Following in the footsteps of his father Sting, bass-playing front man Joe Sumner formed indie rock trio Fiction Plane in 1999, and recalls many of his dad's best traits, with bundles of catchy melodies and wonky, alternative rock songwriting skills.
Alongside his father's influence, Sumner grew up listening to Nirvana, U2 and Smashing Pumpkins and first started playing gigs with school friend Dan Brown under the name Santa's Boyfriend, before recruiting former Bok guitarist Seton Daunt and signing a major label deal with MCA. Although their debut album 'Everything Will Never Be OK' was full of spiky, bouncy indie singalongs and bitter-sweet pop pleasers, it made minimal impact, resulting in musical disagreements. The result was that they adopted a far more hostile approach on the independently released follow-ups 'Bitter Forces and Lame Race Horses' (2005) and 'Left Side of the Brain' (2007).
Brown left the band and was replaced by drummer Pete Wilhoit and they toured with Sting and The Police and found success in Europe with the single 'Two Sisters'; their subsequent album 'Sparks' received comparisons with the likes of Ash and Feeder. Sumner took time off to found his technology company and develop social media apps, but the band returned in 2015 with the cheery soft rock album 'Mondo Lumina'.
