Speaker For The Dead

Greg McKillop, AKA "Speaker for the Dead" grew up in a little New England suburban town called Westborough, in central Massachusetts. He began playing drums at the age of eight when he backed his father (a folk musician) at church meetings. Throughout his teenage years he played in several bands, grasping any instrument he could get his hands on, learning to play as he went, organizing gigs for his community in local cafes, roller rinks, backyards, churches, and anywhere else he could.

At 21, Greg was fresh out of college, jobs and broken relationships when his father gave him his own guitar (the one he had grown up watching him play) as a gift, telling his son he believed he could do something meaningful with it. Greg took the guitar and bussed to New York City, where he played an open mic and was immediately taken in by the community. With the encouragement of the local scene, he started to write more songs, which he started playing out immediately. When he made enough money playing in New York, he traveled on to Philadelphia, then DC, rinse and repeat around the country.

He came back and settled into a food pantry basement with a duct tape recording studio where he started the label, All Your Band Records. He ran punk, hardcore and folk shows in the living room of Stone Soup, a local collective.

In 2007, after setting up a few shows for them, Greg joined the pop-punk band Nemes, which he gigged and toured with extensively for three years as a bassist then decided to leave to pursue his own songwriting

In August of 2010, Greg packed up everything he owned into a duffel bag, sold the rest, and left to tour with his Speaker for the Dead material, which has been described as everything from indie to folk-punk, based around his truthfully haunting,lyrically-driven songwriting.

At home, Greg is a staple of the local music community, tirelessly helping to organize countless open mics and shows (both music and poetry) throughout New England. He has shared stages with Amanda Palmer, Buddy Wakefield, Sleepercar (Jim Ward of At The Drive In), Anthony Green of Circa Survive, The Ataris and B. Dolan.

He visualizes Speaker For The Dead as a vehicle to raise awareness on how to create safe environments to express themselves. His favorite part about the lifestyle of the professional musician is his ability meet new and interesting people and share one an-others individual stories. He believes that sharing with and connecting people is the purpose of music and takes pride in his job of spreading information through the old style of word and mouth.