Article Contributed by Milestone Publicity
Published on 2026-08-12
Dave Stewart — the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, Songwriters Hall of Famer, Eurythmics co-founder, producer, and acclaimed songwriter — has announced The Way It Was Back Then. Written, performed, and produced entirely by Stewart, the 10-song album will arrive Friday, September 18, via Bay Street Records as a limited, physical-only release on CD and vinyl, just days after his birthday.
Fans can visit BayStreetRecords.com for pre-order and purchasing information.
Recorded at Stardust in the Bahamas, The Way It Was Back Then was written and produced entirely by Dave Stewart and 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.
His longtime engineer and collaborator Jesse Samler played bass, drums, keyboard, and programming alongside him. Samler also handled the album’s layout. The two then built out the remainder of each song together and mixed the record themselves.
The result is an intimate, unfiltered album centered on memory, survival, love, loss, loyalty, 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.”
The Way It Was Back Then Tracklist:
“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 Stewart alone on vocals and guitar in live, unedited takes, the album found him performing songs by Dylan that he has loved since childhood. Dylan himself praised the project, calling Stewart “a dreamer and a fearless innovator, a visionary of high order.”
Stewart also honored Dylan with an intimate, stripped-down performance of Dave Does Dylan, aired via PBS and YouTube.
With a career spanning more than four decades and over 100 million album sales worldwide, singer, songwriter, musician, and producer Dave Stewart remains one of the most accomplished figures in popular music.
As co-founder of Eurythmics with Annie Lennox, Stewart co-wrote and produced each of the duo’s albums. 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, Sinéad O’Connor, Aretha Franklin, Al Green, Joss Stone, and many others.
In 2022, Stewart released Ebony McQueen, one of the most ambitious and autobiographical projects of his career.
His work has earned more than 50 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.
Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” has been inducted into both the Grammy Hall of Fame and the U.S. Library of Congress National Recording Registry. Stewart and Lennox were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame as members of the 2020 class, with the ceremony taking place in 2022. That same year, Eurythmics were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Beyond music, Stewart has worked as a film and television producer, including on NBC’s songwriting competition series Songland, and is also an author, photographer, public speaker, and entrepreneur. In 2010, he established Dave Stewart Entertainment, connecting creative ideas across music, film, television, books, theatre, and new media.
