Ex-PolicemanAndy Summers doesn't live in the past

(Jan. 15, 1998)

Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland don't need to reunite as The Police. Their music lives on and thrives today without them having to lift a finger.

"I'll Be Missing You," Puff Daddy's tribute to murdered friend The Notorious B.I.G., liberally sampled Summers' distinctive guitar work off The Police's 1983 No. 1 hit "Every Breath You Take." It topped Billboard's pop chart last summer and became the third best-selling song of 1997.

The Police, meanwhile, are on the charts now with the Puff Daddy remix of "Roxanne," from the hot-selling "The Very Best of Sting & The Police" (A&M). It's as if they never left.

"We don't have to get back together at all," Summers said recently. "It's probably a good idea not to."

Summers didn't retreat after The Police unofficially disbanded in 1986. He forged a successful solo career that included a Grammy nomination for his 1989 album "The Golden Wire" and still flourishes with his recently released RCA Victor debut, the jazz-tinged "The Last Dance of Mr. X." He also was inducted into the Guitar Player Hall of Fame and last month was among a group of distinguished guitarists honored by the Smithsonian Institute.

"The Last Dance of Mr. X" finds Summers back in a trio setting, with Tony Levin on bass and Greg Bissonnette on drums. As expected, Summers plays with grace and power through a mixture of original material and jazz classics (such as Charles Mingus' "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" and Wayne Shorter's "The Three Marias").

"The music is more jazz-oriented in a more obvious sense but broader because I played some jazz standards on it," Summers said, "so a lot of people who've written about it have called it a jazz album. It's hooking on to the most obvious thing, but the album is more than that."

Summers' fan base draws mainly from those who have followed his career since The Police formed in the late 1970s, but he says plenty of young people seeking to expand their musical knowledge attend his shows. Still, no matter where he goes, he can't elude The Police.

"I don't sit around thinking about the old days. That's a waste of time," he said. "However, it remains present because there's always stuff going on, like the remix. In terms of Police stuff, it's been very active. A sort of 'Basement Tapes' came out; there's the new disc out now ('The Very Best of Sting & The Police'), so I never get that far from it. I think more about making records myself, touring. That's a full engagement."

More than anything, Summers is puzzled by the popularity of "I'll Be Missing You."

"I don't know if I would say I was flattered by what (Puff Daddy) did. That's not a word that comes to mind somehow," he said. "I mean, if he had done some brilliant thing with it, that might be different, but it was so tawdry and sort of weak, although it was a huge hit. I think it was a hit because of the melody.

"Who knows why it was a hit, really. We know it was a hit before because of the excellence of the song, but I don't know if it was (Puff Daddy's) popularity that made it a hit or what. I don't understand it, really."

Summers gets his greatest satisfaction from recording and performing.

"If you're a real player, you play for yourself as well, so there's always this sort of inner dialogue with music," he said. "I want the whole experience continue to be enriched. Twenty-five years ago, if you had asked me (about personal goals), I would've said, 'Ugh.' I suppose from a lot of English mouths from my generation the phrase would be 'to make it.'

"But I was in a famous band; I already did that, so it doesn't seem like a logical goal at this point. There are other goals. My goal, at this point, would be to sustain a really interesting musical life and continue playing. That's the thrill for me, not necessarily getting another Top 10 hit record with a rock band, because I've done that."

BWF (before we forget): Join Andy Summers on the Web @ www.andysummers.com or send e-mail to info@andysummers.com. ... The Andy Summers solo album discography - "XYZ" (MCA, 1986); "Mysterious Barricades" (Private Music, 1986); "The Golden Wire" (1989); "Charming Snakes" (Private Music/Windham Hill, 1990); "World Gone Strange" (1991); "Synaesthesia" (CMP, 1995); "The Last Dance of Mr. X" (RCA Victor, 1997).

Sunny Day Real Estate in the land of the free

(June 18, 2000)

That rock-solid Sunny Day Real Estate is still standing today after eight years isn't so surprising for guitarist Dan Hoerner. It's what they had to go through to get here that's so amazing.

Formed in Seattle in 1992 in grunge's heyday, the indie-rock group - Hoerner, bassist Nate Mendel and drummer William Goldsmith - cut an imposing figure once they hooked up with lead singer Jeremy Enigk.

Their debut Sub Pop album, "Diary" (in 1994), sold more than 136,000 copies - not bad for an indie release - but with the newfound fame came notoriety: They did few media interviews; many of their songs didn't have titles, they were issued numbers; Enigk's conversion to Christianity prompted speculation that tension was building within the band; after their second album, "LP2" (in 1995), they broke up, with Mendel and Goldsmith moving on to Foo Fighters and Hoerner retreating to his 60-acre farm in Washington state, and Enigk then released a full-orchestra pop solo album.

With all that behind them, the group reunited in 1998, minus Mendel. But a nasty fallout with Sub Pop followed.

"The bottom line was money, as always," Hoerner said recently. "If Sunny Day was going to continue to be a band, Sub Pop believed, even though we faithfully delivered the last record of our contract with them ('How It Feels To Be Something On'), that we needed to be on Sub Pop if we were going to be a band. And believe me, man, they tried every trick in the book, everything to pull us through the ringer and stop us from doing it, but they failed.

"We've been together longer this time around than the first time. People talk about the breakup still and about the hiatus, which everybody in the band desperately needed, and which served to make the band a tighter entity than we've ever been. But for me, and for everybody in the band, we've been doing this band for a long time, and we have suffered through amazing shit to continue to do Sunny Day, fought crazy fights and legal battles and totally clawed and scratched so that we could continue to be Sunny Day."

None worse for the wear, they return in a big way with "The Rising Tide," out June 20 on Time Bomb Recordings. Produced by Lou Giordano (Sugar, Belly), the album is the group's most focused, experimental and accessible to date. There's still plenty of raw emotion and power evident in such tracks as "Killed By an Angel" and the title cut, while a softer, more textural side is explored on "Rain Song" and "The Ocean."

"We wanted to try and make the best record we could make, and to take time making a record like we'd never taken before, and really give ourselves the chance to explore all options and sounds," Hoerner said. "We took tons of time making this record, lots of preproduction time, and lots of care crafting the songs, and I think it all paid off really well.

"I think it's the rising tide, man. I really think that Sunny Day's going to break with this one. I mean, the record's so fucking good. We've got a fantastic label behind it working it super hard, and we're going to hit it super hard and do everything we can do to get the consciousness happening around the record, and I just can't help but think that this one's going to do it."

All this talk from a band that supposedly didn't want to talk to the press? Hoerner says much of the early mystery surrounding them was beyond their control.

"You know, it's just kind of another part of the process of learning and growing up," he said. "The same reasons that broke up the band and caused us to take time off were the reasons that were behind us not wanting to talk to anybody about it. We've been doing interviews now for more years than we've been in the band in the first place. To me, doing interviews is no new thing.

"It's just that Sub Pop ditched 'How It Feels.' They didn't do any work on press or publicity for it, so if it seemed like we didn't do any interviews for 'How It Feels,' it was because they never got us any. We got tons of interviews. We even hired our own publicity people, to try and get us interviews. It was a series of missteps around 'How It Feels' that kind of caused people to think that we weren't really doing much in the way of press, when to us we were like, 'Where are our interviews? How are people going to find out about this record?'

"I think to this day it's probably only sold 70,000 copies, but I think it's good enough to sell more. I'm sure it will pick up once 'The Rising Tide' starts to sell. I definitely admit to doing press. You've got to break your band."

As for his 60-acre farm, Hoerner relishes his slice of sunny real estate.

"Buying it was like a dream come true," he said, "because I'd spent quite a bit of time on the land. My friend had a piece of property adjoining it and I'd walked it a million times. I always dreamed of having it and now I'm walking around with a grin on my face all day. It's been five years and I still go outside and walk around and I'm blown away by it.

"We just bought it because we wanted to preserve the trees that were on it. It's got fantastic mature pine and fir forest on there, and the people who owned it were going to log it, which is the reason why I tried to buy it from them. I wanted to save the trees. Where I live, trees are just a commodity, and people are wondering why there are less and less of these big old mature trees. It's like, well, you cut them down! They don't grow on trees. Trees don't grow on trees.

"I'm still working on it. Hopefully, knock on wood, Sunny Day will help me pay it off."

THE FIRST RECORD I EVER BOUGHT: " 'The Clash' by The Clash. I actually just listened to it the other day. It fuckin' rocks! It's the raddest band. I think that anybody who is interested in lyrics and what somebody's talking about is going to be blown away by Joe Strummer and Mick Jones. Those guys were very clever and very motivated and very emotional. I think The Clash is one of the greatest bands of all time. They totally deserve to be in the Hall of Fame."

THE FIRST CONCERT I EVER WENT TO: "Wow, that is a tough one. I'll say the first concert that I remember as having a real impact on me was seeing Fugazi at a little place in Spokane called 1-2-3 Arts. That totally changed my life. It made me want to be in a punk rock band. I had no idea who they were. I just knew I liked to play punk rock. I liked punk rock music and I liked hardcore stuff, but I was new to the punk scene when they played at this little club and they were so unbelievably amazing and aggressive and passionate and smart and hilarious and into it. The crowd went nuts, but the funny thing was, they got everyone to come up onstage. There were these two skinheads at the show who were doing that kick-everybody skinhead dance they do, and they still do to this day, and they got everybody to come up onstage while they played except for these two idiots. I had never seen anything like that before. I never knew you could do that. I have great respect for them to this day."

THE LAST CD I BOUGHT: "Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's 'The Last Prophet.' ... There's like a whole place on the other side of the globe that is a much bigger democracy than America, with many more people in it, and in that place, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan is considered a fucking god. Britney Spears is probably considered to be a piece of shit. He's a super-mega, ungodly huge star in countries that are way bigger than America, and all over the world but in America he's just pretty popular. Well, I can deal with that. I can deal with Pakistani businessmen coming up onstage while I'm playing and throwing $100 bills on me constantly. Did you ever see him play, or hear about that? It's this amazing ritual. They worship him. I saw him in Seattle and they go absolutely apeshit. These guys are all in thousand-dollar suits and wearing thousand-dollar shoes, but they're clawing at themselves and going crazy. They're crowding around him and throwing money on him and throwing money onstage. Nusrat just brushes them off and keeps singing. He just ignores it. It's beautiful. It's the most amazing thing I've ever seen. "(Though he died in 1997), he was a voice that I think inspired so many people. I am just an ignorant person in America, I don't know shit about anything, and I don't know about his religious beliefs or where he's coming from or any of that. I don't presume to have any knowledge, but at the same time I totally understood the message in his voice so clearly that it moved me and inspired me. I wanted to be like that."

BWF (before we forget): Sunny Day Real Estate is back on the block on the Web @ www.sunnydayrealestate.com. ... The Sunny Day Real Estate album discography - "Diary" (Sub Pop, 1994); "LP2" (1995); "How It Feels To Be Something On" (1998); "Live" (1999); "The Rising Tide" (Time Bomb, 2000).

Super Deluxe brings back super pop

(May 30, 1996)

At first glance, power-pop quartet Super Deluxe may seem super out-of-place in its native Seattle.

But in the land of grunge, rain, expresso coffee and fish markets, that uniqueness has worked to their advantage.

"Because we came out when we did, there were still a lot of heavy bands around trying to ride the grunge wave, I think we got noticed because we were a pop band," singer-guitarist Braden Blake said recently. "It was difficult in the beginning to get booked for shows because clubs were hesistant to book a real poppy band like we are, but we eventually stood out."

Like the Posies before them, Super Deluxe has opened doors for other genres, not just pop, to be heard in Seattle.

"It just so happens our first big show was opening for the Posies," Blake said. "They had heard our tape at a friend's garage sale. He was playing the tape and just hanging out and Joe Bass of the Posies liked it and they decided to give us an opening slot."

The band's first album, "Famous," was released in September on the indie label Tim/Kerr Records. Rolling Stone magazine quickly sang its praises, hailing it "groovelicious." Its regional success impressed executives at Giant Records so much, they signed the group, remixed and remastered "Famous" and reissued it May 14 as the first release under Giant's new moniker, Revolution.

They also have earned a spot on the Presidents of the United States of America's tour.

"We feel really lucky," Blake said. "We've had a lot of good breaks, you know, in the right place at the right time in a lot of cases."

Guitarist John Kirsch said Revolution's support and belief in Super Deluxe (which also features bassist Jake Ness and drummer Chris Lockwood) convinced them to join the uprising.

"They're totally behind what we're doing," he said. "Even if the (sales) numbers are soft, they're going to back us up. Missy (Worth), the person who's running Revolution, has been a great supporter."

Tracks such as the first single, "She Came On," are laced with wafting retro-pop harmonies and instant hooks.

Super Deluxe isn't afraid to wear its pop influences on its collective sleeve, Blake said.

"Pop means popular, but the word pop pretty much sums it up for me," he said. "The influences are obvious, the early pop from the Beatles, the Hollies and bands like that. They defined the genre of guitar pop. We're just kind of imitators and borrowers with some of those elements."

Not ones to rest on their laurels, the four are already looking ahead to their next album.

"We're working on it, which we will probably record in the fall and come out a year from now," Blake said. "This album's only been out since September. We recorded it in the spring last year, so it hasn't been that long. I think by the time the next one comes out, though, we'll be tired of ('Famous').

"Otherwise, we're going to keep a smile on, cross our fingers, tour a lot and have a good time."

BWF (before we forget): Super Deluxe's follow-up album, "Via Satellite," was released in 1997.

Sweetbox's optimism resonates around the world

(Nov. 29, 1998)

In financially strapped Asia, many have adopted Sweetbox's "Everything's Gonna Be Alright" as their always-look-on-the-bright-side-of-life anthem.

American-born Tina Harris, lead singer, rapper and lyricist for the German-based dance outfit, has received countless letters from abroad, particularly Japan, where money's getting too tight (and tighter) to mention. All the letters have a central theme: "I don't have much money and I'm worried about the future, but when I heard your song, it gave me hope."

"The fact that these people went out and bought my CD," Harris said recently, "even though they're tightening their belts and trying to make ends meet, it just makes me all the more appreciative of what I have and what's happening for me.

"The fans, they're really the ones who are in control of my success, not the record company or radio or MTV. That's why there's a great appreciation for the fans, from my point of view. That's why I'm never too tired to sign autographs or whatever; I need them as much as they need my music."

Harris must have a serious case of writer's cramp after "Everything's Gonna Be Alright," with its crafty melding of rap, pop and classical, was a major hit in 45 countries over the past year and a half, was used in Lancome's advertising campaign for the new fragrance O Oui! and is finally honing in on the U.S. Top 40. The song is at No. 47 this week on Billboard's pop chart and closing in on No. 1 on P&P's Picks chart.

The song has so much going for it: a glorious hip-hop beat wrapped around the German Symphony Orchestra Babelsberg's version of "Air" from J.S. Bach's Suite No. 3. Harris raps in coherent, fearless fashion, then passionately sings the sanguine chorus: "Everything's gonna be alright, everything's gonna be okay."

It may be a beacon for suffering Asian economies, but that wasn't Harris' intention. She wrote it after a seemingly good relationship went bad.

"I was with this guy for about two-and-a-half years," she said, "and he told me he didn't want to be with me. At the time, I had started doing the music and I was gone a lot. It was like a blow to me. After someone tells you, 'I love you,' then suddenly 'I don't want to be with you anymore,' it's like, 'Whoa, something's wrong here.' You're like in a coma, but deep down, I was thinking, 'Everything's going to be fine.'

"In the song, you hear or think I'm talking about someone who's in a coma. To me, he was in a mental coma; something was blocking him from knowing that he was happy with me. What it was, he couldn't deal with sharing me with everybody else and me being gone for five months."

The bulk of Sweetbox's debut RCA album, "Everything's Gonna Be Alright," deals with Harris' failed romance.

"It starts with 'Don't Go Away,' meaning for him not to go away, be happy with who he is," Harris said, "because he wasn't the finest person, appearance-wise. The vibe of 'He Loves Me' or 'If I Can't Have You' (a cover of the Yvonne Elliman hit), all these songs stem from that relationship. And then I found out he cheated on me within the relationship, so that's where I was aggressive with 'Never Never.' The album's about relationships and reflections of things that I've been through in each stage.

"It was cathartic, in a way, but like I say, the sun comes up and you move on. You can always remember the good times, and that's what I choose to do, not 'Oh, I can't believe he cheated on me, and I can't believe she was my friend.' I had a good time, I liked this and this and that, but I'm not going to try to make the same mistakes again. Move on."

Harris' musical indoctrination came as a dancer with the German dance group Snap! Watching her cousin, singer Turbo B (real name: Durron Butler), work audiences into a frenzy made Harris long for the spotlight. She began writing songs and went through a variety of producers before meeting dance producer Geo (Ace of Base, Bananarama, Culture Beat).

The daughter of a career soldier, Harris was exposed to all sorts of musical styles growing up on a U.S. base in Germany. German Top 40 radio played a mixture of rock, pop, soul and funk, elements she wanted to incorporate into her sound. Geo had the same thing in mind.

"Before I met Geo, I went through a lot of producers," Harris said. "In Europe, it's very common that the artist is the puppet. They say, 'Here's the music, here's the lyrics, here's your clothes, here's your record company, just be here on these days.' I wanted to say, 'I want to wear what I want to wear, I want to have my own input lyrically and write my own lyrics.' I wanted to be creatively in control of the sound so that I can have something five years from now, just not to make music, like 'Let's make a Spice Girls song, change the melody a little and make a hit.' Geo and I came together; he knew what he wanted and I knew what I wanted, and we built this thing."

They built the inventive title track almost by accident.

"Every time I go into the studio," Harris said, "we start off with a warm-up. It takes about 15 to 20 minutes vocally, and (Geo) usually plays something on the piano. One day, he was playing classical music. It wasn't Bach at the time. And I started singing 'Everything's Gonna Be Alright,' warming up and messing around. With him playing that and me singing, three hours later I finished writing the lyrics. He had added some pieces and collected this and that and put it together as a demo. Ever since that, we work off a vibe like that in the studio."

Rather than sampling a Bach piece from another recording, Geo enlisted Boris Jojic to arrange "Air" for "Everything's Gonna Be Alright" and hired the German Symphony Orchestra Babelsberg to perform it.

Out of respect, Harris and Geo gave songwriting credits to the great 18th century composer, even though it wasn't legally required.

If Bach was sitting at the end of the conference table in RCA's Times Square offices, Harris would tell him: " 'You're totally awesome. I hope you're not flipping out over what we've done to your song. It's just a different time, and you're a musician so you should know about creativity. I can only say thank you.' That's the most definitive part of the success of this song."

BWF (before we forget): One week here, one week gone. "Everything's Gonna Be Alright" was positioned at No. 47 on Billboard's Hot 100 on Nov. 28. The following week, the song disappeared. Why? Billboard unveiled its retooled Hot 100 chart, with an expanded radio panel and the inclusion of airplay-only tracks. That meant several songs, including "Everything's Gonna Be Alright," Stardust's "Music Sounds Better With You" and Stars On 54's dance cover of "If You Could Read My Mind," all relying on retail sales, fell by the wayside.

Swervedriver hits the open road

(Nov. 12, 1993)

Losing two members to other bands would, understandably, drive a stake through any group's heart.

For England's sonic/melodic rockers, Swervedriver, it was just another bump along the highway.

"Anyone who leaves a band on their own accord, it's sort of like a vote of no confidence," lead singer-guitarist Adam Franklin said during a recent stop in the group's stint opening for the Smashing Pumpkins.

"Ultimately, though, it wasn't very difficult to overcome, and we had our own ideas that we wanted to get out anyway," Franklin said of the departure of drummer Graham Bonnar and bassist Adi Vynes.

Bonnar joined a San Francisco band called The Brian Jonestown Massacre, and Vynes hooked up with Skyscraper shortly before Swervedriver began work on its second A&M album, "Mezcal Head," released in early October amid heady reviews.

Joining Franklin and guitarist Jimmy Hartridge in the passenger's seat are newcomers Jez (drums) and Steven George (bass).

With "Mezcal Head" and the infectious single "Duel," Swervedriver didn't lose an ounce of power in the two years since its stirring debut "Raise." Produced by Alan Moulder (Jesus & Mary Chain, Curve), the new album brings more layered chaos and intensity but with consciously more upfront vocals.

"(On the first album), we heard from some fans who said 'we can't hear what you're singing,' and I couldn't tell as well when I played back on some of the tracks," Franklin said with a laugh, "and so we were wondering, 'What were we thinking?,' so we worked on that."

It's too early to tell if Swervedriver is riding the commercial coattails of the gold-selling Smashing Pumpkins, whose "Siamese Dream" (Virgin) is in the Top 20 on Billboard's album chart. But Franklin has noticed a positive response.

"It's only been like a week or so since the tour started," he said, "but we've had fans come up to us after the show and say, 'We thought you were cool. I've never heard you before, and now I'm going to go out and buy your record,' and that's exactly what it's all about, I suppose."

Swing Out Sister lives it up in America

(Nov. 3, 1994)

Andy Connell of Swing Out Sister is downright giddy. It's the British pop duo's first American tour, and everywhere they look there's a new musical landmark to see.

"Last night, we were in Detroit," the Manchester, England-born keyboardist said during a recent stop in Cleveland, promoting their Mercury album, "The Living Return."

"Here we were in the home of Motown, and we're listening to the radio on the way to the gig and it's playing Smokey Robinson. It's like, 'We're in Motown!' I can't believe it.

"This is always what we wanted. Our ambition was always to play in America, because we grew up listening to American music."

Connell and singer Corinne Drewery are getting their fill their first time out. The crowds have been sizeable and enthusiastic, Connell said, a stark contrast to minimal radio airplay for the single "La La La (Means I Love You)" and slow sales for the album.

"We've never known what our audience has been (in America), and neither has our record company," Connell said. "We don't know who to target. With someone like Bon Jovi, you know who your listeners are. With us, it's completely confusing. It crosses all boundaries, genders and cultures, and that's good, as far as I'm concerned."

Swing Out Sister began as a jazz-pop trio in 1986, with Martin Jackson (who left in '90). Connell fondly recounts the band's formation.

"Martin had a drum machine," he said. "We were both sick of doing gigs, so we just played around with songs in the studio. We had a manager, who really wasn't a very good manager, but he told us, 'No one's ever gonna release this. You need a singer.'

"We went to London and our manager let us sleep on his floor in sleeping bags. Corinne had a room in the same house. We were auditioning all these singers and we were like, 'No, no, no.'

"Corinne was a fashion designer at the time, but she came down to sing for us one day. She wasn't really a singer, not virtuoso or bravado, but she had a very natural way of singing. It's soulful in her own way. For me, she sings like she means it."

The trio crashed onto the British charts with the Top-10 single "Breakout" in '86, and about a year later in America. They've had several hits since.

"There's more of a rapport with the band," Connell said of today's Swing Out Sister. "It's funkier and looser, but the intention is the same. Just the specifics are slightly different."

BWF (before we forget): Swing Out Sister returned in June 1997 with the album, "Shapes and Patterns," featuring a cover of Laura Nyro's "Stoned Soul Picnic." ... The Swing Out Sister album discography - "It's Better to Travel" (1987, Mercury); "Kaleidoscope World" (1989, Fontana); "Get In Touch With Yourself" (1992); "Living Return" (1994); "Greatest Hits" (1996); "Shapes and Patterns" (1997).