Great, I thought, another indie band.

I stood in the back of the crowd when the opening band SPEAK took the stage at Antone’s. I didn’t even want to be at this show. It had been four months since the break-up. My ex already found a new girlfriend and all I wanted to do was go home and cry. I didn’t even know who Cage the Elephant was, but I was talked into going by a friend who wanted to see them. To make things worse, I ended up going to this show alone.

It was Dec. 1, 2009 during the year of indie music. It seemed that all I ever covered that year were copy-and-paste versions of the typical indie rock band.

At first glance, SPEAK fit the description, but looks can be deceiving. I also thought they were still in high school with those baby faces, but the lack of x’s on their hands informed me otherwise.

I knew SPEAK would be a new favorite band of mine the moment they performed a spot-on cover of “Don’t You Forget About Me” from one of my favorite movies, The Breakfast Club.

After their set, I spent my time during the second band to gather the courage for an interview. I wanted to know more about them and they were standing right behind me. Once the second band finished, I turned around and quickly decided who would be the most approachable member before they noticed I was staring at them.

There stood Nick Hurt, the guitarist. He’s probably the tallest of the group and definitely looks the youngest. His lanky frame, black-rimmed glasses and short, thin dark hair reminds me of “Where’s Waldo?” All that was missing was a red-and-white striped shirt.

I decided to walk up to him. Practically yelling my stumbling words in his ear, I told Hurt that I liked his band and that I was a reporter from Accent Newspaper and wanted to do an interview.

“Did you want to do it right now?” he said.

Well to be honest, I wasn’t prepared, but I took it anyway. He gathered the other band members, keyboardist Troupe Gammage and drummer Jake Stewart (bassist Joey Delahoussaye had already left for the night), and we went backstage to conduct a 30-minute-long interview.

During that interview, I asked SPEAK what were their plans for 2010.

“Well short-term, it’s redefining the live show,” said Stewart.

“…to have a good presence in Austin,” said Gammage.

At the end of 2010, the guys’ track record would include performances at Austin City Limits Music Festival (ACL) and VooDoo Fest in New Orleans, opening for Bob Schneider to celebrate Antone’s 35th Anniversary, winning an Austin Music Award for “Best New Band” (which included an introduction by The Talking Heads), releasing a five-song EP and getting signed to Modern Art Records.

I think it’s safe to say they’ve succeeded their goal. And this girl was there to witness most of it.

I never thought after that first interview that I would end up following this band for a year. A year that would have me tagging along for SPEAK’s first ACL performance. A year that would end with a special rendition of “Happy Birthday” sung by them for, you guessed it, my birthday. A year that would include 13 months of photos, blog posts and videos about this one band.

All that because I spent 2010 following SPEAK for a project I dubbed as “SPEAK for a Year.”

SPEAK for a Year started off completely unintentional, but after South by Southwest (SXSW) Music Festival, I was crossing fangirl territory for SPEAK. I had seen them every month since that first show. I saw them perform one song in January for Free Week. In February, they released their EP Hear Here, for which I wrote an award-winning review for the Accent Newspaper. Before their debut album, I Believe in Everything, was released, that EP was on heavy rotation.

So I included their official showcase on my SXSW schedule. Then when April came around, the idea for the project was swirling around my head. It was Hurt who unintentionally gave me the encouragement to pursue it.

After he invited me through Facebook to the April show for the Groundwork Music Project, I went to his profile and left a post on his wall: “Hey Nick, you do realize that if I go to your Mohawk show this month that I will have been to a SPEAK show every month since December?”

His reply?

“Nice! Hmm, you should try and make it a whole year.”

Thus, SPEAK for a Year was born.

“I’ve forgotten that I said that,” said Hurt. “I’m sure that I was joking. I’m sure that I did not expect it, and it’s impressive and encouraging that you decided to do that.”

Hurt is sitting in the backseat behind Stewart and me in the van. Troupe sits in the passenger seat as Delahoussaye drives us to his grandparents’ house to film the performance portion of their “81” video. I was invited to tag along so we could discuss SPEAK for a Year.

When people hear about the project, they assume it was a difficult task. But it wasn’t. My only commitment was to catch a SPEAK show once a month and then write a review with a photo on my music blog, SoManyBands. That’s one day out of 30 or 31 days a month (or 28 days for February). That’s only 12 days out of the 365 days of the year. That’s not a lot, but SPEAK for a Year was all about timing.

I never chose the dates of their shows. The band did. Because they usually schedule one show a month, I had to attend the show that night, no matter what happened earlier in the day.

And something always did.

The most memorable was the September show at Beauty Bar. The day before the show, I was working in the Accent newsroom with the rest of the editors and the program that we use to put the newspaper together kept crashing. We couldn’t get anything accomplished, so we had to come back the next morning to get the paper done. We finally sent it off to the printer around 4 p.m. After we were done, I had my first meal of the day and didn’t get home until 6 p.m. The show started at 9 p.m.

During that September show, SPEAK performed a new cover, Prince’s “Purple Rain.” If there’s one thing to expect at a SPEAK show, it’s a random but great cover song incorporated into their set. To them, a cover song is another way to draw people in. “Even if your own songs are cool, people always attached themselves to the covers that you do,” Gammage said during our 2009 interview.

Gammage mentioned after the September show that they tried the new cover that night because they knew I would be there. They didn’t want to play a cover I had seen before. As someone who saw many of their shows for SPEAK for a Year, the different cover selection and change in their set list was appreciated.

“I also made sure to wear a different shirt every time,” said Hurt. “You’re the reason why I have so many shirts.”

With or without the project, SPEAK is constantly evolving the live show so the members do more than just stand with their instruments. Gammage said that he’s always worried if they will give enough spice to the people that come to show after show. “If we go to a new city and then we come back, we try to remember what we played the first time and at certain venues, we’ll try to mix up our covers,” said Gammage.

“I bet you couldn’t do SPEAK for a Year nowadays because we just unfortunately don’t play Austin as much,” said Stewart.

It’s true. SPEAK has spent the majority of 2011 touring around the country, even playing two gigs in Europe. Their first national tour with The Secret Handshake in November 2010 unfortunately came to an end at the Austin show due to low ticket sales, but they have since then had three more tours through the U.S. with other bands.

“I think we’ve been pleased with the reception we’ve gotten outside of Austin,” said Stewart. “It’s always fun to play for a totally new crowd who hadn’t heard you before.”

Even though the band is touring and all of the members quit their day jobs (except for Stewart), their current status doesn’t feel too different to them.

“Jake and I have talked about this a few times. From an outsider’s perspective, it’s like, wow, you guys are going to Europe and you’re doing all this stuff, but we kind of feel like we just get lucky on occasion or things happen,” said Gammage. “We’re like, wow, this is badass, but we don’t really feel like we have achieved what we want to achieve yet really. So we’re waiting for that glorious moment where everything falls into place.”

But Gammage said that what they have done is super exciting. It’s just that every time they win an award or go on tour, they’re always focused on the future. “More and better is always what we want to do,” said Gammage.

The crowd cheered on Oct. 1 as SPEAK walked down the stairs to The ND stage. The CD release is finally here. It only took two years.

“The short version is that it just wasn’t the right time to release it and now it is the right time to release it,” said Gammage.

I’ve been waiting for this moment. After all, this show was the grand finale to SPEAK for a Year. After seeing 12 months of shows, I already knew all the lyrics to the songs. Of course the morning of the release show, I woke up at 4 a.m. with a sore throat and an achy body. Another one of life’s little jokes.

But I refused to miss this show. So sore throat or not, I went to the show. Of course, I came home feeling worse than before, but it was worth it. I can now close the chapter of SPEAK for a Year.

When I look back at the year 2010, I will always think of SPEAK. Although our careers lead us down different paths (they’re a touring band and I’m always working on my next story), 2010 will always be the year of SPEAK. Who knows when I’ll ever do a project like this again.

So Joey, Nick, Troupe and Jake, good luck in your endeavors. Thank you for letting me tag along and document your growth as a band. I know this will not be the end of us, but I still have one favor to ask anyway. Don’t you forget about me, ok?

Sarah Vasquez