-disciplinary focus of his music features, such as the Academy Awards article, where a songwriter’s story is inseparable from the film industry context around them. Cross is therefore well placed for projects that sit between media — for example, musicians working on soundtracks, authors with strong musical ties or cultural stories that rely on understanding both the music and the surrounding artistic ecosystem.