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Taken from The Patriot Ledger (Jun 16, 2017)

MUSIC SCENE: Michael Franti and Spearhead to perform

Franti and his band Spearhead bring the Love Out Loud Tour to Lowell's Boarding House Park tonight and to the Cape Cod Melody Tent in Hyannis next Friday.

by Jay N. Miller for The Patriot Ledger



Michael Franti performs at BottleRock Napa Valley Music Festival in California May 27. Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP


In these divisive and stressful times, Michael Franti wants us all to remember the many more things that unite all human beings, like the joy of music, and the sheer fun of dancing to it.


Surely, Franti has his work cut out for him and his band Spearhead, but their Love Out Loud Tour swings through New England this month, with a concert at Lowell’s Boarding House Park tonight and a show next Friday at the Cape Cod Melody Tent in Hyannis.


The tour started March 2 in Alaska and has wound its way through South Africa, England and Japan. Most of the summer will be devoted to touring North America. Franti’s most recent album, “Soulrocker,” was released a year ago, and the video for the single “Crazy for You” has al ready had a big international impact. The song, as Franti has detailed, is about how in those times when the outside world is baffling and frustrating, it is an invaluable salve to have that one person you can confide in and relax with, and it is dedicated to his wife Sara. The lively video for the tune was made in the Besiktas Soccer Stadium in Istanbul last year, and a few weeks after that video was filmed, terrorists struck outside the Turkish stadium, killing 38 and wounding 168, adding a serious subtext to the video’s joyful embrace of life and love.


More recently, Franti has released a video for another song from “Soulrocker,” and the tune “Summertime Is In Our Hands” is another vibrant dose of his affirming, enjoy-your-moments philosophy. In the video, which features beautiful settings in Bali, all the joyous abandon of most of the story is leavened by the final sequences, when you realize the woman who is the focal point is celebrating and remembering a partner who has died.


Both videos encapsulate a Franti trademark; songs and rhythms of abundant life and enjoyment, community and passion, yet also carrying more serious themes, and a complex, well reasoned view of his music and what he wants it to represent. That’s been part of Franti’s music since the Oakland, Calif., native began, and certainly an attitude that has suffused his work with Spearhead since its 1994 founding. Just as the bi-racial Franti, who was adopted and raised by a Finnish couple, blends in rock, reggae, hip-hop, and soul in his music, that inclusive spirit extends to his audiences, which cover all age ranges – the monster 2009 single “Say Hey (I Love You)” is certain to get fans from 5 to 75 up and dancing gleefully wherever it’s played.

We caught up with Franti while he was on a short tour break in California, about to embark on the next leg of the tour, and we suggested “Love Out Loud Tour”


its goal of bringing folks together had its work cut out for it in 2017 America.


“Luckily, we have music on our side,” Franti said with a small chuckle. “Music, and food, are probably the only things that can bring people 100 percent together. I don’t look at myself or my music as a political instrument, but I do believe one of the things we are missing right now is empathy. There’s a lot of freedom of speech going on, but not much freedom of listening to each other.


“ ... if the first group is not having empathy for that second group, trying to see their point of view, and vice versa, we’re never going to get it figured out.”


The video for “Summertime Is In Our Hands” could be a breath of sorely needed fresh air, and it features, among its many visual wonders, the best paint job on a Volkswagen bus we’ve ever seen.


“That video was made for a friend of ours, and is meant to be a song about the joy of summer,” Franti explained. “But I found while writing it and then making the video, that my mind was also drawn to so many memories of people in my life who are no longer there. Fishing with my dad is one big memory of my summers, for instance, one memory that is always there. We all have these memories, and we can all access them in times of need. In the video, the woman at the center of it is enjoying summer and her memories of summer, while also bidding good bye to her lover. That song and video has resonated with many people, and I get messages every day telling me how much that song means to them.”

Franti made that video in Bali, the island off of Indonesia, and he’s come to relish the South Pacific island so much he has established his own little compound there, Soulshine.


“I went on vacation to Bali once and fell in love with the place,” said Franti. “In short order I decided to buy a little patch of land, where I intended to build a house and perhaps someday retire. But I am so busy everywhere that I decided I couldn’t live there right now, so we turned it into a little hotel. We have 16 rooms, in Ubud, and we have people from around the world coming to do yoga, have some great food, and just generally press the ‘re-set button.’ Bali is an incredibly beautiful place, where the people have a real reverence for nature, and a wonderful openness to other people coming in. Indonesia is the largest Muslim nation in the world, but Bali is the Hindu-majority island, with a very sweet culture. Some other islands in that area may be hard to live on, but Bali still has tourism as its main industry, and is very welcoming to all visitors.”

With his busy schedule, Franti is still able to compose new music on the road, and the stability of his longtime quintet makes touring an easy, family-type affair.


“I write all the time,” said Franti. “I was working on a song yesterday in the green room before we went on. Then I woke up in the middle of the night, singing it, so I got it finished. Usually on tour I’m putting down bits and pieces, and when we get off the road we get them really tight. We carry all our own equipment, so we can do songs and videos on tour. I like to stay creative during the days, even if we are playing at night, and meeting people on tour gives me so much inspiration.”


“Our band feels closer than we ever have,” Franti noted. “Carl Young on drums has been with me 24 years, six months and two weeks. (Nigerian percussionist) Manas has been with me 18 years, (guitarist) Jay Bowman 12 years, and (keyboardist) Michael n- Blankenship more than six years. Our crew, our equipment people, all become family, and getting back on the bus to start the next leg of the tour, we’re all like teenagers all over again.”


Franti’s has his own teenagers now, and one of his older songs, “Once A Day,” deals with a son who has the kidney disease, FSGS, and how that experience focused his dad’s outlook.


“That was a scary thing as a parent to deal with,” said Franti. “He was looking at it then as a 15-year-old, and it’s a chronic condition, where some kids don’t make it as far as he has. Eventually they do need a replacement kidney. But that diagnosis was three years ago, and he just got his high school diploma, so we’re very proud. It brought us closer as a family, and made him confront his authentic self: he was asking questions about things that kids that age don’t ask. There have been a lot of blessings in it for all of us, and we have much to be thankful for, but he is not clear of it yet. But we have tried to raise awareness of the disease and hopefully help spark the search for more research into finding a cure.”





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