Sting (Photo by Eric Ryan Anderson)
At 65, Sting is the antithesis of retiring — imagine our shock about that. The pop culture renaissance man — from the Police, to Broadway, to the big screen and beyond — launches a new tour Feb. 1 in support of his latest album, 57th & 9th. The set comes in the wake of his lauded 2016 co-headlining tour with Peter Gabriel as well as "The Last Ship," Sting's deeply personal 2013 stage musical about the shipbuilding culture in his hometown of Newcastle, England. 57th & 9th is also Sting’s first traditional, nonthematic pop album since Sacred Love in 2003. Managed by Cherrytree Management, booked by CAA, and promoted worldwide by Live Nation Global Touring Chairman Arthur Fogel, Sting is looking at a busy 2017, especially on the road. The former Police-man spoke recently with VT’s Gary Graff about touring on the new record, his co-headlining run with Peter Gabriel, and whether or not he is old enough to bring his former band to Desert Trip.
VT: Are you looking forward to playing the 57th & 9th songs live?
Sting: They're all eminently doable. There's no great sort of studio smoke and mirrors on the album that we couldn't reproduce on stage with a fairly small band.
VT: And it is a small band you're taking out this time, smaller than usual.
Sting: I'm taking a four-piece out—two guitars, drums and bass, no keyboards, and I'm looking forward to it. In some ways it's easier because there's less “bandleading” to do; I don't have to organize space as much, because it's just naturally a function of a smaller group being there. With no keyboards, less of the frequencies are taken up, so there's a lot of space. We'll miss the occasional arranging thing with not having a larger band, but I think that'll be made up for by the space that's created.
VT: You also tend to mess with the songs once you've got them on the road. That will continue this time out?
Sting: Oh yes. The album's only the starting point of a song. It's the beginning, embryonic life of a song, and then you find things out about a song as you tour it night after night. You find an incremental change or a profound change that remains, and the songs grow night by night, tour by tour.
VT: The initial dates are in smaller venues. Why downsize?
Sting: We're playing smaller venues at first, little theaters or 2,000-seat theaters, because I think it's always good to start an album that way so it can grow organically, the songs can grow organically, bringing people into an intimate setting rather than starting in an arena or a stadium where the stadium plays you, really. I like to play in large arenas, obviously, but I also like to play in small places, because it's a muscle that needs to be stretched in both ways.
VT: What's the biggest difference between the two?
Sting: In a small place you have to make it into an event that people will remember, and in a big place you have to make a huge event seem like something intimate. I've gone the opposite way, but it's useful for an artist to keep those skills up in the air, to keep them working, oiled.
VT: Last year you played to the big side with Peter Gabriel. What's your post-mortem on that tour?
Sting: Y'know, so many people have come up to me and said, "That's the best concert we've ever seen." It was fantastic. I think people were actually surprised by how inclusive it was, how interactive it was, that we have a lot in common, Peter and I. We're more or less the same age. We have some common history. We've worked together many times going back to the 80s, Amnesty International. We have a lot of similar interests, both politically and musically, but we're different enough for them to be a contrast. We found it pleasurable and challenging and different, and the audience seemed to love it.
VT: There's been talk about the two of you doing it again.
Sting: We'd love to do it again, both of us. We just need to find the time. Peter's got to do an album of his own, so that takes priority. But I'd be ready to do it end of this year, beginning of next year. I'm just waiting on Peter.
VT: A Police reunion has been floated as a rumor for this year's Desert Trip festival, you know.
Sting: I don't think we're old enough yet (laughs). I'm very proud of the legacy of the Police. It still seems to live in people's memory and fondness. I still play a lot of those songs, so I'm very proud of it. I'm not sure that I need to recreate it again. Having done it eight years ago, very successfully, I feel like a circle was closed at that time. But we're still very much in touch, and friends, and mutually proud of our achievement.
VT: Is there anything more planned for The Last Ship?
Sting: We're looking at putting it on in England next year, so it won't be gone. It can be raised— raised from the sea (laughs) — at any time. I went to see a production of it in Salt Lake City a couple months ago, they had a short run of it. It was very interesting to see my British home town recreated in the middle of Utah, kind of surreal, but a wonderful cast and the songs stand up. The great thing about a play is you can constantly work at it. You can constantly evolve it, which is closer to my own art form, if you like, of songwriting and how songs can evolve.
VT: Would you like to do another musical?
Sting: I would do it again in a minute. I was very proud of that play. It was probably one of the most satisfying five years of my life. I don't think there'd be anything as personal as that; it was an important psychological journey for me to go back to my real roots, both musically and culturally. I found it very therapeutic.