About Fiction Plane
Many bands regard their craft like a job. They record an album, and then tour to promote it, and then back in the studio, and it becomes a perpetuating cycle of predictability. Fiction Plane takes a different route. In the five years of the band’s existence, they have released two full-length studio albums and toured relentlessly. It is on the road where the band is most creative – warping the arrangements of the studio tracks, making them more of a physical statement than a binary-encoded message on an aluminum disc.
Since the release of 2007’s Left Side of the Brain (through Bieler Bros. and XIII Bis Records), Fiction Plane has roamed the world, performing in arenas and clubs alike. The band is a trio of modern-day minstrels…but more energetic.
Upon the album’s release, Fiction Plane was immediately thrust into the spotlight as the opening act for The Police’s 30th Anniversary reunion tour. They played 87 shows with them around the world. Without skipping beat, they integrated a headline run within The Police schedule, which ran them straight through early 2008. They played several major European music festivals like Pinkpop in Holland, and the double-shot of Rock Am Ring and Rock Im Park in Germany. Fiction Plane then tore up amphitheaters throughout America as part of the Summer Unity Tour, featuring 311 and Snoop Dogg -- performing to literal seas of people in such massive locales as Red Rocks in Denver, Penn’s Landing in Philadelphia, and the Nissan Pavilion in Washington, DC.
The band closed out 2008 with a run through central Europe, culminating in a sold-out performance at the prestigious Paradiso in Amsterdam. The band’s inimitable energy was caught on tape and released on March 23 on DVD, CD, and Blu-ray, simply entitled Paradiso. The release was more than a live-recording; it was a statement of who Fiction Plane is, where they’ve been, and a glimpse of what is to come from this creative dynamo.
Says drummer Pete Wilhoit (the sole American in the band) on what he felt fans should absorb from the DVD, “We hope fans get a sense of how we really are as a band, because we are so much more than an ‘album band’. You’ve got Joe jumping off everything in sight, Seton playing guitar behind his head. We’re just seizing the moment in a live show. It’s really not something you can easily bottle up and sell, but this is a statement of who we are.”
And it was during these live shows that some of Fiction Plane’s most beloved songs emerged. Bubbly rock anthems like “Sadr City Blues”, “Cut Your Brakes”, and the sultry “Put On Your Shoes” developed almost wholly in the live setting. But this does not stop them from buckling down, locking themselves up in a studio for a few months to hone their writing skills and create something fresh, something unique…something Fiction Plane.
Although the band members are hardened road dogs, they do enjoy the creative process. Guitarist Seton Daunt explains, “I think, because we’ve been doing it for a while, we have the proper perspective on the songwriting process. We don’t have the anxiety of having to write a hit, because we don’t strive to write singles. They just happen.”
Regardless, the band has a knack for composing exciting, dynamic music that gets people moving. Currently, Fiction Plane is working on its third studio album, which is slated for a summertime release. Singer/bassist Joe Sumner offers a hint of what is to come, “We are enjoying the writing process of this record; splitting our time between New York City and London for the writing. The new stuff sounds like Radiohead/Nick Cave/Eels/Queens of the Stone Age/Kraftwerk meets Fiction Plane in a dank, back alley!”
And of course, once this album is done, Fiction Plane will be more than amped to head back on the road for another round of bringing their music directly to the people. Wilhoit is visibly excited about the prospect, “This next album means we will get to enjoy another touring cycle of live shows, which is the real beast within this band!”
Fiction Plane performances are not to be missed. One viewing of Paradiso and the addiction sets in. Look for Fiction Plane on the road this summer and fall, wherever the road takes them.
