“There Was a Time”
by Stephanie Seymour

New single and video OUT NOW!

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULhK5KA-gAI

Audio only: https://stephanieseymour.bandcamp.com/releases

Thank you for the spins: Sirius XM’s Underground Garage (Rodney Bingenheimer Show, Palmyra’s Trash Pop Shindig, and the Coolest Songs in the World channels), WFUV, WFMU (4 shows), WMNF, KDHX, WPKN, WFDU, Cygnus Radio, WFPN, WCLX, Mike Marrone’s “From the Basement,” WBJB (Alt Rock Radio and Fresh Tracks), KKFI, WRSI, KXCI, WBKM, KDNK, KMNO, XRAY.FM (KXRY), WOMR, MyRadioPlace, The Peak 107.1, KVNF, WGDR, WERA, KMMT, WEVL, WITH, Radio Access (KUAK), KXRW, KOPN, KPFN, KNKR, WHUP, WZNC, WVLP, WGXC, WSRX, WMSV, KFFP, WCNR, KAOS, WSLR, KPTZ, KFOK, WAKT, Downtown Radio (KTDT), KBUT, KCMU, KBRP, KYGT, KWVH, WOZO, WKDW, KLNX (Radio Free Minturn), WHCP, KOSW, WPAT, KUCR (Garagerocktopia Radio), WMFO (Strike the Box!), WCFA, KPOV, KPSQ, OWWR, NCCR (Cotswold, UK), Formula Indie (on over 20 stations throughout Europe and more), The Atlantic Tunnel, BlowUpRadio, Amazing Radio, Radio Wigwam, #RKC – Radio Kaos Caribou, Prospect Radio (London), Radio Candy Radio Show, Outsiders Radio (Ireland), The Secret Weapon, Shady Pines Radio, The Attic Show, The Music Authority, XRP Radio (UK), OSTM Radio (UK), and Women of Substance podcast.

Little Steven tweeted out my video on 2/23!!!

Scroll all the way down for press coverage and Spotify adds.

BIO/SONG INFO

Stephanie began her professional music career as the drummer in The Aquanettas from 1989 to 1994. Their first record, “Love With the Proper Stranger,” came out on Nettwerk/IRS in 1990, and the band did a two-month tour of the United States in support of the album. In 1991 and 1992, through Major Label Records in the US and Plastic Records in the UK, the band released a few singles: “Whoa!” which was NME’s Song of the Week, and the “Super Absorbent Maxi Single,” which contained a few singles in one. Their “Roadhaus” EP came out on Rockville in 1993. “Mind Full of Worry” was featured on the soundtrack for Hal Hartley’s movie “Amateur,” and “Beach Party” was on the “Kissed” soundtrack.

In 1995, Stephanie joined Adam Roth’s wonderful four-part harmony pop band called Psychic Penguin. She says, “We all switched around on instruments. I played drums on some songs, but I also had a percussion setup and sang backup vocals on all of the songs.” The band had a dedicated following in the NYC area and also played shows up and down the east coast.

By 1997, Stephanie had written an album’s worth of her own material. As Psychic Penguin waned, she formed her own band called Birdy, which is when when she became a lead singer. Birdy released two CDs on Cropduster Records in 1999 and 2002: “Supernominal Paraphernalia” and “Quarantine.” Cropduster was a collective, cooperative label. The musicians who owned the label were also on the label. During that time, Stephanie met her husband, Bob Perry (formerly of Winter Hours), who produced “Quarantine” and who would eventually produce her 2019 release “There Are Birds.”

In 2004, Stephanie became interested in bird watching, a passion that soon dominated most of her time. She continued singing backup for many artists, such as Amanda Thorpe, AJ Lambert, Bob Perry, and Julia Greenberg, but staying out late for gigs and getting up early for bird watching took its toll. By 2011, the birds won, and Stephanie took a hiatus from music. But in 2017, the death of a former bandmate brought her back to performing at the memorial concert at Webster Hall. Then she began singing backup for Sherryl Marshall’s band Sherita and The Girleens. In 2018, a musical lightning bolt struck. Stephanie decided to combine her love of birds with her love of music, and the idea for “There Are Birds” was born. The songs were completed in a matter of months, as she explains: “It was as if they had to be written; they simply flowed out of my head onto paper.” By mid-2019, “There Are Birds” was released and garnered much acclaim. Deep Roots magazine called it “glorious, supremely engaging music.” The Aquarian Weekly said the album “is phenomenal…it’s melodic, it’s poignant, it’s clever, and it’s storytelling at its finest.” Birding magazine stated, “Seymourʼs vocals are brilliant throughout [and her] harmonies [are] melodic and moving. It is haunting; you will never forget it.”

Flash forward to 2022 and Stephanie’s new single “There Was a Time.” The song was inspired by the passing of one of her favorite guitarists, Eddie Van Halen. After his death, she began thinking about when he and his former wife Valerie Bertinelli were the “it” couple in the ’80s and ’90s, and a flood of wonderful memories, musical and otherwise, came back to her. “Though I wrote the song with them in mind, the lyrics are universal and relevant to anyone who has fond memories that are brought back by photos, music, or whatever it may be. I wanted to create a celebratory song that people can relate to, especially as there have been such difficult circumstances affecting us all during the last couple of years.”

Stephanie and her husband Bob Perry made a demo for Ira Elliot (Nada Surf, Bambi Kino) so he could lay the drum track down. “Ira was so amazing. He was kind enough to give us a bunch of takes to choose from. As soon as I heard the first 8 bars of the one that made the cut, I knew it was the one.” Ira recorded at his Shedley Grange studio in Sarasota, FL. Bob put down the bass and guitar at his and Stephanie’s Chrometop Studio, and then Stephanie sung the lead vocal. Sherryl Marshall and Deborah Berg came over, and together with Stephanie, they put down all the background harmonies in one day. Ray Nissen sent in a great keyboard part. And lastly, Ray composed the horn parts (“I told him to think of ‘Angel of Harlem’ by U2 when he was writing!”), and Garrett Faccone, Erick Storckman, and Ken Zampella played them masterfully. The result is an ebullient mix of gospel-infused, harmony laden pop/rock that invites you to sing along and feel the groove.

PHOTOS

SINGLE ARTWORK

LYRICS

There was a time when rainbows filled the room
There was a time when rainbows filled the room
The world was filled with hope
By every word you spoke

There was a time, there was a time, there was a time
There was a child, the angels sang in tune
There was a child, the angels sang in tune
The world eternal springs
From all of life’s much finer things
There was a child, hang on to him, there was a time
(There was a child, there was a child)

Don’t pretend to be
All the things that everyone around you sees
Quiet brings the sound of inner harmony
Washing over like a breeze
Let it be, yeah

There was a time when rainbows filled the room
(There was a time)
There was a time when rainbows filled the room
(There was a time)
The world was filled with hope
By every single word you spoke
There was a time, there was a time, there was a time
(There was a time)
(There was a time)

There was joy, there was hope
There was peace, there was love
There was joy, there was hope
There was peace, there was love
There was joy, there was hope
There was peace, there was love
There was a time, there was a time, there was a time

(There was a time)
(There was a time) There was a time
(There was a time)
(There was a time) There was a time

CREDITS

There was a band:
Stephanie Seymour – lead vocals, harmony vocals, tambourine
Bob Perry – guitars and bass
Ira Elliot – drums
Ray Nissen – keyboards, horn composition and arrangement
Sherryl Marshall – harmony vocals
Deborah Berg – harmony vocals
Erick Storckman – trombone
Garrett Faccone – trumpet
Ken Zampella – saxophone

There was a video editor:
Bob Perry

There was a producer:
Bob Perry

There was an engineer:
Bob Perry

There was a mixing team:
Bob Perry and Stephanie Seymour

There was a mastering studio:
Scott Anthony at Storybook Sound

There was a songwriter:
Stephanie Seymour

There was a studio (or two):
Recorded at Chrometop Studio
Drums recorded at Shedley Grange (Sarasota, FL)

©2021 Stephanie Seymour
Royal Greatness Music/ASCAP

PRESS

Feature in NJArts.com.

Track of the Day in Stereo Embers Magazine.

Review in PIGEON_OPINION.

Review in The Other Side Reviews.

Part of feature on NJ musicians in The Asbury Park Press. If link doesn’t work, see thumbnail below:

Article in YMX blog.

Interview and review in Rock Era Magazine.

Article in PopFad Blog.

Article in Given to Rock.

Feature in FVMusicBlog.

Mention in Formula Indie/European Indie Music Network.

Jersey Joe’s Pick to Click for week of 2/15/22.

Article in Eat This Rock blog.

Article in Edgar Allan Poets site.

Article in Sinusoidal Music blog.

Article in StrikeANote blog.