Daniel Weber on his music, his LA-based rock-n-roll band The Disparrows and their third (and as yet untitled) album
Bryan Durham (DNA; June 11, 2016)

As I step into Daniel Weber’s apartment, I’m struck by how sparse the roomscape is. There’s a table with chairs to the far left with a plush sofa and chairs that we settle into. The opposite wall has a large television that’s playing Game Of Thrones on Apple TV. There’s a black electric guitar lying on the opposite end of the sofa. That’s it. It’s a simple and straightforward setting. And as I come to realise over the course of our conversation, just like the man of the house. The man I’m sitting across is the frontman of The Disparrows, an LA-based independent rock-n-roll band with two studio albums to its credit and one more on the way. He manages his wife’s career and that keeps him in India, but he regularly heads back to LA to jam with his band whenever he can. It’s a life... As we settle in, post introductions, I find him to be deeply aware of where he comes from, where he’s head and what he wants from life and his music...

You started making music at 13...
I think I’ve been playing 24 years now. Started in bands since I was a kid (so that should be about right). It’s been seven years with The Disparrows now. Before that, I played in a band called The Spyderz (as Dirrty). We toured all over the world. We did that for five years. That was good, it was a success. And then, of course, like every single music group, you implode. Every group of five dudes, it’s like five grown children with egos... (cuts off), that’s life. So yes, I’ve been in those bands. And the reason I think the Disparrows has made it for as long as it has, is because I’m here most of the time and I travel off and on to Los Angeles and that’s where we record. Only once a year, do we go on a full tour. So I think the separation helps us...

How did you meet your bandmates from Disparrows?
I met them both during a recording of an album for my last band, The Spyderz. My piano player, Grant ‘Dr’ Loosvelt, we knew because he used to come to the studio to record the piano parts. We found him through the LA music scene. My bass player Stephen Tecci, we actually found when we were looking for one. We had fired our bass player at the time. We had some shows coming up and we recorded with him for some time.

The gigs and venues you used to play initially?
With The Spyderz, I started large, because everyone in the band was already in very large groups. Our first show already had 5,000 people in attendance. It was successful from the start because it was with players who were already established. With Disparrows, it was much more organic. We started at small clubs. We’d play festivals that have a lot of people (attending) or they’ll fly here for instance. This fall, we’ll be doing GoaFest. Or we’ll play clubs that have a few hundred people. For us, it’s all about playing music.

Variously, I’ve seen your music referred to as hard rock or rock-and-roll or blues with country influences. Which genre do you feel your music fits best in?
It’s just rock and roll. There’s no science behind it.

How’s the third album coming along?
From June 10-18, we’re tracking the album in Los Angeles with everybody. Our producer is from Nashville, Tennessee. He will be out there too and then, mid-July is the final tracking. End of July, is mixing and mastering, so I can’t imagine it’d come out before September. Just based on how long it takes to mix, master and then in June, we have our management meetings, so we might even figure out a tour. Also, there will be 10 tracks, And we’ll have special guests featuring on the album.

How different is it going to be from the previous one?
Completely (Stresses on the word) different. And that’s because the last two albums we wrote when we were together. For this album, we spent more time apart and it’s actually been much more of an organic process and its a much more fun process to come back to. We collaborate on different ideas together. There’s no ego with us anymore. I think we’ve passed that. We’ve come to that point in life where we just love to play music together, so if something’s not good, someone just says it: ‘Hey, you know what? That really sucks! Just leave it be’. You know and then you have to trust the room majority. There’s five of us actually, not just three of us, by the way, so, Jayme Bean’s on drums, he’s been on drums over the last year for us, then there’s Julien on rhythm guitar. The writing for this album’s been so different because we’ve been apart that it breathes more. The music is so much... but it’s rock-and-roll no matter what. At the end, when we go in the studio, I always tell everybody, ‘Please turn up the octane and let’s give it the energy that we love because we enjoy playing live. And that’s what the end goal is for us — to enjoy playing live. Also, the second album was very egotistical in the way it was written because we loved everything on it, not thinking once about how either pop culture (which is a reality) would care or not care about it. We didn’t think about that and it was a mistake on my part. I think I wrapped it and didn’t take enough outside opinion. This time, there’s a lot of other people involved in and sitting in on it. Guess that’s why I think the process is taking longer and we’ve been revising stuff so many times that... (long pause) I don’t think you know when you’re writing for what’s going to be the breakthrough or the hit.

You make a DIY band sound easy!
I think most bands are forced into that space because fewer record labels today invest in bands...

I believe it has to do more with people wanting the freedom to create and own their own music.
I think it began when the mega record labels stopped investing and doing artist representation. Then, the independent labels became really big and that scene was huge and it was going well. Then, the independent labels started to lose money because the music wasn’t selling and everything was pirated. So, in the 90s, these independent labels started coming up. There were small scenes that began to pop up. Then all of a sudden, you have the late 90s and now bands had to do it themselves. Yes, you own it now, but just like every industry, there’s good and bad. Great because you can put up your own music on Soundcloud and Reverbnation and iTunes and do it all by yourself, but then everybody does it themselves. The ocean gets really crowded. So there’s that. Then, there’s that other element where you have the ability to do better than before, too. So, I think every scene, every time period, has its positives and negatives and it’s not even about how good you are or how amazing you are. It’s all about the business at the end of the day.

But you’re good at that, right?
So, the problem is, I’m really good at being a business manager for somebody else — as I have been for my wife and for other companies. I’m horrible at being it for myself. So, in the last year, I was told because we, as a band basically cumulatively came to this decision saying, “It’s not wise you to be business manager solely because you’re so busy with other things, it would be best if we had an outside person doing it”, which I agree, because I was sort of forced into this position.

Who are you listening to?
On my iPhone? Alan Jackson, Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood, Dirks Bentley, George Strait (he’s huge), Jason Aldean (so good!) I work out every day and I listen to country most of the time.

How do you work out to country music, though?
When you listen to Jason Aldean... it’s completely upbeat. To me the way he plays his guitars are very rock-n-roll riffs in a country style. Almost like if you change this into regular rock-n-roll Angus Young (of AC/DC) would be playing the same riff.

Plan to go on the road with the new album?
We start doing festivals August through September. Every city has music festivals all through Europe and the US. Every city has clubs, and it just has to do actually with bills. if there’s a bill with certain bands that fit our style, then we do it.

Touring has become the new now with barely any revenues coming in from other platforms.
It’s been forced to, because trying to control streaming, it’s like trying to cage air. What value does it have? In any case, if you’re putting a video on YouTube, you’re getting the audio anyway.

Where do you see The Disparrows five years from now?
Hopefully touring more...

Desired by thousands of men the world over, the comely actress still remains Karenjit Kaur Vohra for her husband.
Shreevatsa Nevatia (MUMBAI MIRROR; November 29, 2015)


Sunny Leone (34) and Daniel Weber (37)

Sunny Leone's story of love seems rather at odds with her steamy filmography. It was eight years ago when she first met her husband Daniel Weber outside a burlesque bar in Las Vegas. "For me, it was love at first sight," confesses Weber. At the time, the rock and roll musician says, he had failed to gauge the extent of Leone's popularity. "I saw her at a convention the next day and there was this line of a thousand people waiting for her autograph. Then, of course, I did my research," he smiles. Leone compares his persistence to that of a stalker's, and admits she was reluctant when agreeing to their first official date in New York. "Heath Ledger had just died. I wanted to be late by ten minutes, but I think I arrived thirty minutes after I was meant to." A resolute Weber sent 24 roses to Leone's hotel room. They dated for three years. Their marriage in 2011, they say, was a natural eventuality.

For all its markers of conventionality, however, Leone's and Weber's relationship can in no obvious way be described as typical. Together, they had launched the studio Sun Lust Pictures in 2009. Weber still controls the running of the production house, whose mainstay for six years has been variations of an explicit adult cinema. Before Leone had been signed on to star in the arguably more risque sequels of films such as Jism and Ragini MMS, Weber had, for some time, been the only male lead she had erotically cavorted with. Being husband to an actress so obviously fancied by thousands should expectedly bring with it a territorial dispute, but Weber seems to have come to terms with his wife's desirability. "I guess it's better than being married to someone, who people look at think, 'Man, she is gross'." As Leone chortles, he adds, "That's a point in my corner. Yes, my wife had a career in entertainment well before I knew her and I am no one to say she should have lived her life differently. Millions loved her. God bless them. God bless her. And now, God bless me."

Leone and Weber laugh together with a warm frequency as they sit next to each other in a suburban hotel, but ordinary couples might be reassured to learn that the two do sometimes have differences. Weber, who decided to run his Brooklyn steel factory and band 'The Disparrows' from a distance in order to be able to manage Leone's Indian film career, says, "The differences mostly centre around the genres of film she gets offered." Leone makes mention of a role that would have seen her become a nun after being widowed. Weber says, "I thought it was a very emotional role that her audience wouldn't connect to. Mastizaade, on the other hand, is great from a brand point of view." Trailers of Mastizaade make it clear that much like Leone's earlier Ek Paheli Leela, the sex comedy will see her play a double role. For the actor, splitting her personality is perhaps habit now.

In conversation, Leone sometimes refers to herself as 'Karen', an abbreviation of Karenjit Kaur Vohra, the name she grew up with. Weber says, "I know this sounds schizophrenic, but in the end, it's she Karenjit, who plays Sunny Leone. Karenjit is who I am married to." So, is Sunny only an elaborate performance then, a careful deception? Leone reacts with aplomb. "I have now spent 15 years being Sunny Leone. At some point, you have to separate the two personas. The brand is a lot bigger than me." Weber continues, "A brand many people in different offices of the world work on."

Like many other brands, Sunny Leone's messaging can, at times, also be open to misinterpretation. A condom advertisement the actor had appeared in, was excoriated by CPI leader Atul Anjan as the cause which explained India's rising cases of rape. Weber says he always reacts to such comments by "jumping in at the deep end". He explains, "I first pace up and down our living area for 10-20 minutes. Then she (Leone) from the couch says, 'Will you please ignore it? They are using my name in their speeches. Something is obviously going right'." Leone adds with a laugh, "I just pray that someday Obama puts me in his speech, or Donald Trump. That would be great." Interestingly, the couple were said to have made a more tongue-in-cheek political statement around the time the government tried to ban online pornography. With two winking emojis, Leone had tweeted a picture of her standing beside Weber, who was seen wearing a T-shirt with the words 'Sex Sells' emblazoned in gold. Weber tries to feign ignorance. "My mother chooses my clothes," he claims. After some prodding, though, he adds, "There are four industries that are recession proof - alcohol, tobacco, oil and pornography. But I am a guest in India. I can't comment on a governmental ban. A voter can."

Many in the press have interpreted Leone's renunciation of her past as an adult actress as a disavowal, but contrary to claims, she says she isn't apologetic. "Maybe someone else apologised for me. I never did." Weber adds, "We started from nothing and we're very proud of what we've accomplished, and it is perfectly okay to reinvent oneself." Leone corrects Weber. "I'll call it evolution actually. As an entertainer, you always want to think bigger, to go further." The raging debate on censorship, it could be argued, is proof enough of a squeamishness that has fuelled the righteous prudery of Leone's critics. The actor, however, surprisingly preaches a more democratic understanding. "Each individual reacts to intimacy in a manner which is different. I understand social taboos. Even in the US, you never discuss an adult film when sitting at the dinner table." Leone, who has often admitted to being an Aamir Khan admirer, finally weighs in on the intolerance controversy with a disarming half-smile, "There has to be some tolerance in India for me to still be sitting here."