Biography
Andrea Speaks has an interesting and traumatic story. Over the past two years their longtime "manager" was allegedly murdered and was maybe not the friend and champion they believed him to be.... phrases from authorities like huge fraud ...no trips to New York … we don't know if there were any real contracts negotiated...
.... A year and a half later ... Andrea’s father.... whom she describes as the "only person who really got me"... passed away...
.... You know how life has a mind of its own ? ... keep reading ...
.... It wasn't just the death of their manager… it was the disturbing information that came with it …
... I got some official call left on my cell... phrases like "at some point he went bad mam”.
.... Lots of alleged words came up ... fraud ... jail time ...
… After a while you just stop being able to hear things.
.... When you're compelled to do this kind of work and you believe that someone understands your vision.... your voice ... it means everything...
…We were crushed and destroyed all at once ... It's a very unusual loss …is what I kept hearing ... because we had no idea what he had or hadn't really done…and no resolution...to anything.
And it's taken those two years to come clear and be able to talk about any of it. We kept getting asked for a bio or info on the band....
... We kept trying and hitting the wall ... it just wasn't coming out.
It's true ...sometimes life has a mind of its own.
But they'll tell you as with most unforeseen tragedies this spurred a kind of new momentum for them. They've made a new paradigm shift from worrying about representation, to producing and handling every aspect of this for themselves.
They are in a sense in an expansion and recovery period, so the trauma has enabled them or maybe demanded of them to use all their artistic abilities.
Described as everything from ethereal, haunting and beautiful, and at times referred to as "psychic music". Night clubs would ask the same questions, "How did you come up with that sound?", "Is that voice coming out of her?” At first listen, Tori Amos and Joni Mitchell /Neil Young come to mind due to the sweet & unique sometimes meditative eerie vocals and acoustic guitar based writing. But there are many influences in Andrea Speaks' music from country, jazz, alternative, rock, hip-hop, gospel, Native American, and world music. Andrea Speaks loves melody, rhythm, harmony and lyrics.
Originally from Connecticut, Andrea spent her time writing and playing. Whatever incarnation the band took, the music has always revolved around singer songwriter Andrea Michelle, and later, drummer and multi – instrumentalist Bo Wayne. Bo studied drums with the late drummer/teacher Alan Dawson. Bo is also self-taught on several other instruments. Andrea and Bo met in Boston.
Since taking charge of their work Andrea Speaks has managed to get out eighteen songs with videos and continues to get posted on SongDoor TV... an international songwriting contest out of Nashville. They are developing a core audience and are working into a more unique form of playing live.
At the end of the day there's a story in this bio ...about survival through maliciousness and trauma. Or an ending that is in fact a kind of beginning. It's the kind of story that in its raw reality has to do with what makes people tick and it could've been much shorter.
But Andrea Speaks dug deep.... to do what they are compelled to do. In the face of a kind of disaster they decided to hit the ground running. What they don't know they try to learn …
Believing the work should talk on its own, at one time they sought out management ... And that decision turned out to be a pivotal one.
Because the ironic thing here is, because of that decision they are now talking.
Life does have a mind of its own.
Andrea Speaks after all ...