In March 2020, a year of the release of his ‘Prisoner of Love’ album, singer/ songwriter/author, Stephen Cummings had a stroke. Stephen has put that behind him and will release a new album ‘100 Hundred Years From Now’ and will preview the album live.
When Stephen’s friends heard he was going back to the studio they lined up to help. ‘100 Hundred Years From Now’ is produced by Robert Goodge of I’m Talking and features ‘100 Hundred Years From Now’ Graeme Lee of The Triffids, Chris Abrahams of The Necks, Zan Abeyratne of I’m Talking, Bill McDonald, Sam Lemann, Rebecca Barnard, Billy Miller, Lilith Lane, Clare Moore of The Moodists/Dave Graney, and Philippa Nihill and Glenn Bennie of The Underground Lovers.
Robert and Stephen set out to make the new album with its challenges. Stephen explains, “Robert and I have been good friends for many years. He’s probably the most musical person I know and he was really patient getting me to record lines over and over until he was satisfied.
“I’ve had to accept now that things aren’t going to be the same but they can still be good and work with what I’ve got. Robert just kept turning up to record so I felt obliged to keep going but he and Simon really gave me confidence I could do it.”
Robert says Stephen bounced back with the recording process. “Stephen had no trouble writing lyrics. They came as fast as I could supply the basic structure…Singing them however was more of a challenge, but that is what I expected and we just kept trying… gaining ground little by little…So a couple of ideas soon became quite a few.”
For Stephen the creativity also gave him therapy. “The album captures the state I was in during my recovery. The weather was always bad when I went on all my lockdown walks and that is a feature of the album too,’ Stephen says.
“It’s got a different sound to what I normally do. It’s very dreamy with all the female harmonies and exotic string instruments Robert used like the tiples.
“It’s one my favourite records I’ve made. I really like the mood and I loved having different people helping out like Lilith Lane and Glen and Philippa from the Underground Lovers. I’ve also known Wally for years so I was really happy for Cheersquad to release it.”
Stephen Cummings and his band will warm up for the forthcoming release of A Hundred Years From Now with a number of low key shows starting Friday Feb 24 at Merri Creek Tavern. They will also perform as special guests of old friend Reg Mombassa and Peter O’Doherty from Mental as Anything in their current band Dog Trumpet at Archie’s Creek Tavern on Sun Feb 26.
Stephen Cummings released his debut solo album ‘Senso’ in 1984. That came after the break-up of his iconic band The Sports, who reached no 45 on the Billboard chart in the USA with ‘Who Listens To The Radio’ and the song also appearing in an episode of the sitcom ‘WKRP In Cincinnati’.
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