 He is the brother of Fuschia Katherine ("Kate") and half-brother of musician Eliot Sumner and actress Mickey Sumner, who are the daughters of Sting and actress Trudie Styler.Sumner learned to play guitar and drums when he was a teenager, and was inspired to write songs when he heard Nirvana's album "Nevermind".He formed a band with a school friend, bassist Dan Brown, which eventually became Fiction Plane when it was joined by British guitarist Seton Daunt.