A little over a decade ago a single by an artist I had never heard of arrived in the mail. It was called “Deside Mi Corazon” by Will Sumner. Back then being on a major label and having pretty packaging, an elaborate press kit and a big promotional budget were things that mattered. This song had none of the above but from first listen I was totally taken by it. I played it on my brunch show and listeners started calling and asking about it. It was a fresh, original song that broke through a glut of sound-alike product but back then cookie cutter music was what musicians delivered if they wanted to survive. Now Sumner has released Tracks, his first album in almost a decade and it's a stunner. This time around there are lots of ways to get heard and audiences are seeking out music that veers from the formula. Sumner is a working musician, not a celebrity. He has been doing live gigs, teaching, generally living his life and playing his music without much noise and hype. He deserves noise and hype so I tracked him down to talk a little bit about this wonderful album so we could spread the word.

SmoothViews (SV): Even though you've been around for a while a lot of our readers don't know you that well. Tell me a little bit about your background.
Will Sumner (WS): I started playing drums in 4th grade, got a six string banjo in 6th grade and actually had a band back then. I picked up guitar in 8th grade and have been playing ever since. I started writing music in high school. I was writing mostly instrumentals because I didn't like my singing voice. I got into fusion music in the late 70's after high school and got into adding a lot of Latin flavor to my playing and writing. I had a great band in Twin Cities
called Tropic Zone during the 80's and early 90's before I moved back to California.

SV: You mentioned Latin influences, which are really present on the new album.
WS: I was born in California and got exposed to Mariachi music at an early age. I used to go to Mexico with my Grandmother to see the bull fights and there was music playing everywhere we went. The fast 6-8's really got to me, I just loved them, and I loved the big Salsa bands in Mexico city. I moved to Minnesota and went to high school there.  Then studied jazz guitar, classical violin and all things musical. I was really into Clpton, John McLaughlin, Jean Luc Ponty, Chick Corea, Frank Zappa and George Benson.

SV: No wonder I love your music, those are the people I grew up with too. You first caught my attention with Deside Mi Corazon in 2000, then you released an album in 2003. Between then and now you did a holiday album and reissued the Tropic Zone album but that's a long time between CD's. What were you doing between albums?
WS: I teach and play live a lot but also I really wanted to write film score music. I did a tone of documentaries, two features, and some ski films. I won some awards but got ripped off by some people I trusted in Hollywood. I am still trying to get back into it. I was also slowly putting recordings together for Tracks. I had no idea where the recordings were going and what's really funny is I was expecting no response from anybody, especially radio so it was kind of like my last CD. My family was even surprised I was doing it and pretty much thought I was wasting my time.

SV: Thank God you didn't let that turn you around. This is such a fabulous album and it fills a real hole because there aren't many guitar albums that have this type of power and originality.  The other musicians add so much to it too, and it isn't the usual session heavyhitters. Who are they, what are their backgrounds?
WS: Jason Weber played sax on Coast Drive and Tracks. He lives in Lake Elsanore, CA and is very much a friend and great player known by many in the industry. Val L'Heureux from Del Mar is the bass player on "On Target" from Tracks and "Inside Job" from Coast Drive. He plays with my band. Sky Ladd plays piano on “Wine Highway” and “Crystal Waves" from Tracks and is also very well know. I did the rest of the instruments on all tracks.

SV: That's quite amazing that you did most of the instrumentation because I get a lot of albums where the artist plays most or all of the instruments and the CD sounds like it. Yours always sound like you have a full band in the house. A lot of artists are releasing music on their own labels now but you have been doing it since the first album. Why did you choose to not go with a label back then?
WS: Releasing these CD's on my label was my only choice because I wasn't comfortable with the deals that the labels were offering. I turned downed a couple of record deals because that wanted too much of my royalties and for too long. It was actually under advice from my lawyer at the time. I could see his point but it was hard for me to turn down. In hindsight it was probably a mistake because I missed out on a lot of publicity, airplay, and all the things that come with that kind of recognition.

SV: Coast Drive was softer than Corazon and Tracks. It came out when the radio format was peaking. Was that personal preference, just how you felt like writing, or was there an industry influence?
WS:  When I write it is just the songs as they come to me. Sometimes I change them to be more radio friendly and sometimes I don't. I don't enjoy a lot of the music that is called “smooth jazz” right now. I think the writing has become copycat-ish and vanilla and that that is one of the reasons the business is suffering.

SV: People used to be afraid to step out and say that publicly but would say it off the record in a heartbeat. Now we're starting to acknowledge the proverbial elephant in the living room – the blandness of the format  music – which is the first step to fixing the problem. Albums like Tracks show us how exciting this music can be when the artist has the guts to stick to their vision.
WS: Thank you. I really hope so, I would like to think that things are starting to open up.

SV: You play most of the instruments on your albums and you also produce them yourself. Were you ever tempted to go to one of the big name producers just to get your music on the radio?

WS: I'm probably an idiot but I always felt like the best person to produce my music is me. What I do is different from a lot of what is out there. My blend of percussion, marimba, conga, timbali, steel drum, shakers and everything else under the sun is nothing new, but the way I combine them is a little different. I mix electric, Spanish, and acoustic steel string guitars and blend those sounds in a lot of different ways. I hear these sounds and textures and have a pretty clear idea of what I want the music to sound like overall.  What I hear other people do is nothing like what I would do. If I worked with the producer that made those decisions we would not have a lot to talk about. I guess that sounds like I'm hard to work with but that's not it at all. I love working with other musicians, I love getting input from other people but I want my music to sound like it does. I want it to sound original and not imitative. I'm just tired of turning on the radio and hearing the same old, old stuff. I don't want to make music that sounds like everything else that is out there.

SV: You are making music that sounds like everything out there should sound! This is a wonderful album and there is a lot more opportunity right now for interesting music to get heard so keep doing what you're doing and thank you for the music and conversation!