| RICHARD CUMMINS-BIO One of Richard’s most early memories involves a dramatic encounter with the Christmas Hymn, “Little Drummer Boy” while he was still in the crib. A baby of approximately 2 years old does not yet have the life experience to gauge or reference emotions, yet as he lay listening he was overwhelmed with profound sadness and deep sorrow. Only beginning to really talk there is no way the concept of the song could have made much sense to him, but there was something there that did, however, transcend age and language: music. Richard made a connection that December night in 1975 with something powerful; literally years before he could even begin to explain it. From that point on Richard grew up with a keen awareness of music, and at 4yrs. old was singing harmony to his Mother’s leads of early Johnny Cash and old standards. At 8, he would hold the family guitar in his hands and watch performers on TV, vowing to himself that even though he thought he would NEVER be able to get past the three chords his Mother showed him on this insanely complex piece of wood and strings, that he would at least sling one over his shoulder when he grew up and sang - because they looked so cool. All that changed just after Richard turned 13. It was one of those meetings. The kind that you look back on and the hair stands up all over your body. But to a fresh teenager, you take things like this in stride. Richard was unlocking his bike, a freshman at the Junior High, as a grade older fellow student came out arms full and out of the blue said, “Hold this,” and popped a Walkman on Richard’s head so he could unlock his own bike. Something warm, strange, and incredibly wonderful flooded Richard’s ears, mind, and soul. “Can I borrow this?” An uncouth question of a stranger and his property, yet strangely appropriate in regard to the uncouth way in which he came into contact with said strangers property! The tape. That mix tape. The ‘magic’ tape. THE tape. Some band called the ‘Beatles’, with selections from “Magical Mystery Tour”, “Revolver”, “Sgt. Pepper”, “Rock & Roll Music: Vol 2” and the “White Album”. Richard learned (some say ‘mastered’) that guitar in 6 months… A string of silly bands came and went. A string of even sillier songs, though Richard was proud of the fact that at least he was writing his own material. He found out those crazy Beatles even made movies, and promptly saw them - with none other than the fellow student with the ‘magic’ Walkman, who by now had a name, James Minchau. The Documentary, “The Complete Beatles” taught Richard about recording studios and tape loops, and before long he had a method worked out using multiple tape recorders to tape himself singing his own harmonies or playing a guitar lick over his rhythm strumming. So infatuated with this marvel, he would double track his vocal up to 4 or 5 times, and combined with a few guitars and ice cream bucket ‘drums’ it was little more than tape hiss and melodic fuzz. But it was MAGIC. Then came the 4-tracks… Richard would go around town and talk the ear off of anyone even vaguely interested in music, which sometimes provided unique opportunities like getting to sit in with established bands and sing a song or two; once even being simulcast on one of Vancouver’s top radio stations after being invited up to sing a song after chatting with a band during their break at a festival when he was 15. Sparks were flying. Rounding up some likeminded friends, yet utterly diverse in musical backgrounds, Richard formed a powerhouse of a band consisting of himself on lead vocals/guitar, James Minchau, vocals/piano, Trevor Saunders, vocals/guitar, and Joe Ogilvie, drums. The group went thru a quick succession of funny names; and though he remained the lead singer and head songwriter, Richard gracefully took on the unwanted bass player position as well (though it became an utter delight to the McCartney influenced musician) and in a moment of being in the right place at the right time they not only got a recording deal, but it ended up providing them with a name as well. Hanging out with music types can have its moments, and sometimes those moments truly ARE moments. The band was hanging with some acquaintances in the biz and overheard that some band that had won all this recording time in a “Battle of the Bands” had split up before they could use it, and that it didn’t bode well for the studio as all the time was blocked and paid for. More important was the question, “Do you know of any band that wants to record for free?” Every Sunday for months Richard and his band would be down at the studios soaking up ‘their’ allotted time with the best of Richard’s original songs, and feeling like kings working in such studios as Ocean Sound and Venture Studios (now Hipposonic), and Trebas Studios (Hey Marcel - I need my old master tapes of 'Nothing to Lose!!! Email me!) which had been home to many top Canadian acts like Bryan Adams, Trooper, Duecette, etc. Sundays had become a very enjoyable routine for the boys and Richard had remembered a phrase his Mother would always say in regards to anything that seemed implausible: “That won’t happen for a Month of Sundays!” Well this was MONTHS’ of Sundays and it was all happening. Thus became one of the first Acts to break out of Langley, B.C.: “A Month Of Sundays” (Langley is now known as the residence of mega band ‘Nickleback’). Unfortunately, the deal didn’t come with any representation, but no one was complaining. Highlights abounded! A Month Of Sundays outsold a signed ‘popular’ Canadian band 54-40 at the SAME venue on back-to-back nights. They played everywhere before Richard turned 19 (the legal age to be permitted in a club). Their Single, “Nothing to Lose” which originally saw airplay under Tom Harrison’s hand, kept turning up on C-FOX in rotation. A Month Of Sundays consistently opened up shows with original material to cheers and crowds singing along, which is especially relevant due to the high pressure of bands to solely perform ‘cover’ songs (someone else’s more recognized material) in typical Club Gigs. Richard and fellow band mate James even managed to get on the private guest list of the Vancouver based Platinum Selling Band “Grapes of Wrath” in their final days before Kevin Kane left, and became regular guests on follow up band “Ginger”s (Tom Hooper, Vince Jones, Chris Hooper) guest lists. It couldn’t get any better than this! And it didn’t… Professional recordings and capacity crowds, all the right friends and every earmark of success unfortunately cannot control the unique dynamic that is called a ‘band’. Four people trying to become ‘one in thought, direction, and passion’, at a time when your thoughts are more controlled by passion, and your direction is not so much by choice but more of happenstance. They had given much, and had been given much. Everyone needed some ‘growing up’; only not everyone was growing in the same direction. Richard had the grace to bow out of the very band he fathered, yet had the joy of seeing the band of his namesake carry on to record two more albums, and enjoy moderate success in the Vancouver area (The band has evolved yet again with two original and one replacement ‘Sunday’ in the current Vancouver act, “Flipping Jiggers”). After spending time with some of Vancouver’s top session geniuses, Richard was impacted greatly by Christianity: (There's too much to type really, but the short of it is that as a 20 yr old non-christian Beatle fanatic in 1994, some people I knew who were christians witnessed to me by giving me tapes and records of christian artists they thought might appeal to my Beatlesque sensabilities - like Phil Keaggy, Randy Stonehill, Larry Norman, Keith Green, etc. The funny thing was I wouldn't listen to them - I would put them on the shelf and when they asked if I'd listened yet I would always say 'yes', to get them off my back. They knew I hadn't listened though, because knowing I was a guitarist they knew I would rave over Phil's playing, regardless of belief. Of the Keaggy albums, I was given Sundays Child, Find Me In These Fields, and Ph'lip side. So when I finally did listen to this stuff - at the end of years of God's build up and preparations - I saw the brutal honesty (basically be a real person) from Randy, and freedom to talk of personal failures/heartbreak in relation to faith from Larry Norman; was moved by the Spirit with Keith's rendition of the Easter Song, and Phil's talk of suffering in relation to following Jesus from Sundays Child along with klutzy Bible reading and simple prayer - I met Jesus on my own in the basement of a seaside house in White Rock Beach, BC Canada. I don't think Phil believed me when I told him how important the album Sundays Child was in my christian conversion - he gave me that 'Phil sideways look'. But I was going through major emptiness in my life on many levels - family disfunction, broken relationships, promiscuous living, hedonism; all which left me sooo empty - and the realness of the Jesus Movement artists was staggering to someone unfamiliar with the true God and disgusted with the modern church. The Beatleness of Sundays Child drew me in and the truth inside impacted me greatly - I had lived well beyond my 20 years at 20 yrs old and I experienced the 70's Jesus Movement - in the 90's. I got to see and meet Larry a few times, and Phil who at that point seemed like the christian McCartney to me. I didn't really get the timeline yet at how these people were christian 'has beens' from the 70's, and were getting squeezed out by the big 'christian record companies'. Up to then when I accidentally dialed in a christian music station I would cringe, laugh, etc, at the garbage and trite soul-less lyrics I was hearing, and then when I got saved was wondering why I wasn't hearing these wonderful people that I had on tape and vinyl on the radio. I couldn't believe christianity had traded in these guys for the empty plastic fluff I was currently hearing. Still don't understand it.) From here Richard gave away his car, furniture, home, sold his Beatle record collection including all the rare bootleg albums, quit his job, packed up his guitar and whatever he could stuff into a backpack and went on a 4 year global journey which was as much spiritual as it was musical: Richard gave performances that spanned 5 Countries, two complete coast to coast North American tours, wrote and performed songs with Top Bill Americana artist Paul Baloche (who had really talked up my music, to the point of "We'll make you a record" noises - which was followed immediately by an unreachable and uncaring Baloche. I was very bitter and frustrated for years actually, after being lied to and led on by such a huge christian "example"), and by this time had lived in diverse environments such as L.A. and San Francisco, Washington State, Idaho and Montana - even Dumaguette Phillipines and Bangkock Thailand, sometimes working with Youth With A Mission (YWAM). After 4 long years of lonely roads, living on a dime and out of a backpack, 100’s of performances, moments of incredible inspiration, and having his eyes and soul ‘opened’, a more seasoned Richard Cummins who by this time married his best friend - a California girl Michele he met along the way - relocated back to Vancouver B.C. Canada. In the last couple years, Richard has had 2 albums come out, his music being played in New York and Los Angeles, and continues to record in his newly built home studio. He is currently pursuing and researching the music of the late 60's and 70's "Jesus Movement", and has currently recorded with Phil Keaggy for an upcoming record which is being produced in Nashville,TN, by the exceptionaly talented nashville Producer/Engineer JB (Keaggy, Frampton, Garth Brooks, Amy Grant) due out early 2007. RICHARD CUMMINS CONTACT: WWW.RICHARDCUMMINS.COM. |