Dave Stewart Releases The Way It Was Back Then

Today, Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, Songwriters Hall of Famer, Eurythmics co-founder, producer, and acclaimed songwriter Dave Stewart releases The Way It Was Back Then across all streaming platforms. Written, performed, and produced entirely by Stewart, the 10-song album is released via Bay Street Records. Stewart’s most personal work yet, The Way It Was Back Then takes a clear-eyed look at the highs, the lows, and the hard years in between.

STREAM THE WAY IT WAS BACK THEN HERE.

Alongside the release, Stewart launches his new interactive app, Art of Chaos, available today on the App Store. Built as an immersive experience for fans, Art of Chaos cuts through the noise of AI and streaming by putting real music from a real artist front and center. The app features exclusive acoustic versions of songs from The Way It Was Back Then, plus nine previously unreleased tracks available only through the app.

The interactive UX is designed as a replica of Stewart’s apartment, the meeting place for the 90’s British art invasion, which welcomed everyone from Damien Hirst, George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Liam Gallagher, Blur, and countless others. Art of Chaos is available for download on both iOS and Android devices through the Apple App Store and Google Play, today at 12pm EST.

The album release follows the arrival of its title track, “The Way It Was Back Then,” which Stewart released alongside an official music video on September 25 across all streaming platforms. Dave shares on the video: “This video, filmed on the streets of Soho, brings back many memories of playing the Marquee Club and staying up all night drinking espressos at Bar Italia to stay awake and see the dawn with other Merry Pranksters as well as other adventures in freedom.” Today, Stewart shares the official music video for album standout “Cry If You Want To,” filmed in a fan’s home in Buckinghamshire, England, and featuring a close-knit community of neighbors and their families.

WATCH THE “CRY IF YOU WANT TO” OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO BELOW:

Recorded at Stardust in the Bahamas, The Way It Was Back Then was built almost entirely from spontaneous, one-take performances. With no lyrics written down beforehand, Stewart sang, played guitar, and improvised melodies in real time — handling vocals, guitar, keyboard, and programming — while his longtime engineer and collaborator Jesse Samler played bass, drums, keyboard, and programming alongside him (Samler also handled the album’s layout). The two of them then built out the rest of each song together and mixed the record themselves. The result is an intimate, unfiltered album about memory, survival, love, loss, loyalty, and betrayal — and the strange feeling of still being here after all of it.

DAVE STEWART SHARES:

“I wasn’t aware that I was making an album — in-between the various things happening in my life — some I instigated, and some just happenstance. I started to record myself singing songs at the same time as playing guitar. In almost every song, I didn’t write down any lyrics — I just sang the words at the same time as singing the melodies and playing the chords, kind of freeform. Luckily, my engineer and good pal Jesse can play the drums and bass real well, so it’s only the two of us playing everything! The whole album is very spontaneous in its lyrics and music. I have used this method on various solo albums, but usually that was with a programmer or a full band playing, but this time it was a lot more intimate.

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, as I said, with no lyrics written down, straight off the top of my head in one take — so I’m not sure how I did it, and as usual, have to work out later what chords I was playing and learn the melodies that I sang at the time. On listening and reading the lyrics now, I realize there are songs about old friends, parents, heartbreak, the streets, courtrooms, and so many ghosts of people and places that never really left me.

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.

Some of the songs are very personal and rooted in where I came from. For me, the feeling of this album is bittersweet, cinematic, and human. ‘The Way It Was Back Then’ is not really about trying to go back...it’s about finally facing what was there.”

TRACKLIST FOR THE WAY IT WAS BACK THEN: 

“The Way It Was Back Then”

“Your Wishes”

“Cry If You Want To”

“The House Where I Was Born”

“Black Cat”

“Makes Me Happy (And Sad)”

“Oh Jesse”

“All Done”

“Thin Ice”

“What's A Man Supposed To Do”

The new album follows DAVE DOES DYLAN, Stewart’s 14-song homage to Bob Dylan, which arrived as a limited-edition, Record Store Day-exclusive vinyl release via Surfdog Records on April 12, 2025. Featuring just Stewart on vocals and guitar recorded in live, unedited takes, the album found him performing inspired renditions of Dylan songs he has adored since childhood — a project Dylan himself praised, calling Stewart “a dreamer and a fearless innovator, a visionary of high order.” Recorded live at Analog at Hutton Hotel in Nashville, Stewart paid tribute to Bob Dylan with an intimate, stripped-down performance of Dave Does Dylan, which aired on PBS and YouTube. Watch here.

Above: Dave Stewart; Credit: Alan Welding

ABOUT DAVE STEWART:

With a career spanning four decades and over 100M album sales worldwide, award-winning singer, songwriter, musician, producer and Eurythmics co-founder Dave Stewart is among the most respected and accomplished talents in popular music history. Stewart co-wrote and produced each Eurythmics album in his world-famous duo with Annie Lennox. He has also produced albums and co-written songs with Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, Tom Petty, Gwen Stefani, Damian Marley, Stevie Nicks, Daryl Hall, Bryan Ferry, A.R. Rahman, Katy Perry, Sinead O’Connor, Aretha Franklin, Al Green, and Joss Stone, and many others. In 2022 Dave Stewart released Ebony McQueen, one of his most ambitious and autobiographical works of his remarkable life and landmark career.

His wide-ranging work has earned Stewart a long list of prestigious honors, including over fifty ASCAP and BMI Awards, four Ivor Novello Awards for “Best Songwriter,” four BRIT Awards for “Best Producer” (including a Lifetime Achievement Award), a Golden Globe Award, and a GRAMMY® Award. “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)” by Eurythmics was recently inducted into the GRAMMY Hall of Fame® and U.S. Library of Congress National Recording Registry, in recognition of its qualitative and historical significance. Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox were among the 2020 inductees into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, inducted by St. Vincent, with the ceremony taking place in 2022. Also in 2022, with an inspired induction by U2’s The Edge, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation welcomed Eurythmics as inductees for their profound impact on music.

Stewart is also a renowned film and TV producer (including NBC’s hit songwriting competition series, Songland), author, photographer, public speaker, and entrepreneur. In 2010, Stewart established Dave Stewart Entertainment (DSE), linking creative ideas to a host of projects in music, film, television, books, theatre, and new media.