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Taken from Enough Rope (April 14, 2003)
Michael Franti, Spearhead
by Andrew Denton
 In a pop world dominated by pipe-cleaner bimbos and testosterone-addled rock idiots, every now and then an act of class and substance creeps underneath the wire. One such is my next guest tonight, the lead singer of Spearhead, who writes songs that move more than just your feet. Ladies and gentlemen, Michael Franti
Andrew Denton: Michael, your single, 'Bomb the World', has had a bit of trouble being played in America. What's the problem?
Michael Franti: We wrote a song that is contrary to what our President's views are on bombing the world, which is that we shouldn't be doing it. And so we just had a hard time getting it on the air. There's finally one commercial station in America that's started playing the song, so we still have hope.
Andrew Denton: I believe MTV basically said, "No, we're not going to play this".
Michael Franti: MTV is not specifically at our music, but to political songs in general during this time, they said that they wanted to just keep anything that mentioned war or bombing or opposition to the war out of it, but they've aired videos that show troops kissing their wives and going off to fight.
Andrew Denton: That's not really war, though? That's people kissing.
Michael Franti: Yes.
Andrew Denton: So that's OK. I know that Clear Channel, who are one of the biggest radio broadcasters in America, they've been quite strident in making sure that...
Michael Franti: Yes, they own 1500 stations across America and again, they've decided to ban any number of songs. Right after September 11, on their list of really offensive and harmful songs, was 'Leaving on a Jet Plane', which they banned.
Andrew Denton: Peter, Paul and Mary were pretty way out there!
Michael Franti: Yeah, they're pretty far out. They're doing a duet with Eminem coming up.
Andrew Denton: Was Donna Fargo's 'International Airport' also off the list?
Michael Franti: Yeah. (Laughs)
Andrew Denton: As indeed it should be.
Members of your band, Spearhead, have also been investigated. What's happened?
Michael Franti: One of our members of our band has a sister who's in the military and his mother was visited by some military intelligence officers, who had a dossier of us performing at various political demonstrations. And they had his flight records, they wanted to know why he'd been to Japan twice in the last month, they wanted to know who he had written cheques to, they had all his chequing account records. And basically, again, I don't feel like we're being singled out. I feel like that we're the first group to become aware of what's happening. Anybody who is beginning to speak out, either an artist or an organiser, against the war and in favour of peace is starting to make little blips on the radar and they're starting to take pictures.
Andrew Denton: What is suspicious about going to Japan?
Michael Franti: I don't...I haven't quite figured that out either. But maybe he's going to team up with Godzilla! The world's biggest act of terror. I don't know!
Andrew Denton: That's quite possible, I suppose. Do you get a sense that because bands like yours are now under surveillance, does that give you the sense that you're doing something right?
Michael Franti: I feel like right now is an opportunity, because in a time of great turmoil comes opportunity for great change. And so all of us, no matter where we are as musicians, as people sitting around the water cooler at work or amongst our families or school teachers or whoever, we all have a position to play in the world right now in determining the direction that the world is going to go. And things are going to change regardless, but we need to make sure that, as Martin Luther King has said, that peace is not merely the absence of war, but it's the presence of justice.
Andrew Denton: Recent poll in America showed that 45% of Americans would rather that celebrities just shut up about the war. What makes your opinion more valid than anyone else's?
Michael Franti: There's nothing. Everybody's opinion is equally valid, and I feel like everybody should have an opportunity to speak out, and everyone should have the courage to speak out.
Andrew Denton: Not everyone does, though.
Michael Franti: Not everyone does. But I think that if we sit back during this time, it's like, today we look back and we say, "How could it have possibly been that we hunted down whales in order to provide the oil for our lamps to light our homes and light our streets?". And I really believe that in the future our kids are going to look back at us and say, "Now we have this sun power and these other means of powering our vehicles and homes, why did we go to war over this dinosaur blood?". I think we need to be the people, this generation, who pushes that agenda forward, moving beyond fossil fuels, moving beyond war, moving into justice, moving into protecting the planet.
Andrew Denton: It is true in years to come they're going to look back at this time and think. "How weird - they screwed the earth and farmed the sky. What strange people." What do you think, though, about what the coalition has achieved in Iraq, just putting aside your politics? Are you proud of what they've done, the scenes of liberation, the scenes of euphoria in Iraq?
Michael Franti: I've heard a lot of things. I've heard that people are performing for the cameras and the cameras go on and people start waving flags and jumping around. I know that now we have five or six years or 10 years or 20 years or however long it's going to take of occupation, and they've already selected this guy, Chabella or Chaballa or whatever, who is supposed to be the new leader, who has been convicted of...on a huge banking fraud charges, and now he's the guy they've selected to put in. So it looks to me more like old-fashioned colonialism than it does liberation. I hope, and I pray, for the good of all people that it is truly a liberating experience, and that five or six years down the line from now, when they go to the US congress and say we need $10 million or $20 billion to keep rebuilding everything we've blown up, they don't say, "Sorry, the money has run out. Sorry, we're not going to do anymore."
Andrew Denton: You're very negative, if you don't mind my saying. When America chooses a leader like Manual Noriega, if it doesn't work out, they do remove them! They clean up their mess later! You describe yourself as a liberator, rather than a celebrity. What's the difference?
Michael Franti: I try to use the attention that I get to help and to serve, and that's really what I'd see as my work - to serve my community, serve the planet, serve my family. And I think a celebrity is someone who draws the attention on themselves and then it kind of stops there. So everything that we do, our band, our touring family, we try to reach out and play good music for people, and I always tell my band mates if we can make as much as public school teachers, we're doing great. If we ever make as much as a police officer, we'll be really in the money.
Andrew Denton: We'll pass the hat around later. We'll pass yours around but we won't get it back, I'm afraid. Michael Moore in 'Bowling for Columbine' talked about that it's important for governments to stay in power to promote fear amongst the population, and he gave an example where President Bush doesn't even need to name the enemy anymore, they can just be referred to as 'these evildoers'. How do you counteract something as powerful as that - government-induced fear?
Michael Franti: I think that fear comes about when there's things in the world that we want to change, things we're scared or angry about, and we can't change them, and so we become fearful, we develop anxiety. And I think that it is important that each of us in our own lives feels a sense of self-love and of self-worth and that's where spirituality or whatever comes in. And for different people it means different things.
Andrew Denton: You talk about self-love, but you sing about community and tolerance and hip-hop. Eminem, who's rap, who sings quite the opposite - his voice far outweighs yours on the popular scene. Does that not say to you that's what the world wants to hear right now - anger? Unhappiness?
Michael Franti: It's unfortunate today that the media outlets only give that voice the opportunity to be heard. I think that what he does is fine. I don't choose to judge other artists but I wish there was more opportunity for other artists to be given that space. We play live, people have as great a time as they do when Eminem plays. I think that it's time now that artists begin to look just beyond the corporate world of media and entertainment and start doing things more in the grassroots way. And that's what we've done, is really extracted from that and started our own label and do things on our own, through our website.
Andrew Denton: I love your commitment and idealism. In the Arab world there's a lot of anger about Western attitudes, perceived Western superiority, which has only been increased by what's happened in Iraq, and the greater the resentment and anger, the greater the gap between our cultures. How do we build a bridge back to those people who increasingly declare themselves as our enemy?
Michael Franti: We might be more successful if we dropped $1 billion in cash rather than $200 billion in bombs. It's kind of a joke, but it is a real metaphor for the fact that the nations of the West, the consumer nations, are beginning to now look down at the their feet and see a pair of $150 shoes and say, "Who made these shoes? Did the factory pollute the river that went through the village? Did the CEO walk off with all the money. And what was the advertising that manipulated me into buying these shoes?" That's why you see the protests of the World Trade Organisation and the IMF and now in opposition to the war. It's really the difference between the north and the south - the Deep South to the north, whatever - but it's the developing nations versus the consumer nations. And I think that we have to look at the ways that we consume and begin to reach out, travel, see other places.
Andrew Denton: I think, with respect, you're very wrong there. I don't think the advertising they put in works. When I buy a shoe, I just do it! You know?
Michael, I know you're a great believer that words can heal. In a fracturing world, can music do that too?
Michael Franti: I don't know if music can change the world overnight but I know music can help us make it through a difficult night. Sometimes that's all any of us need, to make it into tomorrow.
Andrew Denton: If you're willing to run the risk, I'm willing to run the risk that my son will be frisked at his primary school. Will you sing 'Bomb the World' for us tonight?
Michael Franti: Yeah.
Andrew Denton: Fabulous. Ladies and gentlemen, with his single 'Bomb the World', Mr Michael Franti.
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