Commercial record has never interested me. It's amazing I was in a band like The Police that had such phenomenal commercial success. Part of what made The Police what it was was that we didn't all come in with obvious mainstream musical tastes. We were a rock band and somehow we had to make rock music, but it was informed by a lot of things outside of the mainstream for sure.

Andy Summers

Categorized in : Musical Police Rock Music

What you aim for, in the first place, is to be as good as you can possibly be. This is what I do, and I'm going to try to be the best in the world.

Andy Summers

trying world firsts

I like to play with someone who can cover a lot of ground and someone with whom you can discuss the language at a reasonable level; otherwise it gets a bit frustrating.

Andy Summers

levels language play

I always have a guitar with me. Actually, I've got several, I play every day. And I enjoy it. I'm never very far away from them. I swear I only ever get a couple days when I'm away from a guitar, and I never like it! There's always one close by, and I play every day. Or I'll be working on something in the studio and play around a bit. It's an extension of me, really.

Andy Summers

guitar couple play

If you're a guitarist, you should not be intimidated by using your instrument as a synthesizer, but you shouldn't feel that you have to own one, either.

Andy Summers

synthesizers guitar should

Im better for it and I prefer to keep things simple and see what sounds I can get out of my head and hands rather than relying on a sound that someone else created.

Andy Summers

simple sound hands

Aping what you've already done is just so dangerous and unrewarding.

Andy Summers

done inspiring funny

Coming from the era of vinyl you could argue that everything went wrong in the music business the moment we went digital. The day the first CD came out, it all went downhill in the music industry. Digital destroyed everything.

Andy Summers

vinyl moments arguing

I would like to play with electronic keyboards again.

Andy Summers

keyboards play

I think we are coming to a new era where people will record much faster.

Andy Summers

records people thinking

There was a period when I'd just come out of college where I'd been playing classical guitar and I suddenly realised that it wasn't what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.

Andy Summers

guitar periods college

There is always the working out of things, and you have to have sort of a gut response to it. And an intellectual response. And an aesthetic response. All that comes from having done this for a long time. Instead of saying, "That's a really good rock track, and that will do," I'm looking for something that is more original and fresh. There are a lot of elements to get into it: a level or sophistication, passion and excitement.

Andy Summers

track passion long

I've got four or five records in my head at a time that I try to work on and I would like to do a guitar trio record next - since The Police I've mostly made records with keyboards.

Andy Summers

guitar police trying

What I wanted to do was play the guitar but I don't like instrumental rock. I think it is tripe.

Andy Summers

rocks guitar thinking

It is not very practical in today’s world when you tour all over the place having a big band.

Andy Summers

band today world

It's exciting to see if you can create something that sounds, at least to your own ears, exciting.

Andy Summers

exciting

The most obvious thing you can't do with a guitar synthesizer is to really sound like a guitar.

Andy Summers

obvious-things guitar sound

If I'm playing a violin thing, for instance, I tend to respond to that sound with the way I finger.

Andy Summers

violin sound way

Actually, I think my hands are in the best shape they've ever been in terms of what I can do.

Andy Summers

shapes hands thinking

'Triboluminescence' is actually a scientific world meaning striking something and creating light from dark. I thought it was a great word and that is was a very apt metaphor for making music - or any creative act, really. We all start in the dark and have to create light.

Andy Summers

creative dark world

For me, the guitar synthesizer is a great writing instrument.

Andy Summers

synthesizers guitar writing