Andy Summers is a guitarist — probably best known for his work in the band the Police — as well as a photographer and author. His work has earned him many laurels, including induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Guitar Player Hall of Fame, as well as the keys to New York City and a Chevalier De L’Ordre Des Arts et Des Lettres by the Ministry of Culture in France.

On Wednesday, Summers visits the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul to perform his multimedia show, “The Cracked Lens + A Missing String.” Ahead of the show, Summers connected with Jill Riley on The Current’s Morning Show. Listen to their conversation above and read a transcript below.

Interview Transcript

Edited for time and clarity.

Jill Riley: I'm Jill Riley and I've got a special guest on the line to check in here with The Current's Morning Show ahead of a show coming up tomorrow evening at the Fitzgerald Theater: composer, author, photographer, collaborator, musician — oh! and influential guitar player of one of the biggest bands of the 1980s, The Police. Mr. Andy Summers — hi, how are you?

Andy Summers: I'm good. I'm just bathing in all your accolades there.

Jill Riley: Well, you have many of them; you make it very easy for me. I'm so happy to talk with you here on The Current's Morning Show. And I wondered if I would ever get the opportunity because two years ago, I talked with Sting ahead of a Vegas residency and the new record that he had at the time. Last year, I talked with Stewart Copeland about the composition Satan's Fall because there was a local choral ensemble that was going to be performing it. And I wondered, “Will I ever get the chance to sort of close the loop there and get to talk to Andy Summers?” And here we are, so thank you so much for for checking in here. I want to talk about a number of things here. First, the show coming up tomorrow night at the Fitzgerald Theater. So you've got the show, “The Cracked Lens + A Missing String,” and it's described as a multimedia show, so photography and music together. So Andy, I wonder if you could kind of talk about what people can expect from from your show in this tour.

Andy Summers: Well, delight, one. Ecstasy, you know.

Jill Riley: OK. Yep.

Andy Summers: Feeling very good.

Jill Riley: You get check, check.

Andy Summers: I think it's fair enough to describe it as a multimedia show. It is visual and audio; audio visual and a live guy playing the electric guitar superbly. So it's a set of sequences of photography that go across a big screen. Each one's got special music that I play to, improvise to. This has all been carefully worked out. I do solo guitar to Brazilian music. I do some with backing tracks, some without, but it's essentially it's, that's what it is. It's photography I've shot all across the world, including India, Japan, China, Indonesia, America, you know. There are Police songs that I play, I've arranged for this show that go with it, too. So it's, yeah, I have to say it's just, I've just come back from two shows in Dallas in Texas that were absolutely storming, sold out and a very good feeling. So I'm starting to feel pretty good about it now, you know, that we're sliding into the right place for that.

Jill Riley: All right, that sounds great. So photography. Now I think for the average music fan, who knows of your work with the Police, as the guitarist with the Police, to find out then you are you know, not just into photography, but you have a real passion for photography. I wonder, when did you start to kind of dabble? And then when did you start to really feel that it was, you know, a really, like a passion that you had, and that you continue to have?

Andy Summers: Yeah, well, there's no news here. I started doing this when I started in the Police, so I've been at this for a long time. And I've had about 60 exhibitions around the world; I'm on my fifth book, which is a very beautiful book that was published by teNeues in Germany, it's called A Series of Glances; that's available now on Amazon, and some of the other ones you can still get to.

So yeah, I'm pretty engaged with it. It is a passion. And always, you know, it was since I started in New York in 1979, and it's accompanied me ever since. And I started out by, you know, all those years with the Police, you know, photographing the whole life of the band from the inside. And that was the first book I ever did, which was called Throb. And subsequently, there was a much bigger one done by Tashan in 2007, as we went on tour, and I've done a couple since in the late, yeah, the latest one is A Series of Glances. So it's an ongoing thing for me, which I'm very happy about. Yes, I'm a photographer, I do photography; of course, I'm a guitarist first and foremost, that's my lifeblood, being a musician. But photography goes very well with it for me, and you know, I enjoy everything that goes with it. My next shows are going to be in Japan — in Tokyo and Kyoto next April. So we're just thinking about that right now. So it's a living thing.

Jill Riley: I'm talking with Andy Summers here on The Current. Tomorrow evening at the Fitzgerald Theater, “The Cracked Lens + a Missing String.” And so you can check out more information about the show; you just go to our events page over at thecurrent.org, and a show that's really — it's a combination of photography and music. Now, photography has been a passion, and I know that you, you know, have an autobiography, you wrote a memoir, but you've also been someone who has written short stories.

Andy Summers: Yeah, Fretted and Moaning is a collection of 45 short stories which have been written over the years, and then, you know, there was that final spur-on moment where I pulled it all together and really turned it into a book with a very good English publisher. And I'm really happy to see that it's, you know, on the tour with me, and because we sell them, selling all of them every night. And they're very funny stories. Of course, I'd previously written the memoir, One Train Later, which became a movie. So you know, I'm basically writing all the time; it's amazing how many demands there are, because I'm always having to write, and I'm pretty good at it. And this is, you know, Fretted and Moaning as a more, a true literary book. And I have another one coming out, probably next year called, The Trouble with Guitars, which is a different set of stories. So I'm very pleased to, you know, actually get out on tour and get it into people's hands. 

Jill Riley: Well, clearly, you know, your fans are excited and enthusiastic to see you, to meet you, to be at the show. Andy Summers, you know, best known as being guitarist for the Police, but also known as a writer and a photographer and collaborator, with, you know, 15 solo records also under your belt. But I also wonder, Andy, you know, people that are coming to see the show, when you think about the legacy of the Police, and, you know, fans are turning out to, you know, get an opportunity to see something very, you know, different from you to see this, like, multimedia show. For you, how does it feel all these years later, after the peak of the Police in the 1980s, to be reminded just how important that era was to the fans, but also what it was for you to be part of that whirlwind.

Andy Summers: Well, you know, it's interesting. Time has moved on, we're in a different world, a very threatened world in many levels. And we're looking back now in a way the 80s as a sort of golden period. It was almost like the culmination of, you know, the record industry coming from, you know, obviously '40s, '50s, '60s, and then it really burst into full flower in the 1980s. And the Police, of course, were the top band; we were the recipients of that great golden era as it was then; it's definitely not there anymore. So, you know, I don't like to bathe in nostalgia, personally, but, you know, I'm very happy that we were having our success in that period, because I don't think there's been anything quite like it since. I don't walk around looking backwards. I'm very happy to, you know, obviously still be here, and I'm in perfect physical shape and lucky to be doing this.

People still remember the songs, because the songs actually have never gone away; we're still selling a lot of records, it's incredible. I mean, it sounds so corny, you know, we're a brand now — not a band, but a brand and marketed as such, and the music just continues on all over the world. You know, we're all the recipients of all that success and able to have our solo careers and continue on. We didn't just do that and disappear. Also, we weren't like a band that had one hit, we had so many number ones, we dominated the world for about eight years. So it was an extraordinary band and an extraordinary success, and one that everybody enjoyed. You know, we're still able to go out and play, and all those songs are very familiar, you know, if you hear "Every Breath You Take" or "Roxanne" or any of these things, it's a gigantic, sort of forever hit. So one feels very lucky to have made that stuff and been a part of it.

Jill Riley: Andy Summers on the line. Just about to wrap up here. Another reminder of the show tomorrow night at the Fitzgerald Theater here in St. Paul, you can catch Andy Summers, who again, part of a pretty incredible legacy with the Police. You know, the Police of Sting and Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers, who, again, the music continues to be, you know, introduced to the next generation, which again, kind of shows the power, the power of the Police, you know, not just sitting in the 1980s but beyond. So, Andy, again, I really appreciate you taking the time to talk here. And I wonder, you know, do you all like keep in touch? I know that that's been kind of on and off over the years, you know, when the reunion came together.

Andy Summers: We can't not be in touch. I'm not calling them every day. They're not calling me. Stewart and I have the same manager, so we're cognizant of each other's activities. No, we're not really in touch, but we sort of are and we sort of aren't. And that said, we had a very intense number of years together, and we're locked forever in that kind of brotherhood, I suppose, if you want to use some word like that. That's never going to go away because the three of us — our images, the three of us together — are out there all the time. That's the way it is. And it's something we live with. But you know, we get on with it, each one with his own personal work.

Jill Riley: Sure. And I wonder, Andy, what song from the Police that the guitar work, what song would you say that you are the most proud of with your playing or your guitar work?

Andy Summers: One I like playing a lot and I don't disappoint people when I go out there is "Message in a Bottle." I like all the guitar playing in the Police!

Jill Riley: Right, well, you would have to; that's the only answer you could really give, right?

Andy Summers: Yeah!

Jill Riley: What was it about "Message in a Bottle"? Like what do you love about playing that song?

Andy Summers: Yeah, it's a great song, you know, with, you know, it's got three sections. It's not a straightforward song; it has a really interesting guitar riff. It's completely logical, and it builds nicely. It's emotional. I like the lyrics of that song in particular; you know, basically it's about loneliness with the possibility of being saved. And you know, "Message in a Bottle" as a sentence is a nice metaphor for what we all go through.

Jill Riley: Well, Andy Summers' show tomorrow night at the Fitzgerald Theater. Thank you so much for taking the time and safe travels as you head out on your tour and best of luck with all all of your adventures to come.

Andy Summers: Great, thank you so much. Looking forward to it.

External Link

Andy Summers - official site