Stephen Cummings has recently released a superb new studio album, Nothing To Be Frightened Of (Head Records). Cut at lightning speed with Shane O’Mara, the album is minimal, loaded with smart lyrics, subtle melodies and buoyed by a certain sense of soul. Stephen’s previous band The Sports are the subject of two fine re-issues from Warner Music, Reckless (1978) and Don’t Throw Stones (1979). Both are boosted with rarities and the latter includes an albums worth of un-released material from the band’s time in England. Cummings is also the subject of a new documentary film from director and writer Mike Brook, Don’t Throw Stones.  Sean Sennett recently caught up with Cummings to talk about all of the above.

Congratulations on the new record. Did you record it in two days?

Yeah, thanks. I really kind of like it too.  Shane (O’Mara guitarist and co-producer) and I were  both saying it happened so quickly and then it just sort of sat there. I didn’t listen to it for about three months. It was recorded basically in a night in about seven or eight hours. We played live and just did it. We had the drum machine going. Shane played and I sang. We did everything live. He added one solo and then he just added a bit of organ, and that’s it. Shane mixed it in the second session.

It’s like soul music. I really love Sam Cooke and stuff like that. It’s sort of chords, and simple patterns, just groove along. I’m a really good singer. I say that, but not braggingly…

We did a few goes on each one, and we rehearsed a day before. Originally Shane didn’t want to have a drum machine. I like the sound of electric guitars and drum machine. I’ve always liked that kind of thing because it takes it into another area of music or sound. I think Shane was a bit more worried because he’d never played  so minimal. I said no, ‘you can’t play too much — I don’t want more parts or anything.’

How long did it take to write the songs prior to that? You were obviously very well prepared when you took them in.

Just over about a month or something. I had about 20 different ideas I could’ve done but 10 is a rock record. That seems to still work really well. When  you’re older and have recorded as many records as I have, it almost becomes that weird thing where you just go ‘what’s the point of doing a fucking record, or thinking about these things’. I like writing songs. Obviously I still really get a kick out of music. Doing it quickly, so I don’t have much to think about, kind of works well for this stage of my life. It worked for the Rolling Stones and Beatles. There’s nothing like limitations to clarify your thinking. 

I know you were involved in making the recent documentary (Don’t Throw Stones), which was a reaction to your memoir (Will It Be Funny Tomorrow Billy? – 2009) but it’s not your film as such. Has it been a positive experience having the movie play at the Melbourne International Film Festival. 

It’s slightly disturbing. I spoke at the end of the screening in Melbourne and I answered a couple of questions.  I think the book is really funny. It’s a great idea having people answer what you said about them. It’s great, and I think that’s all fine. Some of it’s quite funny, but (the film) is more situated around (my time in) the Sports time (1976 -81) and stuff like that. It’s so long ago, I’m like a million miles away. In retrospect, I should’ve written more about what it was like in the late ’80s and ’90s, because things were really actually kind of really positive.

There were a lot of gigs, and big crowds. It was different to the late ’70s, because it wasn’t so much pub based. Dance music had come in – I put out A New Kind Of Blue (1989) then. It’s a bit like the records (I made) with Steve Kilbey (Falling Swinger (1994) and Escapist (1996). It was quite an interesting thing 00:12:06.6 in Australian music, which I don’t think I paid that much attention to, really.

Do you think you’ll make another record as minimalist as the current one? 

Oh yeah, for sure.  If I made another record, it would definitely be the same way. I couldn’t write another book really because I haven’t got the concentration now. If I did more records, it would definitely be like this.

It’s interesting with the Sports reissues just coming out (the first two albums, from 1978 and 1979, Reckless and Don’t Throw Stones), is there a Sports’ album that stands out for you as  the best one you did?

I think the last one (Sondra 1981) was pretty good. It’s a really good pop record, and it’s kind of unusual. I think that’s actually a really good record. Don’t Throw Stones is a really good record, too. Those two albums are kind of  standouts for me.

Did you feel part of a scene back then, or did you kind of feel removed? People are talking a lot about the  “Carlton Scene”  and there’s the new compilation (When The Sun Sets Over) Carlton/Melbourne’s Countercultural Inner City Rock Scene Of The 70’s (Warner).

No, I can’t get too excited by the Carlton Scene. As far as I could see there was no scene. Skyhooks came from Auburn and out that way – Greg Macainsh lived out there. I think it’s a bit like inner-city Melbourne sort of 1975 or something.  Already the world had become pretty much the same everywhere. It’s just like when the Sports started, obviously we all heard the same sort of music that we were interested in. A group like Brinsley Schwarz, from  England,  weren’t doing stuff that was that different from the early Sports and late Pelaco Brothers. But we hadn’t heard them, but we were obviously all interested in the same kind of music. I think people of a certain age became really interested in what’s (now) become Americana music. We were interested in soul music and rockabilly and stuff like that, and Elvis… in the English speaking world.

Australian music from the late ’60s sounds really unique to me. The equipment was so limited and they seemed to get really great sounds. There are things you like one day that can be two months later you’re sated by it. You don’t want to hear it again. It doesn’t sound so incredible to you.

I’ve seen Mick Jagger questioned about Exile On Main Street and that’s pretty amazing, and he’s saying ‘yeah, but a lot of amazing soul records came out then’. And it’s true. There was all this great Marvin Gaye stuff and Curtis Mayfield. Critics seem to forget about that sometimes. Black music has always been so amazing, and it’s crossed to a much wider audience now. Sometimes we get a very narrow view of everything, I think.

Nothing To Be Frightened Of is out now through Head Records. Reckless and Don’t Throw Stones have been re-issued by Warner Music with an extra disc of bonus material. (When The Sun Sets Over) Carlton is out now through Warner Music.