Stephen Speaks
Total fans: 14,066
Stephen Speaks is a band composed of step-brothers Rockwell Ryan and Dain Samuelson. Rockwell Ryan began his recording studio in 1995, before the boy could even drive. With a dream and a plan of owning an independent record label, and being a producer, he never thought it would result in his own band. However, when he and some friends recorded some of their own music in a high school recording project titled “Doubting Thomas”, the album took on a life of it's own and spread across the state like wildfire. After high school, Rockwell's brother Dain joined in, and teaming up with some musician friends, created the first effort by Stephen Speaks, “No More Doubt”. The album followed in it's predecessors footsteps, but this time didn't just spread across the state, it spread across the nation - even the world. In 2003, Speaks' went platinum in the Philippines, with two 1 radio singles which, combined, topped the charts across nine platforms for over three months. Speaks' followed it with four sold out shows for over 20,000 people, a 1 MTV video, and a press frenzy.
In 2003 Rockwell met up with successful friends, The Hero Factor, and kept busy for a couple years balancing Stephen Speaks' performances with recording/mixing all three of The Hero Factor's records, as well as producing/mixing the debut album for Jackson Waters, who quickly signed a record deal after release of that album.
While Rockwell's producing career was doing well, Stephen Speaks continued to grow in popularity, and in 2006, Rockwell made the plunge to deem Speaks' his number one priority. Over the next year, their third album, “Symptoms Of Love” was recorded. In August of 2006, Speaks' released previews of their new music, their first in three years. They immediately entered the top artist charts on iSound and MySpace, and have remained there ever since, accumulating over six million internet streams between the two sites.
With a new album, a full-band behind them, and an ever growing fan-base, Stephen Speaks is teaming up with friends Five Times August for their first real ‘tour', and the way things are going for these two brothers, it seems they have only begun speaking to us.