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Taken from Take5online (Mar 09, 2007)
Songs for Peace
Michael Franti and Spearhead play Peel
by Jedd Ferris, take5 correspondent
Michael Franti and Spearhead bring music
with a message to Asheville
for a sold-out show at The Orange Peel. |
Michael Franti’s musical tenure goes back to the mid-1980s when he started acts like The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, with hailed jazz guitarist Charlie Hunter. It wasn’t until 1994 that he formed his permanent outfit Spearhead, an amalgam of intelligent hip-hop and old-school soul.
Although a longtime urban poet and outspoken activist, last year Franti added filmmaker to his resume with the release of “I Know I’m Not Alone.” The documentary was culled from Franti’s 2004 trip to Iraq, Israel and the occupied territories of Palestine. Armed with only an acoustic guitar and a camera crew, the film finds him having casual interaction with regular people, trying to uncover the human cost of war. The experience also yielded Franti’s latest batch of songs for “Yell Fire!,” an alarmingly optimistic album that drops angry rhymes in favor of melodic calls for global peace.
Franti chatted from a tour stop in Texas, just ahead of his sold out appearance at The Orange Peel on Wednesday night.
Question: What did you set out to accomplish in making the film?
Answer: The first impulse just came out of curiosity. I would watch the nightly news intently, but I still felt like I wasn’t hearing the whole story of what was happening over there. Out of frustration, I decided to fly there and see it through my own eyes. I took my guitar, a video camera and some friends, and basically just busked on the street. I would then ask the people that came to watch me play about their lives, and they took me into their homes, cafes and schools.
Q: Were you surprised that an acoustic guitar could be such a peace conductor and a bridge between cultures?
A: It really restored my faith in the healing quality of music. I’ve made political music my whole life, and my goal through music is to always bring people together. It’s one thing when you’re playing in a club in front of 1,000 people, but it’s another when you pull people away from the front lines of a war zone. When you see that magic through the guitar, you realize music is more powerful than people usually give it credit for.
Q: I read that you were booed by people when you first returned from Iraq and shared your stories. Are people listening to you now that public opinion has changed on the war?
A: When I first came back the nation was still polling around 70 percent in favor of the war. Many people were still stuck in blind nationalism. To give you an example of how that’s changed: we’re doing a show in Austin, Tex., and the mayor has declared it Michael Franti Day in honor of the peace work that I’ve done. I never imagined that something like that would happen in Texas.
Q: Why do you think the experience helped bring out such a positive set of songs on your latest album “Yell Fire?”
A: That was something I wanted to do intentionally. I didn’t want to write 14 angry songs bashing the president. What I learned in the Middle East was that doesn’t bring us closer to creating peace. The way we get there is by not only expressing our own opinions about things, but also listening to the opinions of others and coming up with solutions that consider all sides. There’s a time to make angry songs, but there’s also a time make songs to bring people together.
Q: You’ve worn a lot of musical faces over the years. Have you settled into permanent comfort with the soulful style that’s come out of Spearhead’s latest work?
A: I don’t think so. I’m always doing new stuff. Lately I’ve been recording stuff that is pretty far out with lots of loud guitars and screaming into the microphone. But all of the songs that I’ve been writing have been birthed on the acoustic guitar. That’s the basic soul, and then by the time it hits the stage it will have a dancehall or rock rhythm. We like to do it all.
Q: Since the 2008 election mayhem has already started, do you have a candidate in mind that you think would be best for the country?
A: I don’t really have one in mind. I’m waiting to see what everyone has to say before I make a decision. I’m more interested in ideas than I am in candidates, and I’ve heard interesting ideas expressed on both sides of the aisle. I certainly want to see an end to an administration that can only provide military solutions to world problems. I’d like to see a candidate that looks at the world’s holistic health in terms of climate change and globalization. I’m waiting to see who speaks to that.
Jedd Ferris writes for take5. Email him at
jeddferris@gmail.com.
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