Creativity Quote by Andy Summers

There’s a quiet eyeroll baked into Andy Summers’s line, the kind of pragmatic shrug that only makes sense coming from someone who lived through rock’s shift from maximal spectacle to efficient mobility. “Not very practical” sounds mild, but it’s doing real work: it recasts the romantic mythology of the big band not as an artistic ideal, but as a logistical problem. In touring terms, a “big band” isn’t just more sound; it’s more payroll, more buses, more hotels, more visas, more egos, more chances for the whole machine to break.

The subtext is also a defense of a certain 1980s aesthetic Summers helped define with The Police: a lean lineup that could still feel huge. Three people, tons of space. The implication is that scale is no longer synonymous with power; the modern touring economy punishes bulk and rewards flexibility. This isn’t anti-musicianship so much as anti-overhead.

Context matters: the nostalgia for larger ensembles often comes from audiences (and critics) who want “real music” to look like labor. Summers punctures that, reminding you that contemporary touring is an industry before it’s a fantasy. The line also hints at how technology changed the equation: amplification, pedals, tight arrangements, and now tracks can approximate mass without literally hiring it.

Underneath the practicality is a cultural truth: the road has become a kind of austerity theater. Bands aren’t just choosing a sound; they’re choosing a business model. Summers is naming the constraint out loud, and that candor is the point.