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Taken from WestWord Backbeat (Nov 19/26, 2010)
Michael Franti on touring with John Mayer, social justice through music and more
by Amber Taufen
Michael Franti -- due at an in-store Friday's evening at Independent Records from 4- 6 p.m. and headlining the Harvest Ball at Broomfield's 1STBANK Center -- is known for his social activism through his music. He started off as a rapper, spitting aware (and angry) rhymes in his early years, before moving into what he calls "rebel rock," a sort of fusion of folk, pop, hip-hop and whatever else is influencing him at the time. As his popularity has grown, he's been drawing larger crowds, touring with John Mayer earlier this year and headlining Red Rocks this summer. We caught up with him to ask about that tour with Mayer, issues close to his heart and where he sees his music going next.
Westword: What was it like touring with John Mayer?
Michael Franti: John's got, first of all, a big crowd. We were playing in huge basketball and hockey arenas the whole tour, but he also has kind of a unique crowd in that there are some people there because they want to see John the guitar god, and others are there because they want to hear his beautiful, eloquent songs, and other people are there because they saw him on the front cover of the National Enquirer.
It's kind of a unique audience. We were writing a new album at the time (The Sound of Sunshine), so every night we'd go on stage, and we would play these new songs that we were writing, and then we'd watch the crowd respond to them, and we had our portable recording studio with us on tour. So while John was playing his set, we'd go back in and re-record the songs based on the reaction of the audience. We pretty much recorded 90 percent of the record on tour.
What do you think has been the biggest change in your life, musically, over the past five years?
The biggest transformation for me has been going from somebody who, first of all, didn't know how to play any instruments at all and was just rapping and using drum machines and samplers, and writing very political, angry, social-commentary songs, to somebody who learned to play the guitar and learned the language of music and melody.
And I have grown in that I don't want to just write songs about the problems of the world, I want to be involved in helping where I can to make things better. And I found that oftentimes you do that through happy music, not necessarily through angry music, but making music that inspires people to get through difficult times, and rather than write songs about the way things are, I do get involved in issues personally outside of music.
What issues are particularly close to your heart?
In the past ten years, I've been involved in the war in Iraq and went and played music in the streets of Baghdad. I made a film of my time there; I took my guitar and my video camera. I'd heard from generals and politicians about the economic and political costs of war, but never seen the human costs of war, so I just went and played for Iraqi families and talked to them about their life and U.S. soldiers.
I thought I'd come back and write a dozen angry songs speaking out about war. And people would say to me while I was there that they didn't want to hear songs about war, they wanted to hear songs that would make them laugh and dance and sing. So I came back and wrote songs that try to inspire people. I work with a lot of different veterans' groups now, and I still work to support Iraqi families.
Where do you see your music going over the next ten years?
Well, I'm in love with pop form, you know. Three minute pop song. Verse, chorus, verse, bridge, another chorus and an outro, you know? And I love storytelling, so I'm constantly writing about things that have happened in my life, experiences I've had. My music has always drawn from a lot of different influences stylistically, so I'll continue to keep making music, traveling to different countries, learning more about life and about music.
But I'm also a yogi. And that's a big part of my life, and the person that I am today. I started off practicing yoga just to deal with stress, trying to figure out is there a way I can calm my mind down and become more at peace with myself and the world, I had tried meditation but had such a hard time just sitting, and someone said, yogis practice yoga so that they can get their bodies open and sit more comfortably.
WW: How long have you been practicing yoga?
MF: I started in the fall of 2001, so nine years now.
WW: Are there particular styles or disciplines that you prefer?
MF: I like flowy Vinyasa yoga classes. I practiced Ashtanga yoga for a couple of years exclusively, but I prefer something that's not a set pattern, so I can listen to my body. Sometimes there are some parts of my body that need more attention than others. I'm opening a yoga retreat center in Bali in December.
WW: What do you feel yoga brings to your life?
MF: The first thing that it brings is the ability to cope with discomforts. And what I mean by that is, when I practice, we put ourselves in very difficult and, I guess, maybe not difficult but challenging positions that give your body a lot of sensation, and we learn to breathe through that and come out the other side. And so that's the main thing. The ability in my life when things get rough to be able to breathe, slow down, quiet the judgmental voice in my mind and move on to what's next.
WW: Have you been involved with the Harvest Ball since its beginning?
MF: Yes. It's a ball, a harvest festival that we started in San Francisco probably about eight years ago. Which is kind of an event that we would do to commemorate the end of the harvest season. And we always had fans who were like, "Man, it would be great if we could bring our kids to a show, but we can't, and not only can we not bring our kids, but we can't go because we don't have a babysitter." So we decided that we wanted to do an event that would also have a family matinee added so people could bring their kids. Because it's a harvest thing, it's a time that we are in appreciation of nature, and so we always have a sort of environmental theme to it, puppet shows that teach kids about recycling and all kinds of environmental games and stuff that we play, and a recycled costumes that are made out of recycled things, a costume contest. And at night, we have a great adult show. And that's basically what it is. And this year we're incorporating yoga into it, too.
WW: What can people expect from the yoga portion of the day?
MF: I'm going to be playing music, we'll be playing acoustically, and several different teachers from CorePower in the Denver/Boulder area are going to be leading the asanas.
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