ENDLESS SUMMERS:
An
EXCLUSIVE interview
with
THE POLICE’s
Andy Summers
By
Stephen SPAZ Schnee
With a career dating back to the ‘60s as a
member of Zoot Money’s Big Roll Band,
Dantalian’s Chariot and Eric Burdon
& The Animals, Andy Summers has been a professional musician for 50
years. His work in the ‘60s was noticed by critics and musicians, but he
remained sorely underrated. However, his fortunes changed a decade into his
career when he joined forces with bassist Sting
and drummer Stewart Copeland in The Police. From 1977 to 1986, The
Police were one of the biggest bands in the world and Summers’ unique approach
to guitar playing was finally recognized. While Sting and Copeland were rumored
to have been at odds throughout most of the band’s career, Summers was seen as
the level-headed member. When fame hit, The Police went from being known as a
little Reggae-influenced British Post-Punk band to a worldwide Rock phenomenon.
With great success comes great responsibility; every aspect of the band’s life
became magnified and distorted beyond comprehension. Tensions within the band
threatened to break them apart at any given moment, while their personal
relationships suffered a worse fate. The pressures and stress of fame led to
divorce for Summers and his wife Kate, although that story has a happy ending.
In fact, even after what appeared to be an acrimonious split, the story of The
Police seems to have had a happy ending as well. All of this is well-documented
in the brilliant new documentary Can’t Stand Losing You: Surviving The Police.
A long time in the making, Can’t
Stand Losing You is a revealing look inside the world of Andy Summers
and The Police. However, it is not just a standard Rockumentary – it is also a
multi-level love story. On the surface, it appears to be an honest look at The
Police’s career and reunion tour in 2007 and 2008. Summers doesn’t dish dirt on
Sting and Copeland, nor does he try to hide his own faults. There are a few
uncomfortable moments, but they are handled with humor and dignity. Apart from
the band’s story, there’s also a love story between Andy and his wife Kate that
is inspiring and, dare I say it, heart-warming. Finally, the film is really
about Andy’s passion for music, family, photography and contentment. He takes a
long and winding road to get to the end of the film, but there’s no denying he
is a better person for it. Oh, did I mention the music? There are plenty of
music video clips and live performance excerpts to satisfy hardcore fans and
make new converts in the process. Can’t Stand Losing You is everything
you want from a rock documentary and more.
Stephen
SPAZ Schnee was able to chat with Andy Summers about the movie, the music
and more…
STEPHEN SPAZ SCHNEE:
Can’t
Stand Losing You: Surviving The Police is finally available. How are
you feeling about the way it turned out and the reaction to it so far?
ANDY SUMMERS: It’s
thrilling, actually. It seems to be going down very well with everyone. That’s
really quite gratifying because it’s been a long haul to get to this point.
SPAZ: Wasn’t
the film made in 2012 or 2013?
ANDY: Yeah,
that’s right. We did show it originally – not a fully finished version – at The
First Time Fest in New York and that was it, basically. It did get a release in
Japan. Actually, the movie was in three cities in Japan and it was released in
Italy last summer. All across Italy, in 130 cinemas. It’s been minimal. This
U.S. release, in a way, to me is the first real tangible and exciting
involvement I’ve had with it. This is how I expected it to be – it’s very nice
to be going through this. We’ve still got all of Europe, UK and Australia to
look forward to – there’s a lot of places to go with it yet.
SPAZ: So,
in a way, you’re going to be going on tour with the movie then?
ANDY: Oh
yeah, I think inevitably I will. Because of how well it’s been received here, I
think it’s almost a no-brainer that it’s finally going to come out in the UK. I
think it will do really well in Europe.
SPAZ:
What inspired you to make the film? Was it because of the reunion tour?
ANDY:
It was actually prior to the reunion tour. There is an interesting little story
as to how it came about. The first thing is, I wrote the book. I thought, “Wow,
amazing! I wrote a book and it’s out and everybody’s looking at it.” It was
quite successful. Then around that same period there was a movie out called The
Kid Stays In The Picture directed by Brett Morgen, which is basically the life story of Robert Evans, the great film producer
at Paramount. The film was made out of only still photographs and his voiceover.
It occurred to me that I’ve got all these photographs, I’ve got the book…I
could do the same film. And just by sheer coincidence, I met somebody who knew
Brett. I was just discussing various projects and said I wondered if I could
ever do a film like that. He said, “Well when are you going to talk to Brett
Morgen? He’s a friend of mine. I’m sure he’d love to hear from you.” I did
email him and laid it out and got a very positive response. Eventually, he
turned up in LA and we really hit it off. I got him together with another
producer who worked on Nicholas Cage’s films – Norman Golightly – and then I had this little team. So we all knew
what the idea was to make this film. There was no script or anything, but amazingly,
we sold it. We made two calls and sold the idea of the film. It’s pretty
amazing. I’m very lucky.
SPAZ:
The film does have an underlying tension, but it offers a very fair balance of
the good and the bad without tipping the scale either way. It’s also very
honest. Was it hard to maintain the integrity and the mystery of the band while
also being honest?
ANDY:
I think the honesty is very important. I’m not one that’s brutally honest. I
don’t know if you have to be brutal about it. But in the book, I certainly told
the truth – the difficulties of being in a band that’s got three very strong
personalities in it and all that kind of stuff. And then the divorce that comes
from being in a band that was a worldwide phenomenon – how it took its toll on our
personal lives. There are a few moments of tension in the film, but I just
think that’s all part and parcel of being in a band like that – that you have
these creative tensions. That doesn’t mean we hate each other. It just means
that we’re in a band. We are going to work out what we have to do.
SPAZ:
While watching the movie, I already knew that The Police had reunited, but I
think I was more pleased with the fact that you and your wife Kate got back
together.
ANDY:
Yeah, that is the significant subplot of the film because early on, I found the
right woman – she was ‘the one.’ Later on, as the film progresses, you see that
the pressure is just really difficult and I’m finding it harder and harder to
relate to being in a marriage and having a baby and all that. And Kate is
extremely wise, and she said “Fuck off, it’s over. I’m not doing this with you,”
because it was so intense. We weren’t just a band with a little hit somewhere –
it was this raging worldwide phenomenon like The Beatles. That’s what happened
to us and we were never at home. We were basically on tour for seven or eight
years. We never came off the road. It was too much for marriage. But of course,
as you see in the film, fantastically we got back together. There was something
there. She immediately got pregnant with twins. (laughs)
SPAZ: Looking
back, were you more surprised at you and Kate getting back together or The
Police getting back together?
ANDY:
I think The Police getting back together was a surprise because the break went
on for too long. We should’ve gotten back together within ten years after the
initial split, but it took a lot longer than that. Just looking back on it now,
2007 and 2008 were brilliant moments to do it because everyone had the money.
It was before the whole economic collapse. It was a worldwide stadium sell-out
tour. An incredible tour – one of the biggest of all time. It will be very hard
to do that again, I think.
SPAZ:
When The Police originally split, was it a relief? And how long did it take you
to get a fresh perspective on everything?
ANDY:
It was very difficult. It was like being dropped into the abyss for a while. I
was sort of drifting around between LA and New York and London – just wandering
about. It was very difficult to process. It had been eight years with this
entourage – everybody kowtowing to us all over the world and suddenly it’s
gone. And what are you going to do? Be in another Rock band and be not as good
as the one you were just in? But I am really a musician and that’s what I was
born to do. What helped me get my legs back on the ground was going back into
the studio and just starting to record again.
SPAZ: Outside of The Police, you’ve had this very eclectic solo career, but it’s not really addressed in the movie. Your guitar playing has always had this nice balance of emotion and innovation.
ANDY:
Wow, I really like that you said that. And it’s certainly what I try for. People
ask me what I’ve been doing musically – I’ve been working on an album, which I
hope I finish in April and release it later this year. It’s called Qualia.
I am writing music that I think is emotional and innovative. It doesn’t really
fall into any strict genre, but it is sort of experimental. Some people say
it’s avant-garde but it’s got real content in it and I try to make it sound fresh.
Not the standard Rock song structures. It’s much freer than that. We’ve got all
sorts of devices that I use for the guitar. I’m excited about it. It’s coming
out great.
SPAZ:
The movie also focuses on your passion for photography. Do you feel that
releasing and expressing emotion through guitar playing and photography can
often say more than poetry and prose, being prone to different interpretations?
ANDY:
Yeah, that’s a good point. If I have any innate gifts at all, it’s for music
really and I seem to have acquired a pretty good photographic eye. To me, the photography
that I like to do is the visual counterpart of the music I like to make. I’m
not trying to be a commercial or celebrity photographer. I’m not trying to do
any of that. I go out and do very different kinds of photography that, to me,
is pretty much the emotional parallel of the kind of music I’m attracted to – they’re
almost two sides of the same coin.
SPAZ:
What’s next for Andy Summers?
ANDY:
I’m finishing off this album over the next weeks. Also, I’m trying to finish a
whole book of photography that I’ve shot in the wilds of China, believe it or
not. I go to China twice a year. I’ve been traveling in China a lot and I’ve
got all these stories from China. And of course, I’m promoting this film. I
think the film is going to take up a lot of time over the next year because
we’re going to sell it in a lot of countries. I’m probably going to be on the
road doing this job for a while.
SPAZ:
Will a Police reunion ever happen again?
ANDY: You
know, before, I was like, “No way in a million years – not after the last one.”
But there seems to be a great love for these “older” bands. They seem to be the
biggest selling acts in the world. So, yeah, I think it’s a possibility.
Thanks to Andy Summers
Special thanks to Rick
Rieger, Lauren Watt, Dana House, Nancy Bach and Nick Kominitsky
CAN'T STAND LOSING YOU:
SURVIVING THE POLICE
DVD
BLU-RAY
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