Sumner's Tales: Sting talks...

"'Inshallah' is a beautiful word from the Arabic language which is kind of resignation - it's God's will, it shall be - or it's a word that describes some sort of hope, courage. I don't know what the political solution is but I think if there is a solution, it has to be rooted in empathy - for the victims of the war that's going on in Syria at the moment for example, the victims of poverty in Africa, and perhaps in the future the victims of global warming."
'AFP', 11/2016

"An intrinsic part of a musician’s life is to create the wow factor, which comes down to the instruments as well as what your songs say. For example, in recent years, I have made records that had a more esoteric touch simply for the fact that a theme caught my attention and I was curious to learn new things. Perhaps people assume that I will continue doing the same, which they may or may not like. But I was clear that with this album I wanted to do something new and surprise people with something different. I wanted the public to hear something from me that they were not anticipating. Certainly, I could have also surprised them with an electronic music record. This album was something spontaneous, recorded very quickly and done with friends. Every day, I went to the studio in New York where I met with my guys and we would work. When I got back home I would try to give more shape to what we had done, find a story and turn it into song. For me, the experience was to enjoy myself."
Metro, 9/2016

"The first song called "I Can’t Stop Thinking About You" is a song about obsession. It’s really about a writer who sits in front of a blank sheet that looks like a snowy field. Your job as a writer is to write something and dig to find something – a muse, an idea and something to inspire you. The dilemma for any writer is to find inspiration. Music for me flows much faster and I get it in a more natural way, but the inspiration to write the lyrics of the song comes from a much more mysterious place that I really do not understand, but I know if I have patience and discipline it will come. In a way, I want to find myself in a somewhat uncomfortable situation because my life, as you can imagine, is very privileged. Where I live in New York, I have a terrace and during winter when it is freezing cold, below zero degrees, I lock myself out with my paper, my pen and my music and do not enter the house until the song is finished. It is a way of inspiring me and forcing myself to write. I did this for many days. I was terribly cold and so my first song refers to that."
Metro, 9/2016

"f we consider the surprise factor, the most different one is “Petrolhead” because it is very rock and roll. I think it will surprise people. On the other hand there is another one that I think is very sensitive which is “Heading South on the Great North Road,” which is a bit where I come from and why I went in search of a better life. In this sense it is related to another song called “Inshallah” that relatively speaking is also about people – refugees – seeking a better life. I think all people in some way are refugees. Not at the level of the people of Syria, obviously, because they are in imminent danger, but in the sense that no matter where you live, your ancestors always come from elsewhere. We must bear this in mind. The flow of refugees may change in the future; perhaps we will have to seek refuge and hope that others will accept us and will not put obstacles in our way. I'm not trying to give it any kind of political solution, but it is something that must be treated gently and not as something abstract that does not affect us. We have to think of a face, a family and not just in numbers. I have no answer but we have to solve it because it will not go away. The reasons for migration are now mainly due to war and poverty, but soon climate change will also affect it so it is important to get to work and together try to fix it."
Metro, 9/2016

"The thrust of it is rock’n’roll, but all my [musical] DNA is in there. There’s some folk music, some thoughtful, quiet moments. My whole thing is surprise. If I’ve been making esoteric albums for the past 10 years, then people expect that I’ll do that again. But the main thing was, 'Hey, let’s have some energy’. It’s not a lute album."
Daily Telegraph, 11/2016

"Glenn Frey, Lemmy, David [Bowie], Prince, Alan Rickman. We had dinner with him a few weeks before. Alan invited Trudie and I specifically to say goodbye to us, but without saying goodbye. His wife told us later - he came to New York and had dinner every night with his close friends. We called him on New Year’s Day - we heard he was in a hospice. He said, 'Oh, I’m fine, I just had a blood change.’ He was dead two weeks later. When a generation’s cultural icons die, it shocks us. The childlike part of us believes they’re immortal. And when you’re a man of a certain age and you’ve lived most of your life already, you think, 'Wow, this is real.’?"
Daily Telegraph, 11/2016

"I got my musicians in the studio in Hell’s Kitchen in New York and said, ‘I have no idea what we’re doing. Let’s play musical ping pong.’ I needed to make decisions very hard and fast and very quickly and stick by those decisions. But it gave the record a character that it wouldn’t have otherwise had."
London Free Press, 11/2016

"For the last decade or so, I’ve been making what you might call esoteric records where I was only following my curiosity. There was no commercial agenda. Then I thought, ‘What should I surprise people with now?’ And it came to me, a rock ’n’ roll record, or at least the thrust of it being rock ’n’ roll. That could get people saying, ‘Wow, I didn’t expect that.’ And that’s what the reaction has been. I think it’s already successful in that regard. People can recognize my entire music DNA on this record – from the beginning until now. It’s all me. I’m a gadfly. I want to do as many different things as I can. Some people have one furrow and they dig deep and I respect them for that, but I like to mulch around."
London Free Press, 11/2016

"There was no overriding concept to this album. In fact it was made without any pre-planning at all. I went into the studio with literally no ideas of what it would be except that it would take a short amount of time... Every day, I took something home with me on the walk back to my house. I would ask the song to tell me a story and the next day I’d turn up with a song. Day by day this grew. But there’s no overarching theme or concept."
London Free Press, 11/2016

"I normally go in the studio with a great deal of preparation. This time, I just booked the studio and brought my cohorts who have worked with me for almost three decades: Dominic Miller on guitar, Vinnie Colaiuta on drums. And I said, “Guys, let’s just play musical Ping-Pong.” An idea will go around in a circle, and a song will materialize, or at least the semblance of a song. I then structure it, give it a shape, and then take that shape home and ask that song what it’s telling me. Who is the character singing this? What’s the mood, what’s the narrative? And then I’d play a trick on myself. I’d lock myself out of my apartment, on the terrace in the cold, and not come in until I’d finished a lyric. I had a cup of coffee and a coat. It was one of those things to put myself out of my comfort zone in order to trick the muse into playing ball with me."
New York Times, 11/2016

"Although it’s about a rock star, and of course I’ve been a rock star, “50,000” is not really me. It’s a character that seems to be singing through me and looking back on his career and, in reflection, finding philosophy. There are a lot of people like me at my age, still making rock ’n’ roll, having that rather singular experience of being in front of all those people and feeling empowered, and the hubris of that. And the psychological danger of it, too. And then coming out the other side and asking: “What did that mean? Are you, in fact, a god? Are you godlike?” No, you’re not. You’re very very human, and very mortal. It’s hard to express how unique that feeling is. Not many of us have stood up on those stages in front of 50,000; 100,000; a quarter of a million; in my case, half a million people out there. That can be a very heady and confusing experience. You need a certain perspective on it, to say, “This is fun, but it’s an illusion.” If you do that, then you’ll survive it. Otherwise, no, you’ll become the victim of it."
New York Times, 11/2016