Andy Summers - from The Police
By: Dominick A. Miserandino
Once comprising one-third of one of the greatest rock bands of our time, Andy Summers has since found his own path in music. His music has evolved from his days with The Police to a hybrid, with strong jazz and classical elements.
Andy sat down to talk with TheCelebrityCafe.com about music, his new book, and redefining success after The Police. The Police parted ways in 1986, but were reunited for the 47th Annual Grammy Awards. Now, the band is announcing a 2007 tour and will also play the Live Earth concert this July.
DM) Now I was looking over your bio recently, and there was an article that led off, and what struck me for a first question was that the article seemed to refer to your jazz and classical knowledge almost in surprise. Almost as though Andy Summers, the heavy rock guitarist from The Police, believe it or not, he also plays jazz. It surprised me because I was saying to myself, "Well he has ten albums out of jazz. This is what he is." But did that happen, that people would lump you into The Police? Even still, when you have done so much?
AS) Oh yeah, it's really sort of a blanket conception. It's something I deal with all the time. You know, if you get really well-known for one thing, you get sort of typecast. It's really hard for people to get past it, when the fact is that you might have done much more interesting work or really developed yourself. It's just something to deal with all the time.
DM) Yeah, it's always right there for you. Now, if I understand, it looks like you wrote two books recently.
AS) Yeah, I had one out about a year and a half ago. I did a collaboration with Ralph Gibson, it was called Light Strings. It featured extremely unusual and beautiful pictures of guitars, and a 13,000 word piece that I wrote to go with it.
DM) And what did you learn from the recent book experience, One Train Later? Usually I find whenever I talk with people who wrote something, they always find that they learned something about themselves.
AS) I didn't learn anything about myself really, I think. It's more the challenge of writing. With a book of that length, I think what I learned is about writing… I think I know myself pretty well.
DM) (Laughs)
AS) I suppose one of the things learned is that a memoir is actually one of the more difficult books to write. There are a lot of constraints: "Wait a minute do I really wanna say that? Am I gonna come off right?" How do you want to appear in a book? What is your voice? It's possibly a more self-conscious way of writing than others may be, because it's just in the nature of being an autobiography.
DM) I was wondering, by looking back on your life-so to speak-were you saying to yourself, "Oh I never thought of it, but now that I see the sequence of events, it kind of explains why I might have thought X,Y, or Z."
AS) Yeah, I hear what you're saying, and I can't actually go right to that right now, but I'm sure that along the way, maybe things. You know it's weird, being the final printed book, my head's right inside the middle of the iceberg. Now, it's sort of over, not quite over, but I've got this book, the actual printed book, reading it, signing it, that has given me a little bit of distance.
DM) Yeah
AS) There is this process-writing is also a visual medium. I see it clearer now. In some sort of weird way it allows me to gain a perspective over the life that I have made. It's a strange experience in a way, but not a bad way.
DM) When you mentioned about, if I paraphrase correctly, sounds like there was really some degree of intimidation about x, y, or z. Were there any situations like that where you were like, "Oh I really don't know if I should say what I really think about so-and-so"?
AS) Well, I think I pretty much went for the naked truth everywhere. The band, The Police, what are you gonna say about Stewart? But the job really was, once I sort of got the factual scaffolding in place, to write the psychology of what was really going on with the three of us. How did we grapple our way all the way to the top? A rags to riches success story, and what it takes to do that. But to do that in a compelling way, you must tell all the gnarly bits as well. And I don't mean character assassination, but obviously being in a group, you go through that kind of intensity, as we did, much more than some other bands…stuff happened. I just felt like I didn't really wanna pull any punches anywhere, because the book wouldn't be truthful, and what makes it compelling to read is to tell the real truth, and I'm happy to report that both Sting and Stewart read the book and loved it.
DM) So there's no major fight behind the scenes we're missing?
AS) No, I actually got a really sweet letter from Sting about it. I didn't even have time to send it to him, he already had it and read it and he was very complimentary and I felt very good about that-I was able to tell my version of the events and what I've seen to be the truth and knowing he's not very upset about it.
DM) Did you have to redefine success after the success of The Police? Did you have to stop and say to yourself, "You know, I'm thrilled with what I'm doing."
AS) Well yeah, I agree, but again I had to make a choice and I am who I am. I didn't feel like I needed to go after being in another #1 rock band. After The Police, it seemed to me nothing would be as good, so I did what I felt was true to me as a musician, what I really wanted-what kind of music I wanted to play, and I was just great with whatever came with that.
DM) So it sounds like you were ready for that transition.
AS) Oh I was, yeah.
DM) It wasn't as if you had to stop and give yourself a talking to. (laughs)
AS) No, I wasn't like some junkie for success. I'd had it up to the eyeballs, if you'll remember.
DM) Is there a point to which you miss it now, to some sense, or not at all?
AS) I don't even think about it. You know I'm out here with this book. I'm all over everything again and I have been #1, and once you've been in a band like that and you continue on and prove that you are the real thing, you're there, you know? I'm sort of forever there now. That may sound immodest. It's not supposed to, but clearly we sold records everywhere in the world, we were on the radio. It's just endless demands all the time. We hardly disappeared.
DM) I asked the question because it almost sounds to me that you've always been who you are, you were just thrust into the front of this rock 'n' roll Police-mania and then pulled back, and it wasn't as if you were-I read this one article about Paul Simon, for example, and they said, "Ah Paul, your album isn't as big as it was and how devastated you should be." Almost as if they were implying, "You were always a rock 'n' roll guy and you fell back and now you're up again." But instead, it sounds like you've almost had this one life.
AS) Yeah, for me it's always been about pursuing a true musical path as I perceived it. I never really got away from that. I've always been very bold with my playing and my music and trying to create music, and then fortune passed me right through that situation. And then I'm out on the other side. I mean, I was a different person when I came out on the other side. But it's the same thing. I think I felt two ways about it. One, it was like, "What the hell am I doing? How did this happen?" (laughter) And the other side of it was like, "Of course I'm supposed to be here. This is who I've always been. This is success that I should always have had.
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