|
Taken from Times-Standard Online (Oct 04, 2011)
Michael Franti and Spearhead conclude tour with Santana
by Myles Cochrane /Tri-City Weekly
They said: “Hey, (We Love You).”
 Humboldt County's love for Bay-area-music-greats Michael Franti and Spearhead was recently proclaimed loud and clear when the group's show this coming Friday at Blue Lake Casino & Hotel appeared to sell out with more than a few weeks to go before the performance. Two thousand tickets went fast. Then, to the relief of 1,000 locals who thought the musician-ship had sailed, the casino just last week released a new grand-batch of tickets.
”We've been out on the road with Carlos Santana for six weeks and we just had two days at home in San Francisco where we live, so it feels great to be back in the Bay area,” Franti said in a telephone interview. “And we're excited to come up there.”
To contrast, Franti and his top-notch band blend the socially conscious and uplifting lyrics of hip-hop with reggae, rock and funk instrumentation, and it doesn't need to be explained that Santana is renowned for his Latin-tinged triumphs on the electric guitar. But similarly, both artists share an outlook on the power of music and they both consider the Bay area to be their home.
Looking back on their 19-show tour of Canada and the U.S., Franti was ecstatic that Santana made an effort to bond with him during their time together on the Sounds of Collective Consciousness Tour.
”We had a great experience,” Franti said. “Carlos is very generous with his time and with his energy. He's always believed in the power of music to shine into people's hearts and remind us all that we are important -- that we're worth something and that we have value to the world. Our talks were more about the philosophy of music, and we would share music backstage together. I'd play him something I was working (on) and he'd play me something he was working on. It was really amazing to be there in a room and see Carlos play a new song. I'd think: this might be the next 'Evil Ways' or 'Maria Maria'."
The two San Franciscans have been talking about getting together in November to write some songs.
”Hopefully that (collaboration) will come to be,” Franti said.
With hopes in mind, Franti's diverse Humboldt crowd will cross their fingers to hear older tracks like “Ganja Babe,” “People In Tha Middle,” “Oh My God,” “Rock the Nation,” “Everyone Deserves Music” and “Bomb the World” as well as newer hits like “Yell Fire!”, “Say Hey (I Love You),” “The Sound of Sunshine” -- the list goes on. That's the thing with a Michael Franti show -- no set list is long enough for a fan to leave without hearing a favorite.
And the artist has increasingly become the favorite of more and more folks worldwide. Franti has charted higher and higher on the Billboard Top 200 Albums Charts with his three latest studio releases: “Yell Fire” peaked at 125, “All Rebel Rockers” peaked at 37 and most recently “Sound of Sunshine” peaked at 17. With Billboard in mind, here's a good question: does his chart position matter to him?
"Well, those numbers you just told me are the first time I've heard 'em,” Franti laughed. “It doesn't really matter to me, you know. It's not something I follow on a daily basis. But the fact that more people know my music than ever before, I am so grateful for. We really see it at our shows -- when our audience comes out it's a very diverse group -- mainly diverse in its age. We have people who bring their kids who are 4-, 5- and 6-years-old and people in their 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s come to our show. We're really proud of that. And had it not been for the radio success that we've had in the last few years, I don't think our audience would have grown as exponentially as it has.”
Franti's long-lasting music career spans all the way back to late 1980s after he played basketball for the University of San Francisco.
”(Basketball was) my first love,” Franti said. “I love basketball, and I still play it. Growing up it was a way to channel youthful anxiety into something that was positive. It was fun, but by the time you get to college some of the fun goes away and a lot of the business starts to seep in. It's a big wake-up call for kids who are just coming out of high school and used to just having fun. Suddenly you're there, there's this coach and he has 12 18-, 19- and 20-year-old kids who he has to earn a living from and the pressure comes down pretty quick.”
With that anxiety and pressure in mind, Franti's first endeavors in music were more punk-influenced, political, edgy and frustrated -- the Beatnigs and Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy. It would be impossible to nail down the one event that changed Franti's focus to make his music more uplifting, but a certain lyric from “Love'll Set Me Free” off of Franti's 2001 album “Stay Human” comes to mind: “Hate is what got me here today, but I know that love, sweet love, is gonna set me free.”
It's a song inspired by Franti's meeting of boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, who was wrongly accused of murder and later acquitted after spending more than a decade-and-a-half in prison.
”That many years in prison for crimes he didn't commit and then to get out and still be a positive person -- that really affected me,” Franti said. “About that time was a real turning point for me, musically.”
”Music is something that's greatest power is its ability to open up and allow our heart to feel what it is that's inside of us,” Franti said. “For a long time I went the other way -- I tried to crack people's minds and plant ideas in there rather than open the heart and let whatever's in the heart come out. I think there's a time to do both now -- to inspire through songs about social issues but also to let the music, the dance and the melody inspire you in other ways.”
Franti sealed that philosophy when he was in Iraqi, Israeli and Palestinian territories in 2006 exploring not the monetary or economic, but the human cost of war. He found that people didn't want frustrated political songs -- their lives were filled with those frustrations every day. This was the inspiration behind his album “Yell Fire!” and the film “I Know I'm Not Alone.”
”They wanted to hear songs that made them laugh and dance, sing and clap,” Franti said. “To open their hearts up in times when you were vulnerable doing that.”
Franti's latest album, 2010's “The Sound of Sunshine” was inspired by his near-death experience with a ruptured appendix. What got him through the painful and emotional hospital stay were his friends, music and glimpses of the sun he'd get when parting the curtains of his hospital room. The newest release is also his band's return to Capital Records after Franti and Spearhead left the label in the late 1990s.
”The climate I experience today at Capital Records couldn't be more different than the way it was in the mid-90s,” Franti said. “People were putting out records and selling a million CDs in a week, and it's just not that way anymore. I really think that file sharing has helped music -- it's helped get more music into people's ears and iPods. And it's helped the record labels more about finding music that they love and not music that they think can sell billions of records. It's also helped the live-music world -- people today go to see more bands than ever before. They're more aware because they were able to get the music for free and become a fan.”
Franti will begin playing on Friday at around 8 p.m. with an acoustic set, then he and Spearhead will rock the night away until 11 p.m. under the stars on the outdoor stage at Blue Lake Casino. Be sure to head to the Players Club or call them (668-9770) to nab your tickets before they're all gone! Folks going to the show can bring their own camp chairs, picnic blankets and such.
”We're really excited to come up there!” Franti said. “The next night we have a big show in Berkeley where we're actually going to be shooting a live DVD, and also we're premiering a brand-new multimedia experience that includes video clips of songs we've been playing.”
After that, the group is heading to Europe. This is the wrong show to miss this year.
|
