2/12/03
by SALIMA APPIAH-KUBI
Fiction Plane rocks the Roxy and talks to the Daily
You could see the change almost immediately. The kids in the audience lost their air of nonchalance and began to move in earnest _ some even attempted a mosh pit. By the end of the set, the entire audience was enthusiastically cheering. Fiction Plane had succeeded where most opening bands failed. They had thoroughly won the crowd over, solely on the merits of their music.
Sitting on the guitar cases backstage, Fiction Plane takes a short break from setting up for tonight's approaching set to talk to the Daily. They are the second opening act for SoCal piano rock band Something Corporate and the Juliana Theory. One of the members tunes up during the conversation.
Based in London, Fiction Plane is comprised of natives Dan Brown (bass/keyboard/vocals), Seton Daunt (guitar), and Joe Sumner (lead vocals/guitar) as well as Pete Wilhoit from Indiana. The group goes back to Sumner and Brown's high school days when they formed a band together. The pair later met Daunt through a friend during college.
"We've been playing on and off through the years and got back together...about two and a half, three years ago," says Brown. "Then we found Wilhoit just before Christmas."
"Wandering the streets." chimes in Wilhoit. Brown laughs.
"Yeah, wandering the streets _ and we decided to give him a job."
The group describes their music as diverse. "We have a lot of different influences, so it's kind of like this mad mixture of different stuff," Brown says. The bandmates also place high importance on having meaningful lyrics.
"I would say that we really try and convey a specific emotion in the music than fits with [the] lyrics," Brown says. "It's not just completely groove based music or anything like that. We've been trying to have music that really means something and the lyrics to go with it."
The group cites Nirvana as its main influence, "'Cause at that time, it was a very exciting, fresh sound," Brown says. "... It really inspired us to go pick up guitars and play loud music." They also recognized the influence of other British bands such as Radiohead and Pink Floyd.
Fiction Plane has had its high and low points. According to Sumner, they are still in midst of the best experience as a band, a phase which began with the production of their album Everything Will Never Be Ok and continues with the current tour.
When asked when the worst phase was, the British bandmates laugh. "There have been a few." says Sumner .
"We did a gig a few years ago," Brown says," We played "Lady in Red" by Christopher Burns as a joke to open the set. The problem was, we were playing in this bar and people started dancing, and we knew that halfway into the song we were going to crack into this death metal_ this raucous din. It didn't go down too well."
Asked for his favorite venues, Wilhoit immediately responds "Bloomington, Indiana _ The Bloomberg" bringing a laugh to the other member of the band. They also expressed affection for the Agora Theater in Cleaveland and Irving Plaza in New York, which they played the night before. They are fairly impressed by the Roxy, where they performed tonight.
Currently, the group isn't in the practice of playing covers. Instead, they want to play as much original music as possible. "Writing songs is half the enjoyment of this band," says Brown.
Of their own music, Sumner especially enjoys playing the cleverly-written song "Hate" which pokes fun at teen angst and malaise; while Wilhoit's current favorite is the waltz-time ballad "Four in the Morning" which isn't on the album.
"They're all fulfilling in different ways" Brown says.
If they weren't in music, the members of Fiction Plane would be working vastly different jobs. Sumner says he would be "...teaching little kids how to do something" while Brown would be a chef. Wilhoit would be a billiards champion, and Daunt would be a diving instructor "for about six months."
As for more, wholly unnecessary information about Fiction Plane: If they were trees, Sumner would be an old oak tree; Brown would be a pine tree "[because] I've got a big prick"; Wilhoit would be an evergreen; and Daunt would be a willow.
The task of completing the Glen Phillips Challenge (composing a haiku about the band) was left to Sumner, who came up with this:
Fiction Plane is us
We've been travelling in a van
I hope we don't smell
http://www.tuftsdaily.com/articleDisplay.jsp?a_id=1299
