Rea Garvey's full name is Raymond Michael Garvey. He was born in 1973 in Tralee, Ireland. His father was a policeman. His mom was a homemaker, raising seven daughters and Rea. The musician attended high school in his native town. He began the music career as part of the local group Reckless Pedestrians. In 1998, Raymond left Ireland and moved to Germany. All he had was a demo tape and a small amount of cash.
Initially, Garvey had a hard time. He got a job selling t-shirts at music festivals. The aspiring musician posted an ad in the local newspaper, saying that he was looking to form a band for recording and live performance. The ad was noticed by an ex-drummer of Kindtot, Mike Gommeringer, who heard about Reckless Pedestrians. The musicians met and invited three more artists, Uwe Bossert (guitar), Philipp Rauenbusch (bass) and Sebastian Padotzke (keyboard, sax) to form a band.
In November 1998, the group announced its official formation. The musicians called it Reamonn, which was the way Raymond sounded in Irish. At the end of December, the artists gave their first performance at a local club. In 1999, to catch the attention of the labels, Raemonn arranged a performance at a Hamburg club Logo. They were offered several contracts. In June, the group signed one with Virgin Records.
