Courtesy Fiction Plane is comprised of Pete Wilhoit drummer, Joe Sumner lead singer, Seton Daunt guitarist.

Growing up the son of a musical icon like Sting had both its advantages and disadvantages for Joe Sumner.

Sting's illustrious musical career, which included fronting The Police, afforded Sumner comfort and financial stability, not to mention the opportunity to get his band — Fiction Plane — a little extra publicity. Such publicity, however, was a double-edged sword, as Fiction Plane spent its first few years establishing an identity outside “that band fronted by Sting's kid.”

But again, being the son of Sting is not all bad. Fiction Plane is on the road opening for The Police on their mammoth reunion tour of North America and Europe, including a date at AT&T Center on Tuesday, Nov. 20. And before his band opens for arguably the biggest concert in San Antonio this year, Sumner talked to 210SA about growing up in the shadow of Sting, inspiration from Kurt Cobain and the real, non-anagram meaning of Fiction Plane's name.

Considering you grew up in the music industry, was following in your father's footsteps a given?

I was definitely thinking of doing something else but music until I was about 16 and got into Nirvana. I thought, “I want to be in a band.” I didn't think of it being the same sort of thing as being a musician. I thought I wanted to be Kurt Cobain, but I ended up a musician.

What was it about Cobain that inspired you?

There was something very different about him, and he seemed more honest in his performances than I'd ever seen before. It didn't feel contrived in any way or feel like entertainment. It seemed more like pure visceral expression. That's how it was different for me. It was more about the cathartic expression of pain than entertaining.

Fiction Plane is an anagram of “Infant Police.” Was that intended?

It was a terrible, terrible accident. We were originally called Fiction Plain, but we thought it looked boring so we thought we'd change it. The anagram came in because someone was bored enough to figure it out.

So what does the band's name really mean?

Basically, it's a place where we can go and do whatever we want. There is a freedom of ideas, especially with the music.

Is it tough to gain respect when you're constantly being compared to Sting?

I didn't really care about it, but I don't avoid it. For a long time, I avoided gaining any advantage because of it. Some people would give us a gig in a place for 1,000 people and tell us it would be great, but it was not really based on music at all, so we'd say no. We wouldn't try and get anywhere based on that fact (that Sting's his dad), and we avoided it in some ways. We didn't want to engage in those things at all, but no matter what we did, someone would say something. So this year, we decided to take the bull by the horns and run straight through a brick wall.

Is it true Fiction Plane was once approached to open for Ashlee Simpson?

Yeah, it was crazy. The thinking of that was kind of like the relative celebrity tie-in. Ashlee Simpson is sneaker-sponsored, and we play music in rock clubs. It was completely insane to us. The guy who suggested it was in a powerful position at our record company, and we spent an hour figuring out if it was a joke, like, “Is he testing us?” There was no way that was happening.

Having spent plenty of time in America and Britain, are the two cultures more similar than some might imagine?

There are a lot of similarities for sure. I get along with Americans at least as well, if not more, than English people. The big difference we always notice is that Americans really respect success. British people really despise it, and that's pretty much the major difference. There are so many things in the world, but if you sit down and talk to someone, people share values everywhere. You can equally have a conversation with someone from France or the States and find they have the same opinions. Those nations supposedly hate each other. Maybe the countries hate each other, but the individuals are just people.

CLINT HALE | 210SA