Stephen Speaks

I have always had a creative drive from the time I was a child. Growing up I had little family or money, just my mother who always told me I could do anything I dreamed. In 1995, at age 15, I founded Rippley Records. The studio was started with a small car fund my family had saved and the promise I would pay the money back. I recorded everyone from the high school band to a gospel quartet. The studio moved to a shed in our yard and then into the garage for the next ten years (1997-2007). In my last few years of high school, I put together a talented team to make my own record to gain some respect as a producer. This was the beginning of Stephen Speaks! The record was very successful and also helped me land a sweet job in college with MediaChase. After high school I spent a year at Abilene Christian University. Unfortunately, I spent much more time in the studio than I did studying. I began to realize my label was my true passion and didn’t return for my sophomore year of college. I returned to Tulsa, Oklahoma and teamed up with life-long friend Ryan Tedder, who you may know as the front man for OneRepublic. Tedder performed on both my first two records and gave me quite a bit of advice in the industry. I looked to him as somewhat of a big brother figure during my early years in this business. Around the time Tedder and I began working together in the studio, I gained my first business partner - Steve Ball. Steve was the VP of a fortune 500 company and had a masters in business from Harvard. He taught me everything I know about business. Steve funded the equipment I used to create Stephen Speaks’ and Ryan Tedder’s early material, but passed away before he could enjoy the success it brought to us. I still play his childhood Gibson 12-string, which he gave to me "to pursue the dreams he gave up on" when he went to Harvard. The name Stephen Speaks will always stand in his memory. In 2001, I recorded my first album under Rippley Records Inc. for a friend Bennett Mosier, who is a guitarist I still use to this day. I also moved the studio to Nashville. But with the overpopulation of recording studios, I struggled as an up-start studio. Another death-blow was my best friend, who I wanted to be lead-singer of Stephen Speaks, wanted to go solo. Then just when things seemed at their worst I got my first big break.