Andy Summers on Gear, Being a Well-Rounded Artist

As one-third of The Police, Andy Summers was a huge part of one of the biggest bands of all time.

Summers’ success as a guitarist though, preceded his time with The Police, as the virtuoso player had already toured and/or recorded with the likes of The Soft Machine, Joan Armatrading, Neil Sedaka, David Essex, Kevin Ayers, Deep Purple’s Jon Lord and Eric Burdon & The Animals.

Nowadays, Summers seems to record a new solo album every few years. His latest is 2017’s Triboluminescence, which began as a single-disc release and recently got a double-LP vinyl reissue via the Flickering Shadow label.

Summers is also a prolific photographer, having hosted dozens of exhibitions over the years. He is currently working on combining these two creative outlets with live performances that feature him playing in front of projections of his photographs. As if that was not enough, he is reportedly working on another book.

Guitar World got the chance to ask Summers a few questions about gear, his new album and his role in the Police.

Your artistic output goes way beyond your albums as you have put on dozens of photographic exhibitions. Did you study art before you started playing music?

No, not formally. It was always music for me. I have to say any artist should be cultured and should be taking information from all the great artists in different media. I think it’s very important to be a widely-cultured person if you’re going to be in the arts. I didn’t really start photography until later on, but I did go to college in America and study classical guitar for years, so I was very much into things outside of rock music.

In my teenage years, I was a complete movie buff for European art-house films. That