‘Five grown-ups being creative is very tough'

Manchester bombing was the trigger for their new video he Disparrows' latest music video, Set Me Free, shows images of the way the refugee situation has been handled over the past one year across the world. The single is the first song the LA-based rock-and-roll band has put out from their upcoming third album Wasting Time. With two studio albums to their credit, the band of five including Daniel Weber, Stephen Tecci, Grant Loosvelt, Jaydon Bean and Julian Tomarin kick off their US tour from tomorrow, starting from Summerfest, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Singer and guitarist Daniel Weber tells us more... What was the trigger for a song like Set me Free, that highlights the issue of refugees? The song was written a year ago, so I can't really recall what probably started the writing process. But I can tell you what triggered the video. It was definitely Manchester. It affected us all personally. Do you often speak about political or social issues in your songs? Generally, it's not like that. I never write about political things or something which is very definitive. I usually like to write about general things, so that it sort of applies to everybody and everybody can relate to it. Mackelmore had put out a song called F**k Donald Trump. Would you ever put out such a strong political statement out there? Every human being has the right to say what they want. But let people form their own opinions. For you to come out and say F**k Donald Trump, okay, that's your opinion. I get that. But to go and put it out as music, I don't think that's correct to do. You're not helping any situation, not being constructive about it. So, does my song say that I love Donald Trump or hate him? No, what it does is it brings to light all of these problems that all these world leaders have caused or are causing. We are saying there is something we can do. India is a great example. India shifted from Congress to BJP, which is a massive change and people wanted it. Do you think musicians just pay lip service when they sing about social issues? Yes, I do and I say this all the time. It's very easy to talk and say f**k this person or that person or re-tweet something. This video that we put out was not intended to be the first single, but it's so powerful that we thought, this is a really strange time. Maybe the world is in a really strange place right now and needs a little bit of help understanding what's happening. So we said, you know what, let's just put this song out. Will it do anything? No, but what I hope it does, is show people the reality of the last one year in three minutes. That's the reality my generation has created and I hope that this is not the reality we're handing to the next generation. The third album was supposed to be out last year. Why is it taking so long? It was completed last year in November itself but we chose not to release it, until we ended up getting our tour dates together and everybody was happy with how the promotions will be. These things take time. Every time you try something, you want more and better. Tell us about the music producer you worked with for this album.

We worked with Anthony Parks, who has produced music for everybody from Aerosmith to Beautiful Creatures. I can honestly say that he's gotten out of us more than I could get out of myself and my band. I would write in India, and every four weeks I would fly to LA. We would all get in the studio for five days straight and work on the material. I did that back and forth for a year and it was an amazing experience. Was it tough doing this back and forth? Technology would have helped...

We tried doing that, sending each other stuff but I am a hands on person and so is the rest of the band. It's different if you're a solo artist. When you're working with five individuals in a band and everybody has creative ideas, you bounce stuff off each other. By the end of the day you hate each other and next morning you love each other. Five grown ups being creative is always very tough, everybody's idea is the best! (laughs) You'd said earlier that the sound of this album is completely different from the last two. In what way? We knew the album was special. After we sent the album to our management team for distribution and touring, everybody said you guys have finally grown up as a band and this is your first mature album, which is radio friendly, pop-friendly and people friendly.