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Michael Franti puts the active in activist. In addition to a steady diet of touring, he plays countless benefits and free shows for everyone from Brazilian favela kids to US Iraq war veterans. He produces the annual Power to the Peaceful free music and arts festival in San Francisco, works with the organization Headcount to register US voters, and has his own FrantiV channel on YouTube. Since Spearhead’s last visit to Jericho Park in 2003, he has also become a filmmaker.
For his 2006 documentary, I Know I’m not Alone, he travelled to Iraq, Palestine and Israel to explore the human cost of war. As Franti says in the film, “This trip made me realize one very important thing, which is that I’m not on the side of the Americans, Iraqis, Israelis, or Palestinians. I’m on the side of the peacemakers…whichever country they come from.”
The film has been described as an antidote to despair, which is also an apt description of Franti’s music. Blending hip hop, dub, funk, reggae and rock, Spearhead (Carl Young on bass, Dave Shul on guitar, Manas Itiene on drums and Raliegh Neal on keys), mixes positive political messages with an upbeat party vibe. Franti says he has always seen music as a way to stir the soul and a vehicle for social change. “My role is as a storyteller and a songwriter. I’m somebody who is trying to keep the spirits of other people up, despite all the chaos and fear around us.”
