Fiction Plane are not necessarily the sort of band you expect to see touring the world at the behest of recently reformed international superstars like The Police. Then again, Fiction Plane are not necessarily a ‘normal’ sort of band – not many acts have a frontman whose father just happens to be Sting.
It’s something that makes the unassuming, unfailingly polite Joe Sumner sigh in frustration. How is he ever supposed to be taken seriously as a bona fide frontman if all anyone ever does is ask him about his dad? Well, probably by not agreeing to accept a support slot with his band would be a start!
“It’s been fun,” he admits, indicating that the choice of spending 7 hours a day travelling the lengths and breadths of the road warrior journey is a less satisfying life than flying in and out of the cities in which the Police tour. “It can be more fun, but I hope it doesn’t last forever.”
That’s what he no doubt hopes touring with the Police will enable Fiction Plane to do. Instead of being stuck in the anonymous ghetto that is rock ‘n roll, the position of a support slot with his dad and his two cohorts gives him the opportunity to reach vast audiences who simply wouldn’t have heard of Fiction Plane otherwise.
“Despite the fact that it goes against all my principles and defines us as a massive sell-out,” he says, tongue only somewhat in cheek, “it’s WAY better than doing NOTHING. We get to play gigs and that’s what we want to do – just keep playing gigs until we’ve broken up.”
He says that the reaction to the band’s sets can be varied from support slot to support slot – sometimes they’re wildly enthusiastic and full of vim and vigour and other times decidedly less so. “Sometimes we see them at [the Police] shows and then we see them at [our own shows]. We just go out there and have a good time and pretend that we’re not the support band but that we’re just THE band that everyone has come to see…which isn’t true.
“I see a lot of bands going up and playing on a big stage that they’re not used to,” he continues, “and they’re just saying ‘Sorry, your favourite band will come up soon’ but we just don’t. We’re more like ‘We’re your favourite band so suck it and see’. Not everyone agrees with it, but that’s fine – and plenty of people do come back and get into it properly. I think they want some entertainment anyway, and those shows with the Police they’re paying something ridiculous to see us so we figure it’s our duty – even though it’s got nothing to do with us that they’re paying all that money – to add a little extra bang for the buck.”
Of course, going from playing their own gigs in small dingy pubs to playing mega-sized stadiums requires some level of adjustment, but it’s something he says that they treat quite differently. “Those stadium shows are like a big advert because people see you but we only play for 40 minutes and we don’t have control over anything and we can’t improvise – we can’t jam out or quite be ourselves. So when we get to the smaller clubs we really have the freedom to be ourselves.”
And what are Fiction Plane like? Well, unsurprisingly, Joe’s vox bear a more than passing resemblance to dad Bernard’s tenor style. But in terms of sheer sound, perhaps Fiction Plane can best be described as an amalgam of successful Brit indie pop-rock, with obvious touchstones such as The Bends¬-era Radiohead, Coldplay, and Snow Patrol the most obvious touchstones for the group.
The band bring it all together nicely on new album Left Side of the Brain, which is out now. Fiction Plane hit Australia with the Police this month, as well as playing 2 solo shows in Melbourne and Sydney.
