April 16, 2003
By Roger Hillis
Delaware Coast Press
"If you want to go on tour in England, you play four or five gigs and you've pretty much played the entire country," said Fiction Plane bassist Dan Brown. "When you're touring America it takes months. We'd been gigging around London forever, and we wanted to get on the road."
Although it hails from London, Brown called the Coast Press from the band's adopted home of New York City, where it has based itself since signing a major deal with MCA Records last year. The group's first full-length album, "Everything Will Never Be OK," was released worldwide last month.
The group's Saturday, April 19 set opening for Lifehouse at the Baycenter in Ruddertowne will be the fourth of 14 dates the two bands are playing together. After that, Fiction Plane will jump to a tour with Dewey Beach favorites the Samples, a Colorado-based group tentatively scheduled to return to the Bottle & Cork nightclub in July.
Fiction Plane was profiled on MTV on Sunday, and the segment is scheduled to be repeated on Thursday, April 17, at 8:30 p.m. While the band is trying to keep the emphasis on its music, MTV is among the media outlets to have caught wind of the fact that lead singer Joe Sumner is the son of Gordon Sumner -- better known as Sting.
Sting is hotter than ever, with his recent performance with No Doubt at the Superbowl and his televised induction into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame with his former bandmates the Police last month. Many television viewers got their first glimpse of Joe Sumner when he recently accompanied his famous father to the Academy Awards ceremony.
When Fiction Plane released an independent recording prior to its MCA deal, Sumner was listed as Joe Mendez. Brown said the use of the ficticious last name was intended to deflect any suggestions that the band was capitalizing on a famous relative, but it backfired when some suggested they were trying to be secretive. "Joe certainly isn't ashamed of who his father is and he doesn't deny it," Brown said. "Back in those days we wanted to stay under the radar because we were still exploring things musically and trying to develop our own identity." The current lineup is rounded out by guitarist Seton Daunt and new drummer Peter Wilhoit, who drove to New York from his home in Indiana to audition for the band.
While Joe Sumner has vocal and physical similarities to his father, he names early '90s alternative bands like Nirvana and Pavement as his influences. "Joe and I both took classical music lessons when we were children and we both lost interest quickly," Brown said. "Nirvana and the whole grunge phenomenon was what really inspired us to start a band."
Unlike their tour mates in Lifehouse, Fiction Plane is not adverse to controversial political statements. The song "Soldier's Machismo" on the new album questions post-Sept. 11 military actions in Afghanistan and war in general. "When we invade countries, especially from our (British) side of things, we don't view the people we kill as people," Brown said. "We call them 'collatoral damage,' as if they were cattle."
Fiction Plane isn't serious all the time, however. It changed its original name of Santa's Boyfriend.
Asked Brown, "Wouldn't you?"
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