Fiction Plane

Fronted by singer and songwriter Joe Sumner—the grown son of Sting, the pop and rock icon who once fronted the Police—Fiction Plane emerged as a predominantly British alternative pop and rock group that began building an audience in the United Kingdom during the early 2000s. Although British publications frequently referenced Sumner’s lineage, the band members made no effort to capitalize on that connection. In one telling instance, the official biography MCA circulated to promote the group’s 2003 debut album, Everything Will Never Be OK, omitted any mention of Sting as Sumner’s father. Consequently, Sumner has never been accused of leveraging his father’s fame, and the band has likewise avoided any charge of deliberately mimicking Sting or the Police. While Sting’s influence may surface in certain aspects of Sumner’s vocals and compositions, U2 registers as the more prominent stylistic touchstone, lending his voice a distinctly Bono-like timbre. In contrast to U2’s often idealistic, sociopolitical outlook, Fiction Plane’s lyrics are routinely characterized as cynical, dark, melancholy, and world-weary, a sensibility Sumner has traced to his admiration for 1990s angst-driven acts such as Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins.

Born in England in the late 1970s, Sumner was still an infant when the Police cut their 1978 debut album, Outlandos d’Amour. During childhood he resisted musical instruction, disliking piano lessons and favoring video games instead. At ten he nevertheless took up the guitar and later added drums. A decisive shift occurred in 1991, when the fourteen-year-old Sumner encountered Nirvana’s Nevermind and promptly began composing his own material. Before long he was jamming with bassist Dan Brown, a fellow Nirvana enthusiast who would eventually join Fiction Plane. The band itself formed in 1999 under the name Santa’s Boyfriend; shortly afterward, former art student Seton Daunt was brought in on lead guitar.

A 2001 demo titled Swings and Roundabouts preceded the group’s first proper album, Everything Will Never Be OK, which was tracked only after the band signed with MCA and adopted its current name. David Kahne—whose production credits include Tony Bennett, Sublime, the Bangles, and Sugar Ray—oversaw the sessions in 2002 at a time when Fiction Plane lacked a permanent drummer, so session musician Abe Laboriel Jr., formerly of Paul McCartney’s band, handled the drum parts. Sumner and Brown subsequently recruited American drummer Paul Wilhoit for live work. MCA issued Everything Will Never Be OK in the United States in March 2003.