One of Australian music's underdogs, Stephen Cummings has always had fantastic support from Triple J & community radio, but has never really had the commercial coverage that his music both deserved & demanded.

Nevertheless, Cummings has continued to produce fantastic music in the face of commercial radio basically ignoring him.

I recently caught up with Stephen, following the release of his 'best of' album, curiously titled Puppet, Pauper, Pirate, Poet, Pawn, King. We spoke largely of his musical career, while touching lightly on the impact of new technology on the music industry in general, plus of course, the dreaded radio airplay.

Starting out with radio support first, Stephen's comments were not exactly what I'd expected.

"I've never really understood the reason commercial stations haven't been very interested, but I guess if everyone understood the process of getting on the commercial stations, they'd be totally clogged by all sorts of music."

How about community radio & triple J, they've been very supportive haven't they?

"Oh for sure. Triple J have always played my albums & communiy radio has been very good also. Strangely enough, despite the popularity of Triple J in the rest of the country, they probably do the worst in Melbourne."

Surprised, I wondered why.

"Well I guess it's because Melbourne is already very well supported by two community stations who do a fabulous job of playing local content. That's probably the worst part of the Sydney scene, because there's not really a local station as such, whereas in places like Brisbane, there's a very active scene, with a couple of really interesting bands coming to the surface just recently, as they are in Melbourne now."

Moving onto the subject of the album, I asked Stephen why a 'best of' compilation now, rather than some time back.

"It's strange really, it was actually the label that asked me to do it & I had some new songs I wanted to put out, but not enough for a full album, so it's all worked in quite nicely I suppose. There was a lot of material to put on the album & it was just a case of what I wanted to pick from earlier albums & of course the new songs, which are outlined on the album."

I had noticed Stephen's work with The Church's Steve Kilbey over recent years & asked he was to work with.

"Great actually. He's really influenced the sound of my music, but I think the next time there's an album I want to produce it myself, you know, to have something of my own so to speak."

The subject of new technology inevitably came up & I was interested in Stephen's view of where it all might lead.

"I can't say I'm big on the Internet, though I think it has it's uses, primarily as an information source. There's been lots of talk about how we might get music via the Internet, but I don't think there's really a substitute for an album in your hand. Maybe it'll all come true in a few years, who knows."

Lastly, with Stephen residing on Polydor Records for quite a while, I asked how his relationship with the label was.

"I'm what you might call a 'low cost' artist I guess. I've never asked for a great deal & I don't think I cost that much financially, so when I do want to do something, there's usually no problems. I hope to be making music with them for a while yet anyway."

Check out Stephen Cummings latest album which is out now through Polydor.