How has Joes background affected the band?
Brown: I think he’s now totally aware that it’s inescapable. People will know who he is and certainly it gets mentioned a lot in the press. What we try to achieve as a band is to not sell ourselves on that fact of who he is, like some famous sons have done in the past. We are a real band with something we’re really proud of. The hard thing is to win people over on our own terms. VH1: You have it in your contract that no promotional materials can mention the Sting connection. Did you have a conscious decision that you were going to make it on your own, no matter what? Sumner: Yeah. If I had done it the other way, I would have been very unhappy. It would make me go insane, like, “Oh, everyone likes these songs.” And it wouldn’t be true. I like to feel like I’m qualified to do this job. VH1: The title “Hate” pretty much sums it up. But, again, you mix that dark lyric with some seriously soaring rock. Sumner: It’s about going into a place where you only look at other people and don’t reall
