Stephen Speaks gives back to the Philippines

CEBU, Philippines — Cebuanos rode out a wave of nostalgia as 90s acoustic performer Stephen Speaks returned to the country for a series of concerts and benefit shows. But that’s not the only thing the American band left fans with.

Rockwell Ryan Ripperger, popularly known as singer of the band Stephen Speaks, came to the country for his “Alive To Fight Tour” which ran from January 19 to February 17. During the tour finale last February 17 in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City, Ripperger performed for free in front of more or less a thousand soldiers and civilians, including 28 wounded soldiers accompanied by their dependents who were currently confined and recuperating at the Army General Hospital. The band donated 15 percent of their Manila, Iloilo, Boracay and Davao ticket sales as support for the wounded soldiers.

“I told my promoter that I wanted to do some sort of advocacy and she told me that we should do a benefit for Marawi,” the “Passenger Seat” singer says in an interview before a show at the Activity Center of Ayala Center Cebu last Sunday.

When they decided on the advocacy, Ripperger says that the battle in Marawi in Lanao del Sur, which began in May of 2017, was still ongoing.

“I see it on the news. I’ve heard about it, that it’s dangerous, and the war was still going on. I said I’m going to help. Maybe I can donate a percentage of ticket sales to them and the wounded soldiers. So that’s what we did. This country has been so good to me and basically put food on my table for the last 15 years, the least I could do is help out the people who fight for the freedom of their people,” he quips.

In between gigs, Ripperger also got to enjoy some downtime and went snorkeling in Concepcion, Iloilo. People would be surprised to find that Ripperger actually knows a lot about the ocean despite being from the land-locked Oklahoma state of USA. While out swimming in Agho Island in Concepcion, he says he got to see the beauty of the Visayas seas. However, he was also witness to its deterioration, hence his plan to rehabilitate the coral reefs in the area.

“I found some really beautiful areas, but there were areas that were just dead. As far as the eye can see, they were just dead. And it broke my heart. I love corals, I’m very passionate about them,” Ripperger explains, saying that he has been in the aquarium hobby for 17 years now ever since he started being into it at 20 years old tending salt water fish tanks and coral reefs. Ripperger has two large tanks at home, where he grew corals, knew all the scientific names, and traded and collected all sorts of coral species with fellow aquarium hobbyists.

Ripperger met with the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, Oceana Philippines, Visayas Sea Squadron, Guardians of the Visayas Sea and Local Government Units of Iloilo, Negros Occidental, Cebu, Masbate and Capiz in mid-February to explain his plan on restoring the coral reefs in the area, which were greatly damaged during 2013’s super typhoon Yolanda.

“I told them that I know how to fix that. What we do is we set up a garden, an artificial reef. And we go to healthy areas, take healthy pieces, go back to the garden, break the healthy ones into little pieces and grow it out. We take them to the damaged reef and plant it there where they would eventually grow. I met with the provincial administration of Iloilo, and they were really passionate about it too. The government would be backing us up and said that they would match whatever money I can come up with,” Ripperger says.

The singer- songwriter will have his own reef on a protected beach, which will then be documented and used as educational training for locals to be able to do the same.

Ripperger says these little projects, as well as his plan of building an advocacy foundation, is a form of gratitude for all the support he’s gotten since entering the music industry. The band’s first studio album, “No More Doubt,” which was released in 2001 with hits like “Passenger Seat” and “Out of My League,” received significant airplay in Philippine radio stations. When the album was released in here on February 2003, it was declared platinum 10 days later.

“I love the Philippines so much that I’m going to build a foundation here! I haven’t been back since 2005. This time I want to see as much as I can. I’ve been all over, I even played on an airplane in Cebu Pacific. That was my first time. It’s got more than a million views,” Ripperger laughs.

The night before his Cebu show, Ripperger went out with hotel staff for his first karaoke experience. The musician animatedly recalls how much fun karaoke is, and laughed at how he got a 51 percent score for singing his own song “Passenger Seat.” He snagged a 100 percent score after singing a Jay-Z song.

It would be safe to say that his gigs and tours following his benefit shows for Marawi was conspired by the universe. Ripperger, who was supposed to be back home on the February 19, met a little accident. He wanted to look at instruments at the JB Music store. Unbeknownst to the singer, he had researched the wrong address. Instead of walking into a JB Music branch, Ripperger found himself inside an office building.

“The lady at the front desk tells me to sit down, and asked for my ID. And I was so confused. Turns out I was at the JB Music headquarters!” Ripperger laughs. “The lady at the front desk asks for my name and I say ‘Stephen Speaks’ and she says ‘Wait, you mean ‘Passenger Seat’ Stephen Speaks?’ and I say, yeah!”

He then met up with JB Music higher-ups that day and was offered a mall tour. Ripperger then decided that sure, he did want to embark on a mall tour with them.

“I changed my ticket, and now I’m on a tour with JB Music. This wasn’t even scheduled until then. The best mistake I ever made was walking into the JB Music headquarters,” Ripperger chuckles.

Since then, he’s been to Cagayan de Oro, Cebu, and Davao. Once the tour is over, the first thing for him to do back home is work on his upcoming album “Alive to Fight.” Once recording is done, Ripperger promises to be back in September to promote the album.

Ripperger says that the inspiration behind his popular tracks “Passenger Seat” and “Out of My League” – written by him and his friend in high school— were simply high school girls.

During his hour-long show at Ayala Center Cebu, the 37-year-old musician, who performed with his friend Paul Chatman, shared the story behind one of his newer tracks.

Despite his overall light and cheery demeanor, Stephen Speak’s album’s title track “Alive to Fight” was written at a really tough time of the singer’s life. He and his wife weren’t getting along, and the latter who was with child decided to move back in with her parents. Sometime later, Ripperger gets a call from his wife to find out that she had lost the baby, and around the same time, someone had broken into his car and stolen all of his gear.

“This is for those who feel like they’ve lost everything. I had lost everything, and so I borrowed someone’s guitar and did what I knew how to do, and that was to make music,” Ripperger says.

Cebuanos reveled in Ripperger’s skill of building a track right in front of them—using his loop pedal to record guitar riffs, beats, and sounds as he plays and produces these elements for the backing track in real time, and singing live altogether. Stephen Speaks also performed his latest single “Walk On,” and other tracks like “All These Things,” “Cold Feet,” “What Does She Look Like,” “Out of My League,” “Passenger Seat,” and a cover of Maroon 5’s “Sunday Morning.”

Before performing for the crowd, Ripperger talked about the Stephen Speaks moniker.

“Stephen was the first Christian martyr in the Bible from Acts chapter seven. They told him to denounce his faith or they would stone them to death. He gave a speech, a long one, it was long sermon in the Bible, and his last words were the same as Jesus’s last words:  Father, forgive them they don’t know what they’re doing. And then they stoned him to death. ‘Stephen Speaks’ to me means to stand up for who you are no matter what they do to you, you know. Stephen Speaks, They killed him but he still speaks.”