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Taken from Daily Emerald (October 09, 2013)
Q & A: Singer-songwriter Michael Franti during his stop in Eugene
by Daniel Bromfield
Photo by Lauren Dukoff |
Of all the experimental artists who have shifted to pop, Michael Franti might be the most sincere. Over 25 years, his musical endeavors have traveled a strange but surprisingly natural route from industrial punk rap to politically conscious West Coast rap to the poppy reggae fusion he now makes with his band Spearhead. But he’s still delivering many of the same political messages he did in the 80s.
I had the chance to chat with Franti shortly before his set at the McDonald Theater last Tuesday and ask him about his career, his house-inspired new record All People and stepping in dog shit, among other things.
In brief, how would you summarize the message or messages you’re trying to spread with your music?
My message is really about the acceptance of diversity. The diversity we see in this country and in the world is our greatest strength, and a lot of times the differences that are put up against people are used to divide us. I was adopted by parents who are a second-generation from Finland in this country. They had three kids of their own and they adopted me and another African-American son and I have one sister who’s a lesbian. So I grew up in a very mixed, unique melting pot of a family. My mom always insisted that we all be treated the same and that when we went out into the world we treat others like we wanted to be treated and learn to not just “tolerate” other people but to see the beauty in others. And that’s what my music’s about.
All People is one of your most collaborative albums yet. Whose idea was the more dance-style production?
MF: It was really both mine and J’s [J Bowman]. He’s our guitarist. We both love house music. There’s something about those tempos, like 125 beats per minute and up, that gets people really jumping and bouncing. And that’s what we’ve always done in our live show: create that energy. But we’ve never really done that on our records before now.
On your new record All People, you work with electronic artists like The Matrix. The last time to my knowledge you worked with electronic musicians was with Jack Dangers (Meat Beat Manifesto) and Mark Pistel (Consolidated) on Hypocrisy Is The Greatest Luxury, your album with Rono Tse as Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy. Is working with them a throwback to that experience at all?
MF: Yeah, absolutely. I’ve always made electronic music. I’ve always made music with samplers and drum machines and I love the manipulation of sound as much as I love the manipulation of words and lyrics. The thing I loved about working with Jack Dangers and Mark Pistel is that they could take a sound that could start out as one thing and then completely mangle it, distort it and mash it into something else with a whole different feel to it. There’s definitely a kind of excitement when you’re working in the studio with someone with that thought process. I think the Matrix takes it one step further in a way because they’re a team and one guy works with the sounds and the other one works more with melody and chord structure. They’ve worked with everyone from Korn to Avril Lavigne — I guess we’re somewhere between that.
Are you still connected with any musicians from the punk and industrial scenes?
MF: Yeah. In our studio where we rehearse and record, Mark Pistel is still down the hall from us and we see him all the time. I’d like to do more work with him in the future, he’s a really great cat. We’ve done tons of stuff, little side projects and things throughout the years.
Eugene is a very politically active town, just as you are a very politically active musician. Are you acquainted with the political climate of Eugene at all?
MF: Well, I know that Eugene has always been very open-minded, and I know it’s very environmental, progressive, political and radical. People take things to the streets here, and I’ve grown up in that kind of political environment so I feel at home with that kind of activity.
The Disposable Heroes cover of “Kalifornia Uber Alles” by Dead Kennedys changed the lyrics to be about Pete Wilson rather than Jerry Brown. If you were to update that song now, who would you make it about?
MF: Probably back to Jerry Brown. It’s funny how things go in cycles in politics. Our state [Michael Franti's native California] is in miserable shape — it’s really easy to take potshots at any number of political puppets out there. I don’t know if my mindset is still there. I don’t believe in governors or presidents. I don’t leave it up to them to solve my problems. You do your best to try to elect the best person you can and hope things might become a little bit better, but at the end of the day it’s up to us to prove the value of our lives. I think music is a great way to do that.
Is it true you split with Capitol because they wanted you to perform with Will Smith?
MF: That wasn’t the only reason. When I was there, the president of the label was Gary Gersh, who signed Nirvana and Beck and a lot of cool, cutting-edge bands when he was working at Geffen. They kicked him out and then brought in this new guy who wanted to basically whitewash everything, so I thought that would be a good time to go and start my own label, which was Boo Boo Wax Records. That way we could make our own records and then just license them back to whatever label we worked with. Now we’re back to Capitol, ironically.
My first record was on Alternative Tentacles, which is Jello Biafra’s label. I’ve worked on independent labels, I’ve worked on major labels, I’ve run my own label, I’ve sold records out of the back of a car before and what I’ve found is that it all depends on who you’re working with. It doesn’t depend on the size or the scale of the label. What matters is: do they love music, and are they willing to fight for your music, whatever you’re making at that time? When I was younger, there was this attitude that big labels are inherently fucked up. But I’ve put out records on smaller labels that are maybe even more corrupt than the bigger labels – more dishonest, I should say, or could care less about what they’re doing.
Today what I’ve found is that because of the decline in CD sales, people don’t get into the music industry because they want to get rich anymore — people go into technology or app design or video games or something. People get into music because they love music and that’s what it’s like at Capitol today – it’s completely different from when I was there. It’s a whole different scene, more of a mom-and-pop sort of thing, and people who are there are people who really love music.
What do you think of the Alvin & the Chipmunks version of “Say Hey (I Love You?)”
MF: I think it’s pretty awesome. I haven’t heard many covers of my songs and I think that’s one of the best ones I’ve ever heard.
What’s the worst thing you’ve ever stepped on while barefoot?
MF: It’s pretty simple — dog shit. Absolutely still the worst thing you can step on.
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