April 2, 2024 • 26 mins
Michael Franti and Spearhead are touring in support of their Big Big Love album. Franti spoke with Keys Weekly digital editor Gwen Filosa about 30 years in the music business, spirituality and why he got off Instagram.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Key West Sidetracks, the podcast. I'm Gwen Filosa.
I'm digital editor at the Keys Weekly newspapers. And my
guest today for this episode is Michael Franti. Yes, Michael
Franti and Spearhead, they'll be here in Key West at
the Coffee Butler amphitheater on Friday, April 12th. And here's
(00:21):
uh our interview, he called me from Bali recently and
we had a great conversation and I hope you like it.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Hey, it's Michael Franti here.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Well, thank you for taking the time. I'm gonna jump
right in uh Big, big Love. I think you were
always destined to have an album called Big Big Love.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
I think so too. Um You know what that means
to me is
Big Love is like when you are able to
love your family, your friends, your romantic partners and
when you're able to do all that, that's, that's huge,
(01:02):
takes incredible,
um you know, focus and effort and diligence and showing
up and, and forgiveness and healing and trying again to,
just to, just to do that.
And then there's this love that goes out across borders
(01:23):
and religion and gender and sexuality and
ethnicity out into the world and, and um
and that's big, big love, that's like huge and, and
that's even harder to do. Um, and
yeah, both of them are really super important and we
(01:44):
striving for and trying to show up for it, you know,
and
this record is, is kind of about my, trying to
do both and the ways that I succeed and the
ways that I have not succeeded at it. And, um,
but it's more of a, um,
value than it is a uh something that um
(02:05):
yeah, perfect.
Something I'm striving for.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Yeah. And I wanted to just, first of all, congratulations
on everything. I mean, a 30 year career and uh
a lot of success. Did you, did you see that
or did you, did you ever envision yourself with that
type of material success when you were starting out in
experimental hip hop or coming up? I mean, what were,
what were your goals then? And what, what do you
(02:30):
see now as far as goals?
Speaker 2 (02:33):
You know, when I first started in music, my goal
was just, was, was two, there were two things. First
was like just expressing my frustration about
not understanding my role in the world. I grew up
in an alcoholic family um and
(02:55):
didn't have a super happy childhood. And so when I
first started in, in punk rock and hip hop, it
was just expressing rage and not really understanding where it
came from.
And then as I grew and evolved my music started
to take on more of a personal introspective look at
(03:20):
who I am in the ways I'm that I'm showing up.
And um one of those things for me has been
my
adoption. I was, I was
um given up for adoption at uh at birth. And,
and so I've always felt like this sense of
(03:42):
not um being loved
and not fitting in with the family I was raised
in or the community I was raised in
and loneliness
um that comes from that. And so the other part
of it like in music is, is like and seeking
out
(04:03):
um
people clapping for you and people appreciating your song, you know,
and so
there's been like this
balance that or, or sometimes it's out of balance of
like really writing deep intimate things about who I am
in my life and my journey.
And then
(04:24):
at the same time wanting to really be appreciated and,
and um acknowledged for
um for music and, and for me, it's been, it's
been AAA journey that after 30 years, I'm finally starting
to like unravel like, what, what does that mean? And
how do, how do I show up for those two things?
(04:45):
And are they even really healthy for me? You know.
Um
And at the same time,
uh I see how people have gravitated to my music
because of that telling of that story. And I think
that that's really great, you know, and, and people get
something from it that resonates with their life and, and
(05:08):
similar feelings that they have.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Yeah. And the, your music, obviously it's very positive. There's
something about music that connection that we, we have me
as an audience member or fan. If you will, that connection,
it's so personal. And, um, I'm wondering,
uh, how have you learned to, to deal with fans
(05:32):
and people showering you with, with attention or affection? I mean, obviously,
you know, sometimes it's great, but I think, uh I
relate a lot of growing up feeling like you don't
fit in and not having a lot of tools to
negotiate the world. And you're, you've been a superstar for
a while,
Speaker 2 (05:51):
you know. Um The main thing is that,
uh first of all, we have incredible fans who are
not like
j
um wanting to find their, they're there because they feel
something and they resonate something and that feels that part
(06:15):
of it feels really good to me. Like when I
bear my soul in the song, um like, I, I
have this song that we just put out a video
for called Lost but not Alone. And it's about exactly
these things that we're talking about right now. It's like
this feeling of
incredible isolation. Even when I'm in groups of people, sometimes
I feel really lonely
(06:35):
and then I would go into the world and I,
I realized that there's other people who share the same
feelings that I do of that isolation and lone, loneliness
and concern for the world and concern for their own
um uh
connection of, of being able to find their soul and
(06:57):
listen to their soul. Um And,
and then I realized I'm not alone and that I'm
comforted by the fact that there are millions of weirdos
out there in the world just like me, you know. So, yeah,
thank God. So that, that part of it feels really good.
(07:19):
Um
But as an adult now, you know, and as a,
you know, ha ha having done this for three decades,
I'm finally, you know, just looking at
WW what is it, what has driven me? You know,
I remember um when I was,
I put out our first record with the disposable Heroes
(07:39):
and I had this song called Television, The Drug of
the Nation. And you two heard the song and they
used it the video to open their Zoo TV tour.
That was their walkout. And so then they invited me
to come out on tour with them. So I did
about 35 shows opening for you too. And I remember
Bono saying to me one time he goes Michael, I
(08:00):
am so insecure
because I was talking to him about stage confidence. I
was like, I walk out on stage and there's,
you know, there's 5000 people in this
arena that holds 50,000,
you know, and I feel so
scared, you know,
(08:21):
and um he said to me, he goes, I feel
that same way every night too. And he goes,
and I am so insecure that I need 50,000 people
to tell me that they love me every night just
so I can go to sleep. And I was like, well,
like my gut just stunk I go. Is, is that
why I'm doing it? You know, like this is what
(08:43):
I signed up for. I was just saying, I also
appreciated how honest he was and how real he was. And,
you know, a lot of times,
you know, I, I've studied my favorite artist, you know,
like I've studied um, Bob Marley and I've studied Johnny
Cash and I've studied Marvin Gaye and,
(09:04):
and I've heard why it is that they, um their
childhood led them down the path that they did to
but,
you know, want to seek out that attention but also
wanna do things that made the world a better place.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Correct. Correct. I think it's a good sign when people
of any caliber or any, any stage of, you know,
success or are a little nervous. I think that's normal.
You want to do good.
I, I have to ask, what is your news diet
as the kids call it? Uh What, where do you
get your news? Where do you get, um, are you
a social media? I know you're on there for your,
(09:45):
for the band. But are you ever like up on
Facebook looking up people, you went to high school with or,
Speaker 2 (09:52):
you know what? Um, I gave up Facebook about 15
years ago. I stopped looking at it at all. Happiness.
Yeah. And it's 15. Yeah, maybe like, 12 years ago I,
I stopped looking at it at all and then,
um, I haven't made a
(10:12):
Twitter Post in probably, like, seven years and I haven't
looked at Twitter in seven years
and I was only using Instagram, which is, I have
a love hate relationship with like I actually really enjoy it.
I enjoy seeing what people are doing in their lives,
especially my friends and,
and people that I care about. I love
(10:34):
seeing what other artists are doing and the music that
they're making. And um
but I'm also somebody who's super addicted to just the
dopamine of doom scrawling. And so five days ago, I
just told my wife,
I said so I just
(10:55):
deleted Instagram from my phone
and she was like, what? And I said, yeah, I
just got so tired of it.
I, I thought I and I got what I got
tired of was like, I can't go to the bathroom
without spending five extra minutes sitting on the toilet looking
for incident. I can't be on a Zoom call with
(11:16):
somebody and not be
on the, you know, scrolling through Instagram pa I'm like,
you know, it's like I would open my phone and
my finger would naturally like
just go to that button. And when I, when I
deleted it, there was like a hole on the page
there where it once was and my, the thumb would
(11:38):
go to that hole and be hitting on that hole.
Like when I'd open up my thumb and I found
in these five days, like it to be just incredibly liberating,
you know, and I thought, like, you know, maybe I'll
feel out of touch in some ways. But
my focus for all the other things that I'm doing
(12:00):
has been so
much more um available. I I just such greater access
to my focus without it. So I don't know if
I'm gonna stay off it forever. And just, I, I've
actually been making more content not being on it. And
I'm sending that content to someone to, to um to
post for me uh
(12:23):
than when I wasn't
on Instagram. It's like less time on Instagram has made
more space to make more content. So,
Speaker 1 (12:32):
yeah, and, and full disclosure, I, I make my living
on being on social media. I've seen it used for
good when it is extraordinary connection and uh but it,
I have some cope, let's just say I have some
coping mechanism skills to, to deal with uh
you know, that that's what it's built for, for us
to be on it and, and such. But do you
get news from? I know you're a big, I know
(12:54):
you were reading the nation back when it was a
newspaper type newsprint. That's when I was starting to, and,
and is that what, what, what sources, what's your go
to source if you wanna see? Um, you know, what
Speaker 2 (13:06):
I try to do is I try to follow news
stories through multiple sources, you know, like,
yeah, I'll get the nation. I, I listen to Amy
Goodman with democracy now. I,
um, and then I'll go to CNN and see, like,
how is CNN reporting this And every now and then
I'll just drop in on Fox and how is Fox
(13:27):
reporting this? And,
um, and then I'll see in social media, how is,
how are independent people who are just expressing their opinion, um,
talking about it, you know, and so I look at,
look at multiple things and,
and try to see how these issues are showing up
(13:49):
in those ways.
No, it's, it's,
again, it's, it's like a love hate thing for me
because I've been a news junkie
for, you know, basically my entire adult life and,
um,
you know, during the past five years of,
(14:12):
um,
how fake news has become so huge and how
everyone who now has a phone. II, I used to
really love that. I used to dream of that day, like,
don't just hate the media become the media, but now
everybody is the media and
it's really easy for people to just go on there
(14:34):
and say whatever version of
that, you know, that, that they want to do that
fulfills their own ideals and needs and, and,
um,
and it's, it's manipulative
and I don't like it.
And, um,
(14:55):
something that I, uh especially during COVID, I, I've noticed that,
you know, a lot of my friends who were,
uh who we would sit around in our are not
necessarily be conspiratorial but the, um
I would say in a healthy way,
(15:16):
um questioning everything that we see then start to believe
these rabbit holes of conspiracy that are just so out
there that I'm like,
bro, come back, come back, you know, you're not questioning anymore, you're,
you're believing this, this crazy rabbit hole. So
Speaker 1 (15:40):
I relate, I relate because I'm at the point, Michael
where I, I don't, I just don't know anymore. Maybe
the world is flat. I'm just in a place of
like people can believe what they want. But I, I'm
just like, maybe, maybe I'm wrong about everything. But uh
I'm half kidding.
But I mean, it's just, there's so much going on.
I i it's a terrifying world. I think it's always
(16:02):
been kind of terrifying. That's my opinion. But, but I
wanted to ask you about spirituality and how it's changed
or what your concept of a God power greater and
how that's, you know, you went through some loss, terrible
loss with your father during the COVID and, and you've
gone through a lot personally. Um How, how did
(16:25):
spirituality, what's your spiritual diet as a kid student?
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Thanks for asking that because it's been something that's been
really uh at the forefront for me,
I hurt my ankle last year. Um It's been uh
since
January of last year
and I've been nursing this ankle injury and, and it's
(16:51):
led me to
walk. So every morning I get up and I walk
five miles
and a on my walk,
it starts off by just listening to because I live
in the jungle out here in Bali. I used to
listen to the jungle. I listen to birds, listen to frogs,
listen to the crickets. And I, I noticed,
(17:13):
you know, the, the trees and we have a beautiful
organic garden and rice fields here and I, I'll go
spend some time there and see what's popping up there and,
and um, I catch the sunrise a lot of mornings
and on my walk and then
I'll start to listen to some music. Um, and then
some podcasts
and then I'll take my, um,
(17:38):
your buds out and I'll, I'll have a conversation with
somebody who I'm walking with that day. I sometimes I
invite different people to walk and talk or sometimes we'll
have phone conversations.
But it's given me a lot of time to,
you know, when I'm spending that hour walking every day.
(17:58):
Think about like, what is soul mean?
You know, what is it? What is the soul like? I've,
I've spent so much of my life,
you know, I have our hotel here is called Full Shine.
Have our fans are called soul rockers. I've had, you know,
an album called Full Full Rock. Like, like soul has
(18:19):
been so much a part of
what I do in, in this word. But what does
it mean? Like, what does soul actually mean?
You know, and I've been kind of breaking it down
to understand, like, for me and this is where I'm
at now. It's like
my soul is,
uh
(18:40):
everything that passes through me that is not from me.
It's the wisdom and knowing and understanding that passes through
me that is not from me.
And
I feel that like when I write a song,
I'll, I'll come like some idea will come through me
(19:01):
and I'll go
wow, that sums up everything that I'm feeling right in
this moment. And I have no idea how it got here.
Like if I am not that smart to be able
to have made this up, you know, and I like that.
Yeah. And, and,
(19:22):
and then there are the things that are from me
that are like the analysis, the, the, the analytics of
what my life is about and, and how I mean
to get from A to B and like that frontal
lobe cognition of being able to experiment with things in
my mind ahead of time. So I don't have to
(19:42):
experiment with them and, and
real life like, you know, maybe I shouldn't just, you know,
spend all my money on a, on a new, um,
you know, motorcycle or something, you know, like, oh, I
can play that out in my head. Maybe that's the
best idea, you know, and,
uh,
(20:03):
and that's like that analytical side of me and my
soul and my spirituality
where, where, you know, just to get back to what
spirituality means is that ability to have
my soul really
be heard all the time and really be um in
(20:24):
connection with
that, which is coming through me, that is not from me.
And there's some days when I'm really fully in access
to that, I wake up and I understand what my
role is in the world and I understand little corners
of the universe that I never had noticed before. And
(20:47):
I'm fully tapped into what is the right thing to do. And,
and, and then by noon, I'm like, there is no God.
I have no idea what the universe means. I don't
know what the fuck I'm doing with my life. Why
did I do that stupid thing? And, and then that's
like the other side of, of me, that, that's that
(21:07):
part that's questioning and analyzing and thinking and,
and I'm trying to get out of
um to get those two things more in balance.
And when I feel that that's, that's my spiritual path,
like to be able to have one footstep in that
soul all the time and the other
(21:30):
and you know, the other side of my my, what
other opposite foot in that
being able to analyze and be able to focus and
being able to take, you know,
and cheap, make the cheap, the, the decisions in my
life that I know will be best.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
Mhm And I, I just love imagining that you or
I love thinking about you just hanging out with fasi
back in the day like you're in, in the Bay
area and you're, you're in hip hop and, and, and you,
you have this kind of bread, you have this uh
arc of a career.
And um one thing everybody wanted me to ask you
was ask him how he stays so positive. And, and
(22:12):
I was like, well, he does yoga all the time.
He just, well,
Speaker 2 (22:17):
I mean, that's part of it. But you know, the
thing about yoga is that
it's about introspection.
It's about like getting yourself into this uncomfortable physical position
and then looking at what comes up and one of
my favorite yoga teachers, Eddie Martin, he would say Michael,
the pose begins the moment that you want to get
(22:40):
out of it. And for me, it's usually like two seconds.
Like I'm in this pose, I'm like, oh, this feels
like a little stretch and then I breathe through it
and I look at what comes up and I look
at that voice in my head. That's like
my dad telling me you're never gonna be able to
hit a baseball or my teacher telling me you're never
gonna be, succeed at math or you're never gonna be
(23:01):
good or myself telling me like, you're not as good
as the person on the next mat and they're doing
it better than you are. And then looking at that, like,
where is that coming from? And can I quiet that
voice so that I can feel whatever it is that
I'm feeling and sometimes if
(23:23):
it's joy, sometimes it's happiness and sometimes it's like I
burst into tears, you know, and, and that's the thing
is like, like for me, positivity isn't about being happy
all the time. Positivity is
um when you, that charge can go like in Bali,
(23:44):
everything here is about
shadow and light and it's if, if it's just light
all the time, then the flow stops.
And so that charge doesn't have that electric current of
going through the positive and back to the negative and
over and over and over.
And when things do that, then like everything grows, you know,
(24:05):
like you grow as a person, the plants grow, you're
able to get food from them. The the the it
gets hot, then the sky fills with rain and water
and then it comes down again.
You know, life goes and you, you, you live and
you die and you pass on and um and so
there's just this constant flow. And so for me, like
(24:28):
staying positive is being able to
um be who I am in that moment and access
whatever emotion is there.
And if you listen to my songs like so like
Sound of Sunshine, like the verses
talk about all the hard things that are going on
in my life. So that when you get to the
contrast of that's the sound of sunshine coming down, you
(24:51):
feel it,
feel it because we, we can connect to that part.
That's like
fuck, man. I'm having a shitty day but here comes
the sun, here we go. Let's commit to it.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
And I, I appreciate you. Nobody keeps it real like
you do just because listening to your music it, it's,
it's not a, it's so real. And the I was
in a meditation class once and I was just sitting
there like I can't do this. This is a, I
can't quiet my mind or I've been in yoga before
where I, I don't do yoga, man. But where I'm like,
I'm struggling and a couple of times teachers have been like,
(25:26):
oh you're doing it right? The struggle is part of it.
And I was like, what? And they're like, no, you're
doing it correct.
And uh that was comforting. But uh Michael Franti, um
we can't wait to get you back in Key West.
You're gonna be in Key West soon. April
Speaker 2 (25:42):
12th. Yeah, I can't wait. You know of all the
places in, in America that I love Key West is
like high up on the list and we've only been
there a couple of times in 30 years. And so
I'm excited to be coming back
and we're actually doing a yoga event at 4 p.m.
(26:04):
in the venue. Um And so if anybody has a
ticket to the show, they can come, it's free. And
um
it's gonna be a really spirited event. I'm gonna be
playing acoustically during the yoga practice. And so it'll be
Speaker 1 (26:21):
so we can do, essentially do yoga with Michael Franti.
We can do yoga with. This is amazing. This is amazing.
Thank you so much for taking all this time. Uh
Best wishes. Congratulations. And we'll see you here real soon.
All right. Thank
Speaker 2 (26:37):
you so much. Take
Speaker 1 (26:38):
care
Michael Franti and spearhead will be in Key West at
the Coffee Butler, amphitheater Friday, April 12th starts at 7 p.m.
and I'm Gwen Filosa. I'll be back next week and please, uh,
check us out on Keys weekly.com and thanks again for, uh,
tuning in.
Welcome to Key West Sidetracks, the podcast. I'm Gwen Filosa.
I'm digital editor at the Keys Weekly newspapers. And my
guest today for this episode is Michael Franti. Yes, Michael
Franti and Spearhead, they'll be here in Key West at
the Coffee Butler amphitheater on Friday, April 12th. And here's
(00:21):
uh our interview, he called me from Bali recently and
we had a great conversation and I hope you like it.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Hey, it's Michael Franti here.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Well, thank you for taking the time. I'm gonna jump
right in uh Big, big Love. I think you were
always destined to have an album called Big Big Love.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
I think so too. Um You know what that means
to me is
Big Love is like when you are able to
love your family, your friends, your romantic partners and
when you're able to do all that, that's, that's huge,
(01:02):
takes incredible,
um you know, focus and effort and diligence and showing
up and, and forgiveness and healing and trying again to,
just to, just to do that.
And then there's this love that goes out across borders
(01:23):
and religion and gender and sexuality and
ethnicity out into the world and, and um
and that's big, big love, that's like huge and, and
that's even harder to do. Um, and
yeah, both of them are really super important and we
(01:44):
striving for and trying to show up for it, you know,
and
this record is, is kind of about my, trying to
do both and the ways that I succeed and the
ways that I have not succeeded at it. And, um,
but it's more of a, um,
value than it is a uh something that um
(02:05):
yeah, perfect.
Something I'm striving for.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Yeah. And I wanted to just, first of all, congratulations
on everything. I mean, a 30 year career and uh
a lot of success. Did you, did you see that
or did you, did you ever envision yourself with that
type of material success when you were starting out in
experimental hip hop or coming up? I mean, what were,
what were your goals then? And what, what do you
(02:30):
see now as far as goals?
Speaker 2 (02:33):
You know, when I first started in music, my goal
was just, was, was two, there were two things. First
was like just expressing my frustration about
not understanding my role in the world. I grew up
in an alcoholic family um and
(02:55):
didn't have a super happy childhood. And so when I
first started in, in punk rock and hip hop, it
was just expressing rage and not really understanding where it
came from.
And then as I grew and evolved my music started
to take on more of a personal introspective look at
(03:20):
who I am in the ways I'm that I'm showing up.
And um one of those things for me has been
my
adoption. I was, I was
um given up for adoption at uh at birth. And,
and so I've always felt like this sense of
(03:42):
not um being loved
and not fitting in with the family I was raised
in or the community I was raised in
and loneliness
um that comes from that. And so the other part
of it like in music is, is like and seeking
out
(04:03):
um
people clapping for you and people appreciating your song, you know,
and so
there's been like this
balance that or, or sometimes it's out of balance of
like really writing deep intimate things about who I am
in my life and my journey.
And then
(04:24):
at the same time wanting to really be appreciated and,
and um acknowledged for
um for music and, and for me, it's been, it's
been AAA journey that after 30 years, I'm finally starting
to like unravel like, what, what does that mean? And
how do, how do I show up for those two things?
(04:45):
And are they even really healthy for me? You know.
Um
And at the same time,
uh I see how people have gravitated to my music
because of that telling of that story. And I think
that that's really great, you know, and, and people get
something from it that resonates with their life and, and
(05:08):
similar feelings that they have.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Yeah. And the, your music, obviously it's very positive. There's
something about music that connection that we, we have me
as an audience member or fan. If you will, that connection,
it's so personal. And, um, I'm wondering,
uh, how have you learned to, to deal with fans
(05:32):
and people showering you with, with attention or affection? I mean, obviously,
you know, sometimes it's great, but I think, uh I
relate a lot of growing up feeling like you don't
fit in and not having a lot of tools to
negotiate the world. And you're, you've been a superstar for
a while,
Speaker 2 (05:51):
you know. Um The main thing is that,
uh first of all, we have incredible fans who are
not like
j
um wanting to find their, they're there because they feel
something and they resonate something and that feels that part
(06:15):
of it feels really good to me. Like when I
bear my soul in the song, um like, I, I
have this song that we just put out a video
for called Lost but not Alone. And it's about exactly
these things that we're talking about right now. It's like
this feeling of
incredible isolation. Even when I'm in groups of people, sometimes
I feel really lonely
(06:35):
and then I would go into the world and I,
I realized that there's other people who share the same
feelings that I do of that isolation and lone, loneliness
and concern for the world and concern for their own
um uh
connection of, of being able to find their soul and
(06:57):
listen to their soul. Um And,
and then I realized I'm not alone and that I'm
comforted by the fact that there are millions of weirdos
out there in the world just like me, you know. So, yeah,
thank God. So that, that part of it feels really good.
(07:19):
Um
But as an adult now, you know, and as a,
you know, ha ha having done this for three decades,
I'm finally, you know, just looking at
WW what is it, what has driven me? You know,
I remember um when I was,
I put out our first record with the disposable Heroes
(07:39):
and I had this song called Television, The Drug of
the Nation. And you two heard the song and they
used it the video to open their Zoo TV tour.
That was their walkout. And so then they invited me
to come out on tour with them. So I did
about 35 shows opening for you too. And I remember
Bono saying to me one time he goes Michael, I
(08:00):
am so insecure
because I was talking to him about stage confidence. I
was like, I walk out on stage and there's,
you know, there's 5000 people in this
arena that holds 50,000,
you know, and I feel so
scared, you know,
(08:21):
and um he said to me, he goes, I feel
that same way every night too. And he goes,
and I am so insecure that I need 50,000 people
to tell me that they love me every night just
so I can go to sleep. And I was like, well,
like my gut just stunk I go. Is, is that
why I'm doing it? You know, like this is what
(08:43):
I signed up for. I was just saying, I also
appreciated how honest he was and how real he was. And,
you know, a lot of times,
you know, I, I've studied my favorite artist, you know,
like I've studied um, Bob Marley and I've studied Johnny
Cash and I've studied Marvin Gaye and,
(09:04):
and I've heard why it is that they, um their
childhood led them down the path that they did to
but,
you know, want to seek out that attention but also
wanna do things that made the world a better place.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Correct. Correct. I think it's a good sign when people
of any caliber or any, any stage of, you know,
success or are a little nervous. I think that's normal.
You want to do good.
I, I have to ask, what is your news diet
as the kids call it? Uh What, where do you
get your news? Where do you get, um, are you
a social media? I know you're on there for your,
(09:45):
for the band. But are you ever like up on
Facebook looking up people, you went to high school with or,
Speaker 2 (09:52):
you know what? Um, I gave up Facebook about 15
years ago. I stopped looking at it at all. Happiness.
Yeah. And it's 15. Yeah, maybe like, 12 years ago I,
I stopped looking at it at all and then,
um, I haven't made a
(10:12):
Twitter Post in probably, like, seven years and I haven't
looked at Twitter in seven years
and I was only using Instagram, which is, I have
a love hate relationship with like I actually really enjoy it.
I enjoy seeing what people are doing in their lives,
especially my friends and,
and people that I care about. I love
(10:34):
seeing what other artists are doing and the music that
they're making. And um
but I'm also somebody who's super addicted to just the
dopamine of doom scrawling. And so five days ago, I
just told my wife,
I said so I just
(10:55):
deleted Instagram from my phone
and she was like, what? And I said, yeah, I
just got so tired of it.
I, I thought I and I got what I got
tired of was like, I can't go to the bathroom
without spending five extra minutes sitting on the toilet looking
for incident. I can't be on a Zoom call with
(11:16):
somebody and not be
on the, you know, scrolling through Instagram pa I'm like,
you know, it's like I would open my phone and
my finger would naturally like
just go to that button. And when I, when I
deleted it, there was like a hole on the page
there where it once was and my, the thumb would
(11:38):
go to that hole and be hitting on that hole.
Like when I'd open up my thumb and I found
in these five days, like it to be just incredibly liberating,
you know, and I thought, like, you know, maybe I'll
feel out of touch in some ways. But
my focus for all the other things that I'm doing
(12:00):
has been so
much more um available. I I just such greater access
to my focus without it. So I don't know if
I'm gonna stay off it forever. And just, I, I've
actually been making more content not being on it. And
I'm sending that content to someone to, to um to
post for me uh
(12:23):
than when I wasn't
on Instagram. It's like less time on Instagram has made
more space to make more content. So,
Speaker 1 (12:32):
yeah, and, and full disclosure, I, I make my living
on being on social media. I've seen it used for
good when it is extraordinary connection and uh but it,
I have some cope, let's just say I have some
coping mechanism skills to, to deal with uh
you know, that that's what it's built for, for us
to be on it and, and such. But do you
get news from? I know you're a big, I know
(12:54):
you were reading the nation back when it was a
newspaper type newsprint. That's when I was starting to, and,
and is that what, what, what sources, what's your go
to source if you wanna see? Um, you know, what
Speaker 2 (13:06):
I try to do is I try to follow news
stories through multiple sources, you know, like,
yeah, I'll get the nation. I, I listen to Amy
Goodman with democracy now. I,
um, and then I'll go to CNN and see, like,
how is CNN reporting this And every now and then
I'll just drop in on Fox and how is Fox
(13:27):
reporting this? And,
um, and then I'll see in social media, how is,
how are independent people who are just expressing their opinion, um,
talking about it, you know, and so I look at,
look at multiple things and,
and try to see how these issues are showing up
(13:49):
in those ways.
No, it's, it's,
again, it's, it's like a love hate thing for me
because I've been a news junkie
for, you know, basically my entire adult life and,
um,
you know, during the past five years of,
(14:12):
um,
how fake news has become so huge and how
everyone who now has a phone. II, I used to
really love that. I used to dream of that day, like,
don't just hate the media become the media, but now
everybody is the media and
it's really easy for people to just go on there
(14:34):
and say whatever version of
that, you know, that, that they want to do that
fulfills their own ideals and needs and, and,
um,
and it's, it's manipulative
and I don't like it.
And, um,
(14:55):
something that I, uh especially during COVID, I, I've noticed that,
you know, a lot of my friends who were,
uh who we would sit around in our are not
necessarily be conspiratorial but the, um
I would say in a healthy way,
(15:16):
um questioning everything that we see then start to believe
these rabbit holes of conspiracy that are just so out
there that I'm like,
bro, come back, come back, you know, you're not questioning anymore, you're,
you're believing this, this crazy rabbit hole. So
Speaker 1 (15:40):
I relate, I relate because I'm at the point, Michael
where I, I don't, I just don't know anymore. Maybe
the world is flat. I'm just in a place of
like people can believe what they want. But I, I'm
just like, maybe, maybe I'm wrong about everything. But uh
I'm half kidding.
But I mean, it's just, there's so much going on.
I i it's a terrifying world. I think it's always
(16:02):
been kind of terrifying. That's my opinion. But, but I
wanted to ask you about spirituality and how it's changed
or what your concept of a God power greater and
how that's, you know, you went through some loss, terrible
loss with your father during the COVID and, and you've
gone through a lot personally. Um How, how did
(16:25):
spirituality, what's your spiritual diet as a kid student?
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Thanks for asking that because it's been something that's been
really uh at the forefront for me,
I hurt my ankle last year. Um It's been uh
since
January of last year
and I've been nursing this ankle injury and, and it's
(16:51):
led me to
walk. So every morning I get up and I walk
five miles
and a on my walk,
it starts off by just listening to because I live
in the jungle out here in Bali. I used to
listen to the jungle. I listen to birds, listen to frogs,
listen to the crickets. And I, I noticed,
(17:13):
you know, the, the trees and we have a beautiful
organic garden and rice fields here and I, I'll go
spend some time there and see what's popping up there and,
and um, I catch the sunrise a lot of mornings
and on my walk and then
I'll start to listen to some music. Um, and then
some podcasts
and then I'll take my, um,
(17:38):
your buds out and I'll, I'll have a conversation with
somebody who I'm walking with that day. I sometimes I
invite different people to walk and talk or sometimes we'll
have phone conversations.
But it's given me a lot of time to,
you know, when I'm spending that hour walking every day.
(17:58):
Think about like, what is soul mean?
You know, what is it? What is the soul like? I've,
I've spent so much of my life,
you know, I have our hotel here is called Full Shine.
Have our fans are called soul rockers. I've had, you know,
an album called Full Full Rock. Like, like soul has
(18:19):
been so much a part of
what I do in, in this word. But what does
it mean? Like, what does soul actually mean?
You know, and I've been kind of breaking it down
to understand, like, for me and this is where I'm
at now. It's like
my soul is,
uh
(18:40):
everything that passes through me that is not from me.
It's the wisdom and knowing and understanding that passes through
me that is not from me.
And
I feel that like when I write a song,
I'll, I'll come like some idea will come through me
(19:01):
and I'll go
wow, that sums up everything that I'm feeling right in
this moment. And I have no idea how it got here.
Like if I am not that smart to be able
to have made this up, you know, and I like that.
Yeah. And, and,
(19:22):
and then there are the things that are from me
that are like the analysis, the, the, the analytics of
what my life is about and, and how I mean
to get from A to B and like that frontal
lobe cognition of being able to experiment with things in
my mind ahead of time. So I don't have to
(19:42):
experiment with them and, and
real life like, you know, maybe I shouldn't just, you know,
spend all my money on a, on a new, um,
you know, motorcycle or something, you know, like, oh, I
can play that out in my head. Maybe that's the
best idea, you know, and,
uh,
(20:03):
and that's like that analytical side of me and my
soul and my spirituality
where, where, you know, just to get back to what
spirituality means is that ability to have
my soul really
be heard all the time and really be um in
(20:24):
connection with
that, which is coming through me, that is not from me.
And there's some days when I'm really fully in access
to that, I wake up and I understand what my
role is in the world and I understand little corners
of the universe that I never had noticed before. And
(20:47):
I'm fully tapped into what is the right thing to do. And,
and, and then by noon, I'm like, there is no God.
I have no idea what the universe means. I don't
know what the fuck I'm doing with my life. Why
did I do that stupid thing? And, and then that's
like the other side of, of me, that, that's that
(21:07):
part that's questioning and analyzing and thinking and,
and I'm trying to get out of
um to get those two things more in balance.
And when I feel that that's, that's my spiritual path,
like to be able to have one footstep in that
soul all the time and the other
(21:30):
and you know, the other side of my my, what
other opposite foot in that
being able to analyze and be able to focus and
being able to take, you know,
and cheap, make the cheap, the, the decisions in my
life that I know will be best.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
Mhm And I, I just love imagining that you or
I love thinking about you just hanging out with fasi
back in the day like you're in, in the Bay
area and you're, you're in hip hop and, and, and you,
you have this kind of bread, you have this uh
arc of a career.
And um one thing everybody wanted me to ask you
was ask him how he stays so positive. And, and
(22:12):
I was like, well, he does yoga all the time.
He just, well,
Speaker 2 (22:17):
I mean, that's part of it. But you know, the
thing about yoga is that
it's about introspection.
It's about like getting yourself into this uncomfortable physical position
and then looking at what comes up and one of
my favorite yoga teachers, Eddie Martin, he would say Michael,
the pose begins the moment that you want to get
(22:40):
out of it. And for me, it's usually like two seconds.
Like I'm in this pose, I'm like, oh, this feels
like a little stretch and then I breathe through it
and I look at what comes up and I look
at that voice in my head. That's like
my dad telling me you're never gonna be able to
hit a baseball or my teacher telling me you're never
gonna be, succeed at math or you're never gonna be
(23:01):
good or myself telling me like, you're not as good
as the person on the next mat and they're doing
it better than you are. And then looking at that, like,
where is that coming from? And can I quiet that
voice so that I can feel whatever it is that
I'm feeling and sometimes if
(23:23):
it's joy, sometimes it's happiness and sometimes it's like I
burst into tears, you know, and, and that's the thing
is like, like for me, positivity isn't about being happy
all the time. Positivity is
um when you, that charge can go like in Bali,
(23:44):
everything here is about
shadow and light and it's if, if it's just light
all the time, then the flow stops.
And so that charge doesn't have that electric current of
going through the positive and back to the negative and
over and over and over.
And when things do that, then like everything grows, you know,
(24:05):
like you grow as a person, the plants grow, you're
able to get food from them. The the the it
gets hot, then the sky fills with rain and water
and then it comes down again.
You know, life goes and you, you, you live and
you die and you pass on and um and so
there's just this constant flow. And so for me, like
(24:28):
staying positive is being able to
um be who I am in that moment and access
whatever emotion is there.
And if you listen to my songs like so like
Sound of Sunshine, like the verses
talk about all the hard things that are going on
in my life. So that when you get to the
contrast of that's the sound of sunshine coming down, you
(24:51):
feel it,
feel it because we, we can connect to that part.
That's like
fuck, man. I'm having a shitty day but here comes
the sun, here we go. Let's commit to it.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
And I, I appreciate you. Nobody keeps it real like
you do just because listening to your music it, it's,
it's not a, it's so real. And the I was
in a meditation class once and I was just sitting
there like I can't do this. This is a, I
can't quiet my mind or I've been in yoga before
where I, I don't do yoga, man. But where I'm like,
I'm struggling and a couple of times teachers have been like,
(25:26):
oh you're doing it right? The struggle is part of it.
And I was like, what? And they're like, no, you're
doing it correct.
And uh that was comforting. But uh Michael Franti, um
we can't wait to get you back in Key West.
You're gonna be in Key West soon. April
Speaker 2 (25:42):
12th. Yeah, I can't wait. You know of all the
places in, in America that I love Key West is
like high up on the list and we've only been
there a couple of times in 30 years. And so
I'm excited to be coming back
and we're actually doing a yoga event at 4 p.m.
(26:04):
in the venue. Um And so if anybody has a
ticket to the show, they can come, it's free. And
um
it's gonna be a really spirited event. I'm gonna be
playing acoustically during the yoga practice. And so it'll be
Speaker 1 (26:21):
so we can do, essentially do yoga with Michael Franti.
We can do yoga with. This is amazing. This is amazing.
Thank you so much for taking all this time. Uh
Best wishes. Congratulations. And we'll see you here real soon.
All right. Thank
Speaker 2 (26:37):
you so much. Take
Speaker 1 (26:38):
care
Michael Franti and spearhead will be in Key West at
the Coffee Butler, amphitheater Friday, April 12th starts at 7 p.m.
and I'm Gwen Filosa. I'll be back next week and please, uh,
check us out on Keys weekly.com and thanks again for, uh,
tuning in.
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