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Taken from Relix Media (Sep 06, 2022)
The Core: Michael Franti
The spiritually driven Spearhead leader works through a particularly trying period on his new set, Follow Your Heart
by Mike Greenhaus
Michael Franti. Photo Credit: Vandi Angga |
All in on Soulshine
We spent the pandemic in Bali, where we have our resort. We opened the Soulshine Bali Resort in 2005-our goal was to become the first music and wellness hotel. At first, we had five rooms and a yoga studio but, eventually, we needed to expand. We were out there when [the pandemic hit] and, when things started to die down, we only had a little bit of savings and we had to make a decision: "Do we shutter the doors or go all in and hope the pandemic finishes before we run out of money?" We decided to go all in, and we ended up living in Bali full time-we started building 18 new rooms, new restaurants, new yoga studios and a music studio.
We've always wanted to live in Bali-my three year old goes to school there now, and we have been able to stay there and work remotely. We are just about to reopen with this new music venue that holds 700 people. We are going to start doing shows and retreats at Soulshine; artists can host their own events there and have their fans show up. We also have our own organic farm. And I've enjoyed being in nature and doing some things that-after having spent half of my year on a tour bus for the last 30 years- I'm usually unable to do. Carl Young, my bass player, even came out to Bali and we scored a film. So there was a lot of time to just work and be creative during the past two years.
A Broad Spectrum of Emotions
I've gone through such a broad spectrum of emotions recently and the best way for me to deal with all of that has always been to write about what I am feeling. It is a catharsis for me-and it is also how I come up with my best songs. So I put everything that I've been going through during the past few years into Follow Your Heart.
But, while I really enjoyed being able to spend all this extra time with my family, my middle child still needed a liver transplant during all of this. And my father passed away last April. He had COVID for several months. He was old but the unfortunate part was that we weren't able to have the funeral in person-we had to have a Zoom funeral instead.
I was pretty lonely during that time. I didn't know my father until I was 22 years old so there were a lot of things in our relationship over the years that I didn't get to really experience. So my way of grieving was to do everything that I didn't get to do with him with my three year old. We'd go out and collect sticks, play with them in the mud and in the creek, sharpen them and use them to roast marshmallows or a pineapple. Then, we'd turn them into fire. My son would be like, "Why are you crying dad?" And I'd say, "Because this is something I never got to do with my dad." So all of these emotions and experiences found their way into this music.
The song "People Need People" is one that I wrote for my dad. After he passed away last year, we did our first show back at [Morrison, Colo.'s] Red Rocks. I walked out on the stage, after having not been around other people very much during the pandemic while we were quarantining. And I was blown away by the energy of 10,000 people in the same place at the same time. I realized that we needed each other. People really need to look into the eyes of a stranger-people need to be close with their family. It is part of who we are.
Undercover Phish Heads
Most of the songs on Follow Your Heart were written after we toured last year. We had just released Work Hard & Be Nice and were getting that wrapped up. At the end of the tour, I spent some time in San Francisco and LA working with this great producer and writer named Greg Hvnsen. We got on a roll together and we collaborated on most of the record. Greg is unique in that he's a total Phish Head; he learned to play guitar so he could play on Phish records. But, as a producer, he's mainly worked on hip-hop music and rap music for up-and[1]coming artists. And then he also delves into all this noise-pop- songs that are a minute-and[1]a-half long and full of all these strange noises.
We just did a few shows together. He's equally at home doing a twenty-minute jam- with me playing acoustic guitar and stomp box and him playing lead guitar-as he is producing a two-minute hip-hop song. But I didn't know that at first. He had torn a ligament in his finger and couldn't play guitar when we first met. He was trying to play something and I was like, "Um, maybe I should play that" and he was like, "Actually, playing guitar is kind of my thing" and that led to this conversation.
Stories that Make You Dance
I worked on a lot of Follow Your Heart with Chris Stevens, who also worked with me on Work Hard & Be Nice. Like Greg, he's an interesting guy. He's from Eugene, Ore., and was inspired by the Dead but, at the same time, he's into R&B and funk from the '80s. He eventually found his way to Nashville and has been working as a country producer. I love artists who can tell a story and also make you dance-and that is what I hope to do with all my music.
Chris and I wrote a lot of the record together. I used to be afraid of writing with other people-I thought that writing with other people would make my songs less personal. But, I've actually found it to be the opposite. When I get stuck, I turn to my collaborators; they will help come up with three or four different ways to get the words to where they need to be. It's faster and more on the mark. Musically, I've found the same thing to be true. When I work with other people, they are often able to find these different expressions in the music that I am not able to, and I always feel a deep sense of gratitude and relief. It's just way better; it doesn't make a song less personal.
Conversations With Other People
[2019's] Stay Human Vol. 2 was the record where I really started working with other writers. And there is a scene in the Stay Human film where I burst into tears because my middle child needed a new kidney. This was already a number of years ago and they only got a new kidney seven weeks ago, which tells you how long they have been waiting. So I was going through a rough time.
I was in the studio working with Niko Moon and Ben Simonetti and they were like, "Do you need to take a day off?" And I said, "No, I want to write about this" and we came up with "Nobody Cries Alone." All of these songs come from conversations I'll have with other people, discussions about what your place in the world is.
Carl also worked on making a lot of the record with me-he's been in the band the longest-but, at this point, I have a lot of different people working with me in the studio [besides the live Spearhead band]. The live experience is just a different entity. Some artists enjoy spending 18 hours in the studio working on a snare drum take; some don't. [Laughs.] I happen to be someone who does. I love the studio experience but it is not for everyone.
Don't Give Up
I was in a dark place when I wrote "Brighter Days." The lyrics go, "Don't give up when your heart is weary/ Don't give up when your eyes are teary/ Don't give up when your voice is trembling/ When your life needs mending."
My dad had just died; my child needed a liver transplant; I didn't know how much longer we were going to be able to pay the bills. But I kept telling myself: "Don't give up. Don't let it take you down."
I have had several friends commit suicide during the past few years. It was all very unexpected. These are people who I never thought would take their own lives. They just went into these dark places. We all go there sometimes; life feels so overwhelming. That song was a reminder that we need to keep fighting for a brighter day for those around me.
Also, since coming back, our live shows have felt sweeter. In fact, everything has felt sweeter-our interactions with the audience, the interactions between audience members, the joy of performing live, that sense of elation. It feels so good when the music drops at the right time. You are totally in the moment-and you are sharing that moment with people that you don't know. In the past, [there was something special] about having this experience with people that you didn't know, where you didn't know what they were going through in their lives. But now it is different because you do kind of know what they are going through. We have all been through this thing together and there is a sense of healing and joy in that.
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