The Speaks

The Speaks are five individuals who have won every key music competition they’ve entered, have sold out the 9:30 Club, have attracted the loyalty of DC101 and its listeners, and have solidified their position as an integral part of the multifaceted and wonderfully diverse DC scene.

“ Jerry, the bassist and I, we were screwing around and started a garage band about ten years ago,” Raf, the Speaks’ vocalist, begins. “Over the years we’ve had a number of band members – Archie joined about four years ago, Derek joined a year ago, our latest addition Cal joined about six months ago. So that’s how we ended up as we are today.”

Despite the rich musical history of the District – the rise of the Dischord Records scene and the DIY mentality that colored much of the punk rock explorations of the '80s and '90s, the shift from hardcore punk toward the examination of more personal themes as exemplified by bands like Rites Of Spring and Heroin, bands who would influence an entire generation of young musicians – Washington, DC has never been considered a pivotal city for musical creativity.

“ [Being in DC] allows us to come up with our sound as opposed to living in LA or Baltimore,” Jerry chimes in.

“ We’ve got all types and genres of music [in DC], even within the rock genre, and one of the negatives is, ‘Yeah, we’re not in the hubs like New York City or Los Angeles,' but we can have our sound,” Raf follows up.

But the Speaks’ experience hasn’t merely been limited to their hometown. In 2005, the band signed a distribution, production and publishing deal with Warner Music Asia. The second single “High” did extremely well with Asian radio and the music video garnered frequent attention on MTV Asia, MYX other music media outlets. For eight weeks, another single, “Life is a Joke,” was the number one song on the British internet radio station FiletopiaLive.

“ When 'Life is a Joke' came out a few years ago, someone caught wind of our music out there [in Britain]. We were getting a lot of hits and requests for our music and it showed us how powerful the internet is; we’ve never been to England and yet we had people really into our music,” Raf explains.

With the success that the Speaks have had here in Washington, and obviously abroad, there are issues that arise. Given that DC is not a ‘hub,’ bands who have had success here have often had to balance the opportunities that would be open to them in a bigger cities and the difficulties of leaving the scene that birthed and formed their efforts.

“ The only exodus I see is across the world. DC’s home, and we’ll always come home,” Derek says.

“ I agree with Derek, we’ll always be a DC based band, but you never know what the future will hold. A label, major or independent, could ask us to relocate, and we’d have to see – I’m not totally ruling it out, but our hearts will always be in DC,” Raf follows.

While many of the other members all quoted the night they sold out the 9:30 Club as the greatest experience they’d had with the Speaks, Raf was quiet. Then he said, “The opportunity to potentially help DC’s music scene out. That’s my favorite experience.”

For more info on the Speaks, visit thespeaks.com