Stephen Speaks

With only a home studio, a handful of songs, and a lot of passion, Stephen Speaks has been shattering barriers in independent music since 1999. For example, Speaks was the first garage band in the history of the world to break international borders and become the number one band in another country. In 2003 Stephen Speaks' song, Passenger Seat, took the number 1 spot on the radio in Asia, which was held by Christina Aguilerra at the time. Passenger Seat held it's throne for twelve weeks, and was finally knocked down to number 2 by their second single, Out Of My League, giving them the number 1 and number 2 song in the country. At the year end countdown, both songs were atop the charts.

"I've no idea how it happened," says Rockwell Ryan, front man and producer of Stephen Speaks. "Some college exchange students stuck it on the radio all and it just took off. Thats our whole career; we just make music and our fans spread it. It's been unbelievable."

With a dominant grassroots following back in the US, which doesn't seem to stop growing, with the band being on the top 100 artists on MySpace.com since summer of 2006. The band has managed to sell over 40,000 albums, played for tens of thousands of people, topped radio charts, had the number 1 video on MTV overseas, and had literally millions of MP3s downloaded from their Web-site. Thats not unheard of, but doing it in a home studio with no manager, no lawyer, no record label and no booking agent, is very impressive indeed.

While the band hasn't ruled out signing a record deal, doing things on their own, or anything in between, one thing is for sure - the bands passion and perseverance will always be an inspiration.