Musician, poet, humanitarian, Bono fan; these are just some of the strings to Michael Franti’s bow.
The multi-talented Californian and his band will make a return to Bluesfest next month, as well as playing a sideshow at The Tivoli. “It's our first time to Australia in three years, and we're super excited to come back,” he says.
“This is actually our twentieth year playing music together; we started in '94. It kind of crept up on us; one day around Christmas I was sitting around with Carl [Young, bass] and I said 'Carl, when did we start?' We realised it was August '94. We feel more excited about playing music than we ever have, and it's just really great to be in a band with these guys.
“We never decide what we're going to play until about 15 minutes before we go on stage; we always mix it up every night. There are some songs people want to hear, so we try to play those, and we'll go through the catalogue and revisit songs we haven't played in a while. Sometimes we'll play cover songs and sometimes loud party music that will get people up and jumping around at a festival. We love the festival setting and we're looking forward to coming back.”
The upcoming gigs will give Australian fans the first chance to hear songs from Spearhead's 2013 album, ‘All People’, live as well as getting an advance on tunes that will appear on the as yet untitled follow-up. “The songs were all written while we were touring and we've tried them out in front of audiences, so they've all be road-tested, so to speak,” Franti says.
“It's great when you can write a song in the morning, play it to fans in the afternoon and get their response to it. This record is a mix of acoustic music, political songs, roots and maybe more love songs than I've ever put on a record. We always have new songs ready for a record, and as soon as I finish writing them I like to play them; so there are a few new songs we might pull out. It'll probably be another year before we release another record, but we've already been in the studio writing this stuff. The last two records had about a two year gap in between, but I don't think it will be that long this time.”
Known for his political and humanitarian stances in the past, Franti has changed his approach somewhat in recent times. “My original band put out our first record in 1987,” he says. “I think a lot of us who have been involved in doing political work and political songwriting for a long time don't know if any of the songs we ever wrote really made a difference to the world, and it's easy to get frustrated. Right now I'm working on a documentary film about people I've met who have really inspired me and made me see the world and the work I do in a different way. Instead of trying to put out the whole world that's on fire with this little water pistol that I have, I've learned how to use the water pistol to sprinkle the flowers in my own backyard and have a bigger impact. Lately, I've been writing about that more than specific political things; it's about tenacity, courage and creating harmony in your life.”
Franti got his first major break when a certain rock four-piece with a similar approach to political and social issues took his then band on tour in 1992. “It was really amazing. We had a minor league hit at the time and U2 saw the video for it, and they invited us to come out on the road. We went from being a little band playing in punk rock and hip hop clubs and driving around in a tiny white van, to playing Yankee Stadium and all these massive venues.
“I was a fan of U2's music at the time but I wasn't that familiar with the guys in the band, and I remember the first week Bono came up to me and says [adopts Irish accent] 'can I have a quiet word wit' ya? There's this one thing I need to talk to ya about'. I was worried and thought we were getting kicked off the tour, but he said 'you know my guitar player? His name is The Edge, not Ed'. I had been saying things like 'yo Ed, nice guitar solo! Yo Ed, nice hat! Yo Ed, you coming to the party later?' I guess The Edge had gone to Bono and asked him to have a word. We've toured with tons of bands, and they're right up there among our top experiences in terms of being treated well by the headliner. They always made sure we had enough time and space to set up our gear and sound check, and they always hung out with us. Whether we wanted to talk about music, religion or business things, Bono was always really amenable to having a conversation about anything; it was a really good experience for us.”
Michael Franti & Spearhead play Byron Bay Bluesfest April 21 and The Tivoli April 23.
