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Taken from Synthesis (September 27, 2003)
Change Through Music
by Peter Kimmich
Soul musician Michael Franti provides hope in a hopeless world
 In the chaos following September 11th, amid confusion over bombing, money, terrorism and the Bush administration, it is comforting to know that at least one influential person out there has his head on straight. Soul / world musician Michael Franti seems to be thinking clearly - and he was even patient enough one afternoon to share his views on several topics over the phone with one stuttering journalist.
"I get a lot of emotional buildup when I watch the news," he said. "Call me stupid, but I fail to see how bombing other nations is going to make people happy with the United States."
The personal frustration he feels is both present in and answered by his lyrics, while his music contains the best elements of hip-hop, soul and old style rock. The opening track of his new album, Everyone Deserves Music, is immediately uplifting, while the lyrics have a poetic beauty that is hope-inspiring: "If I could be the night, my moon would replace all 'lectric lights / And magic music would transmit from outer space on satellites / If myself could be the ocean, you would feel emotion all the time / If I were the words, then everything that everybody said would rhyme."
Franti's words are meant to encourage, he said, but they also express his own emotions, covering everything from anger and sadness to joy. They come from various places among his day-to-day activities, such as riding the bus, overhearing a conversation in a restaurant or simply talking with friends about current events.
"It's always the personal interaction with other people that brings on the ideas for songs," he said. "[It will] really break down in simplistic terms the news that politicians can't."
One such interaction was the origin of a phrase that became a song title, and from there became the new album title, Franti said. It was immediately following the Bush election, when Franti and some of his friends were talking about it at a show in Santa Barbara. The mood was not especially cheerful.
"Somebody said, 'man, we really need some music right now,'" Franti recalled. "And it just came out of my mouth, you know - 'everyone deserves music.' And then later I thought, 'even our worst enemies deserve music.'"
From there came track three off the new album: "Everyone deserves music, sweet music / Even our worst enemies, they deserve music / And even the blind ones in our family, they deserve music."
Such optimism is certainly welcome in a world where bombs go off every day, buildings collapse and huge numbers of people die for no reason. Any hope is well received, and Franti seems to hold onto it through everything.
"It's a time of great turmoil, but out of great turmoil comes great change," he said. "There's times when I want to shut off, for sure - it's hard caring, it's painful to care."
But Franti has been touring nations around the world since 1987, he said, and with more and more music questioning the status quo, people are becoming more aware of human and natural interests, favoring them over monetary and government interests. Albums like Radiohead's Hail to the Thief and NOFX's War on Errorism make people think about things that were previously taken for granted.
"I find hope in that I see change in the world that I've never seen before," Franti said. "I do see that worldwide, there's more consciousness - not only about war, but about developing nations, about the environment, about world economies."
Even the recall election in California is an example of people forcing change in a government they are fed up with, he said, though with the huge number of candidates, even he has not yet made up his mind who he will vote for.
"I just really don't want Schwarzenegger to be in office," he said.
But whether California has a governor or a 'governator,' Franti's music will be there to help people relate to whatever the future has to offer.
"I believe it's important to express a full range of human emotion in my work," he said. "I hope to find ways to express all those things so at the end of the day it can leave people feeling inspired and encouraged to find love and kindness in a world that's not always loving and kind."
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