Dave Stewart Announces New Album ‘The Way It Was Back Then’

Dave Stewart, the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, GRAMMY, BRIT and Ivor Novello Award
winning singer, songwriter, musician, producer, innovator and co-founder of the globally
celebrated duo Eurythmics, returns with one of the most intimate and emotionally resonant
albums of his remarkable career, ‘The Way It Was Back Then’.

A master songwriter and producer whose work has shaped popular music for more than four
decades, Stewart presents an album that touches on themes both universal and deeply
personal. The Way It Was Back Then unfolds like a series of vivid cinematic scenes, moving
between childhood memories and adult anxieties, hard-won resilience, love, loss, humour and
redemption.

Rather than approaching the record through traditional songwriting sessions, Stewart embraced
an instinctive, almost meditative creative process. Alongside his engineer/ bassist/ drummer
Jesse Samler, the music emerged organically through spontaneous explorations of chords,
melodies and emotion, as though the songs were being uncovered rather than written. The
result is one of Stewart’s most visual, moving and autobiographical collections to date.

Speaking on The Way It Was Back Then, Stewart shares: “I wasn’t aware that I was making an
album…I started to record myself singing songs at the same time as playing guitar. Almost
every song, I just sang the words at the same time as singing the melodies and playing the
chords, kind of freeform.”

Stewart continues: “There is a lot of looking back, and I suppose
everyone goes through this at different times in their life… especially at my age, but this is not
looking back in a soft nostalgic way. These songs are about memory, survival, love, loss,
damage, loyalty, betrayal, and the strange feeling of still being here after all of it…All of this
spewed out, with no lyrics written down, straight off the top of my head in one take.”

Among the album’s emotional centrepieces are the poignant and emotive Makes Me Happy
(And Sad) and the bittersweet ‘Your Wishes’. “The House Where I Was Born,” is a poignant love
letter to Stewart’s hometown of Sunderland. Written in 2025 while looking out from the window
of Number 9 Barnard Street toward Number 10, where Stewart lived until the age of nine. The
song captures the profound connection between memory and place, transforming a childhood
street into a universal reflection on home, identity and belonging.

Elsewhere the mood moves from defiant (‘Black Cat’, an anthem about enduring life’s endless
blows without surrendering to them) to reflective (“Cry If You Want To,” “All Done” and “What’s A
Man Supposed To Do”, a trio of songs exploring the complexities of, as Stewart puts it “love
after the storm”). The Way it Was Back Then, as a whole, is a collection of songs imbued with
the emotional honesty, maturity and nuance from an artist reflecting on a lifetime of experience.
It speaks to resilience, survival and the quiet determination to keep moving forward, no matter
the odds.

Stewart reflects: “At the centre of the album, I suppose there is a deep longing for connection,
but there is also the truth that nothing ever works out the way it did back then, hence the title.
The past can be beautiful but it can also be dangerous. A name, a voice, a house, a photograph
– any of it can open my heart and break it at the same time.”

On The Way It Was Back Then, Stewart’s vivid songwriting transports listeners from the
dizzying heights of international stardom to the struggles and tragedies of being entangled in
love, to moments of anger and grief, and to flashes of humour and hope. Together, these songs
form a remarkable portrait of a life fully lived, both inside and outside of music.

The Way It Was Back Then was recorded, mixed and mastered at Dave’s own Stardust Studios,
the highly sought after purpose built creative compound in the Bahamas, and is released on
September 18th 2026 on Stewart’s Bay Street Records, with the eponymous title track released
as its first single on Stewart’s birthday, September 9th. On this record he delivers something
altogether different: an album that strips away expectation in favour of honesty. Rich in
atmosphere and fearless in its emotional depth, it stands as one of the most compelling and
personal works of an extraordinary career.

THE ALBUM, ‘THE WAY IT WAS BACK THEN’, IS RELEASED ON BAY STREET RECORDS
ON SEPTEMBER 18TH. THE SINGLE ‘THE WAY IT WAS BACK THEN’ IS RELEASED ON
SEPTEMBER 9TH

Amongst polymath Stewart’s latest projects is RARE, a creative venture builder, turning creator-led intellectual property into scalable businesses. With RARE, Stewart, a founder member alongside co-founders Dominic Joseph and Rich Britton, helps artists, performers and creatives
from all sectors bring their ideas to life and develop them in a commercially sustainable way while, crucially, retaining majority ownership of the IP and of revenues. RARE is currently on – boarding a wide range of creatives and advisers and most recently took a stake in the Simon
Cowell backed live music and events platform Lounges.tv. See thisisrare.com for more details.

Feature Image: Album Artwork Supplied By PR

Dave Stewart’s new album ‘The Way It Was Back Then’ is released on 18th September 2026 on Bay Street Records.

The single ‘The Way It Was Back Then’ is released on 9th September 2026.

Official LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/davestewartofficial

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