Music For The People

It's a heady life, that of a musician. Michael Franti and his band, Spearhead, recently wrapped up the final shows of an extensive American tour and, although that would be a decent excuse for a break, not much about Franti's work ethic suggests that the band will be resting on their laurels any time soon.

Having played in small cities and large for the best part of five months last year,  it's the chance to play the smaller gigs that gives Franti the most enjoyment. “When you play in one of the smaller cities like Port Chester, New York [population: 29,000], the people are so appreciative. They don't have gigs here seven nights a week like they do in, say, New York City, so they come out with such enthusiasm and energy.”

After two decades of performing to audiences around the world, Franti is more than happy to share that energy. All across the band's eighth studio record, the part-party/part-acoustic All People, Franti's enthusiasm is obvious. “We love this record; it's great to be out on the road playing it. Fans love it too and people know all the words already. 

“The other thing is that, we've been together for so long, we have an intuition that we share as a band. All it takes is a glance from me to our drummer to take the song in another direction, and we always change our setlist every night. Otherwise it gets stale for us, and if it's stale for us, it's stale for the audience.”

Those holidaying in Bali over the Christmas period might have seen a poster or two with Franti's name on it; for the Soulshine Festival in Bali, in late December. A family-friendly festival that supports the Green School Bali – an environmental school that teaches children of all ages – it's obviously a passion project for Franti, who first set it up years ago. “As well as the Green School – it's also to raise funds for the Bumi Sehat clinic, which is a birthing clinic in Ubud that I've been supporting over the last five years,” he continues. “The first time I went to Bali I met the woman who runs it, and in 2011 she was named CNN's International Hero Of The Year. It's a great cause.”

But one would think a trip to Bali wouldn't be complete without some serious R&R. “I opened a yoga hotel there three years ago so I go and spend about a month there,” Franti elaborates. “We just eat coconuts, swim, surf and practice yoga for a month; that's what we do to escape the San Francisco winter. The whole band comes; we sort of take over the hotel. Everybody brings their kids and wives, and we make it a big Spearhead family experience.”

With Australian audiences gearing up to see Michael Franti & Spearhead play at Bluesfest, it's hard to tell who will be more excited – Franti or his fans. “The music industry is up and down and it's hard to have a career that endures,” he acknowledges. “So we just feel grateful and thankful that the people of Australia are happy to come out and support us.

“I think it's our sixth or seventh time [playing Bluesfest]. We're really excited about it. I always mark places on our tour schedule that we're really excited about going to with a big red heart, and this is one of them. Everyone's already talking about how excited they are about heading back to Byron Bay.”

When Franti was just starting out, the opportunities to connect with his fans were limited. Email was in its infancy; YouTube, Facebook – hell, even Napster and MySpace – were still years away. Rather than fend new technologies off, Franti has embraced these as tools to reach his audience. “The internet has been a godsend for us as musicians. A lot of people in the music industry have been resistant to the change, but we've always looked at it as a great opportunity to get as many people to hear our stuff as possible. It's been the greatest thing to also keep in contact with our fans. Before they used to write snail-mail letters; we'd get 100 and I'd respond to ten. Then email came along and we'd get thousands in a year and I'd get to write maybe a hundred back. Now with Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, you can reach hundreds of thousands of fans throughout the day.”