"I Never Endorse Political Candidates But I Do Endorse Political Ideas"

"Especially in light of the current political climate in America, music can work as a balm when at times it gets super painful," Michael Franti states. "It is also like fire at other times when we really need to get out and raise our voices."

Michael Franti has started a lot of fires. Before the 1994 album Home established Spearhead on the frontier of socially conscious black music, Franti walked onto the San Franciscan scene with The Beatnigs. Resembling an avant-garde jazz collective, the band combined aspects of hardcore punk, hip hop and industrial noise — traits Franti would refine in The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy alongside producer Rono Tse. Together Franti and Tse stabbed at racism, misogyny, homophobia and mass media with their 1992 debut Hypocrisy Is The Greatest Luxury. Despite the release's critical success, and a follow-up album featuring William S Burroughs, their tenure was short lived. In '94 Franti formed Spearhead, moving closer to roots-down rap and alternative rock.

"What I have found is that when I was doing music at that time there was the same group of angry young men showing up who were ready to pound their fists, and they already believed in the things that I said."

It isn't just his sound that's changed over the years. Although Franti's message and purpose are still clear in his music, the delivery has evolved. "What I have found is that when I was doing music at that time there was the same group of angry young men showing up who were ready to pound their fists, and they already believed in the things that I said. I find it much more challenging to try to reach people who don't, or those who are on the fence, and that's why I don't endorse political candidates, I want people to find their own way to whatever it is that they believe in.

"I never endorse political candidates but I do endorse political ideas," he continues. "Everyone should be happy, healthy and equal... it will be hard for someone to be happy if they don't have jobs or decent schools, or if there's intense policing in a neighbourhood that is unjust. And it's hard for people to be healthy if they don't have adequate healthcare and opportunities to thrive and be physically fit on their own, and if people don't have laws on the books that create equality. So I try to just keep presenting that message over and over again to people in the most humorous and compassionate way that I can, in the hope that people will come up with their own decisions about who best to vote for."

Its a more tempered approach, but it can be very effective — and Franti has discovered that aggressively communicated messages, however well-intentioned, can be misplaced. In 2005 Spearhead played Folsom State Prison, and Franti learnt that prisoners don't want to hear protest songs about how useless the prison system is - they already know. He had a similar reaction in Iraq.

"When I was in Iraq in 2004, I thought Iraqi civilians on the street would wanna hear songs like 'fuck the war, fuck bombing', and they were like, 'how dare you sing songs like that to us when your nation is bombing us'. They said, 'we wanna hear songs that make us laugh and dance and cry and sing and move through this time that we're in'. So, music works on both levels. There is a time to rage against the machine and there is also a time to help people move through their sadness and into the light."

Spearhead's new album Soulrocker works toward the latter. It was recorded in Jamaica and produced by Supa Dups [Dwayne Chin-Quee] and Di Genius [Stephen McGregor], son of reggae legend Freddie McGregor, and speaks to a troubled world. "My message stays the same wherever I go, you know, it's written into the songs. And I believe in compassion and I believe in the people in the planet that we can get through any challenges that we face. With so much anxiety people have about the election, this new record really speaks to what's happening in the state of the world right now. It's been a really good experience just being out on the road and trying to bring some musical therapy to the craziness that we're living in right now."