|
Taken from California Chronicle (Jun 03, 2010)
Shoeless Franti here to sing: 'Say Hey (I Love You)'
by Tom Keyser, Times Union, Albany, N.Y.
 Jun. 3--Since Michael Franti played the Palace in late 2008 and Mountain Jam last summer, he has experienced exaltation and terror -- at the same time.
While on tour last August entertaining crowds with his first hit, the infectious dance tune "Say Hey (I Love You)," his appendix ruptured. He says his doctor told him it was one of the worst ruptures he had ever seen and could kill him.
"I was being wheeled into the hospital, and someone sent me a text, and it said, 'Your song has now reached the top 20,'?" Franti says. "I looked at the doctor as he was telling me how serious this was, and I said, 'I finally have a hit, and I'm never going to hear it on the radio.'?"
Surgery saved him, and the song reached No. 4 on the VH1 video countdown, cracked the Top 10 on the iTunes general chart and reached No. 1 on the iTunes alternative chart and stayed there for months. On Sunday, Franti and his band Spearhead will perform at Mountain Jam, the three-day music festival at Hunter Mountain, for the fourth time. Franti will be barefoot.
For the past 10 years he has worn shoes only when he has to. He says he owns one pair of basketball shoes, one pair of snowboarding boots and a couple of pairs of flip flops.
"I was playing music on the streets of countries where people couldn't afford shoes," he says. "And so, I would try to walk around with kids who were barefoot, and I couldn't even take three steps.
"So when I got home from one of these trips I decided I was going to go three days without shoes. And it's turned into 10 years now. Part of it is solidarity with people who can't afford it, but most of it is just that I love to walk on the Earth."
An engaging, soft-spoken advocate for peace, social justice and the environment, Franti founded the Power to the Peaceful festival in his hometown of San Francisco. It attracts 50,000 musicians, artists, fans and activists who contemplate, he says, "what we can do to serve the planet and make the world a better place."
He says the stage runs on biodiesel and solar energy, that all the plates and utensils are "compostable," that his band's tour bus also runs on biodiesel, and that he insists that venues he plays have recycling. His family decided five years ago to quit using plastic bags.
He wrote songs for the band's 2008 album "All Rebel Rockers" and its forthcoming album, "The Sound of Sunshine," to lift people's spirits, he says. The new album is due out late this summer, preceded by its first singles, "Shake It," released last month, and the title track, to be released Tuesday.
"Right now there's the oil spill, and there's the economy," he says. "There's all these pressing political issues, and on top of it we have two wars going on. It's really easy to become cynical and be like, 'Ah, I'm just going check out. All the politicians suck. There's no point in trying to do anything.' "
He says he's looking forward to returning to Mountain Jam. He will play two sets -- one solo, one with his band.
"My favorite part of Mountain Jam is that it's a family festival, meaning that people are there with their 2-, 3-, 4-, 5-year-old kids," he says. "Teenagers come. You get people in their 50s and 60s.
"And it's such a beautiful setting. You look up that hill, and you see so many people all the way up to the top of the trees. It doesn't matter if it's raining or sunny, it's always such a great environment for hearing music."
His music especially suits a festival, he says.
"We make our music to be music you can dance to and sing along to," he says. "It's really music to be appreciated in a social setting."
Tom Keyser can be reached at 454-5448 or by e-mail at tkeyser@timesunion.com.
|
