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    Sunny Jain's 'Wild Wild East' Is A Western-Inspired Ode To An Immigrant Father

    NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with the drummer and bandleader about his new album which re-invents the American cowboy myth, borrowing from Bollywood, hip-hop and traditional Punjabi music.
    by Ari Shapiro Mar 02, 2020 4 minutes
    On his debut solo album, Red Baraat bandleader Sunny Jain combines spaghetti western soundtracks, hip-hop and Bollywood — and celebrates his late father's migration from India to the United States.

    Inspiration can strike anywhere. For Sunny Jain, the inspiration for his new album Wild Wild East came while he was on stage at a concert at the Global Village in Dubai, which he describes as "kind of like the Epcot center of the Mideast."

    Like the famous Disney World destination, the Global Village has representations of various nations and cultures. Most countries were represented by architecture — Turkey by Byzantine and Ottoman art, France by the Eiffel Tower — but the United States was represented by a person: a massive statue of a white male cowboy, gun in holster.

    "I just sat there like, holy cow, [thinking about] this

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