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Taken from [url=http://www.eventguide.ie/articles.elive?session_id=1070340770113396&sku=031120150129]The Event Guide (November 20, 2003)[/url]
Music Interview - Michael Franti and Spearhead
Power To The Peaceful
 With the tagline of "conscious music for the masses", earlier this year Michael Franti released his politically charged and emotionally uplifting album 'Everyone Deserves Music'. He returns to Ireland soon, and in a reflective mood makes some observations about how things have changed since his last visit.
On a thematic level, and especially in light of America's invasion of Iraq, the songs on 'Everyone Deserves Music' seem to have a strangely predictive quality. How do feel about what is happening in America at the moment?
Well, right now I'm in Italy and they have just had their first war casualties. It is a very emotional time here, and, being an American, everyone is asking "how the fuck did you get us into this thing?". I don't personally feel tarnished with the militaristic brush, just as, in reverse, here Berlusconi doesn't represent the people of Italy and nor does President Bush represent the people of the United States. I explain this to people here, and many know my views from the music I have written. Right now I'm wondering how this is going to come to any end. Even if we withdraw all the troops now, what is Iraq left with? It has become this amazingly endless cycle. They say that the "war on terrorism" has no end, no limits, and I think that it is important that all of us around the world stand up and speak out, not just against this war in particular, but against the idea that one nation can lead the world into militarism. This is a dangerous precedent that has been set.
The song 'We Don't Stop' is uncannily predictive of where we are at the moment and is a very powerful song. Are a proselytiser for peace, and do your shows contain intentional political messages? What are your priorities at the moment?
The goal of my life is to serve. That's what I want to do, to serve others. At the moment we all have an opportunity to shape the change, because the world is changing whether we like it or not. I do take time at our shows to explain the significance behind the lyrics, but I also allow the music just to speak for itself. I don't want to preach. We just toured in America, and every where we went I had an opportunity to meet with veterans, either of the Vietnam war or the first Iraqi war and hear what their perspective is. It has been interesting because almost all of them were 19 or 20 year-old kids when they went overseas, thinking that they were doing something that was right, patriotic and well-intentioned. And then they get over there and are asked to do the worst that one human can do to another. They end up losing that sense of patriotism because they feel like they donated their lives and in return all they ever asked for was that we were not put in harms way for some fucked up reason. It just shows you that, over and over again, the US government continues to put people all over the world in harms way for their own political greed.
Is there an evident polarisation of audience opinion in the US, compared to five or even two years ago? Both the Dixie Chicks and Jimmie Dale Gilmore came in for strong criticism for their anti-war statements. Given your own pro-peace stance, have you become an 'enemy'?
We just finished this college tour in the States with a very popular, though non-political, rock band called OAR (Of A Revolution). When we were on stage, we'd talk about the war, and it was the first time in a concert situation where I had people openly booing me for my views. After the first show this one kid said "I really dug your music but I don't like your liberal politics." I asked him if he would consider himself pro-environment and he said "Yeah". I asked if he was in support of a woman's right to choose (to have an abortion) and he said "Yeah". I asked if he was in support of universal health care and he said "Yeah". I said are you in support of each State being able to decide its own laws on legalising marijuana and he said "Dude, now you're talking!!". He had just agreed with the four main points of the Green Party. I said to him the only thing you don't want is the Federal Government reaching into your wallet at tax time, and he said "Yeah". I said that because he wanted lower taxes, like Bush proposes, you're willing to go along with this war and with all the devastation that it entails.
When you sit there and talk to kids and everyday Americans about life, and you break it down to them and express to them that the Republican Party is the party of multi-billionaires, who really don't have your interests at heart, they get the point. On this tour we spend a long time listening to kids and talking to veterans and young men and women who are about to go to Iraq. We do more listening than talking.
Are you a paranoid conspiracy theorist, one that might be putting yourself in harms way by vocalising your concerns?
I don't fear that, but we have been amongst many that have been under surveillance. One of our band members has a sister who is in the military, so when the tour started two military intelligence officers came to his mother's house and were asking questions about him, being outspoken against the war, and his sister, who was going over to Iraq. They had photos of us performing at an anti-war demonstration, as well as the names of everyone who worked at our management office. It gives you a spooky chill because, as a political person, you think that there's a file on you some where. When you realise that there is, it's really haunting.
Outside of the micro-political issues, what for you is the motivation in writing music? Do you see yourself as an entertainer with a political tinge, or as an artist, using your chosen medium to communicate a political message?
I know that we can never create a Utopia, where absolutely everyone has enough food and a place to live without the threat of war, but I know that it is possible for all of us on the planet to find ease of heart in a difficult world. That is why I make music. Music is how we are able get past some difficult emotions, in a healthy and positive way.
You have described music as a healing art, but can it equally be the opposite? Do you think that people, especially black people in America, can be negatively exploited by MTV-style corporate clich?s of youth culture - greed, violence, a hatred of women?
Rick Rubin once said that rap music was like professional wrestling. It's the same thing...you look at all the fears of being a teenager and you depict what they want (for most guys that's girls). So how do you get girls? Cars and money. How do you get cars and money? Well, if you can't afford them you have to be the baddest kid in the neighbourhood to get them. That's what rap music is all about on MTV. It frustrates me because there was a time in the late 1980s when we thought that rap music was going to unite people, was going to unite people of colour throughout the world. It was to be an uplifting revolution of the spirit through culture and consciousness, in the same way that reggae did that to music. But then it lost that path and now tries to uplift people through materialism. This ties in with the globalisation of all the major record labels. I feel sad about the way that rap and hip hop have gone.
On a musical level, what excites you at the moment? Do you have any non-musical idols who inspire you?
In the last five years or so I have fallen in love with the form of the pop song. I love songs, so it's not so much that there is one artist in particular that I am listening to, I just love those who have mastered the pop song structure. It could be anyone from Willie Nelson to Van Morrison to Kurt Cobain to Bob Marley to Outcast - people who have a real mastery of pop songs. Because I grew up listening to soul and reggae I never really was exposed to that much rock music. So it has only been recently that I have been listening to The Beatles, for instance.
Outside of music, the two people that inspire me the most are our merchandise sellers, Danny and Lori. A few years Lori was in a car accident and she is in a wheelchair now. Every day they travel on the bus, and every morning Danny picks Lori out of her bunk and puts her in her chair, takes her to the bathroom, puts her in the shower, and so on. They have so much love for each other. They are the ones who inspire me on a daily basis.
Do you like coming to Ireland?
We love it, really love it. In Ireland there is a history of music and song that speaks to the heart. Despite the whims of popular music today, I think it is still part of Irish culture to listen to songs that have meaning and that uplift the spirit. People really respond to the show and we fell lucky to be able to play there.
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