Michael Franti & Spearhead to bring danceable, soul-touching music to Sidney July 1

Michael Franti & Spearhead. Michael Finn photo

I used to DJ dances at the school where my wife teaches and one of the artists that the kids requested was Michael Franti and I can understand why: he makes music that just begs to be danced to and another aspect of his songs is that the lyrics are inspiring, optimistic, simple, and most importantly, directly from the heart. As I always say: Music that comes from the heart goes to the heart of the person who hears it, so when I learned that he was bringing his band, Spearhead, up to central Maine’s newest venue, The Snow Pond Center for the Arts in Sidney on July 1, I put in for an interview. Long story short, he ended up calling me giving me a chance to find out more about him and his distinctive sound.

Q: Where are you calling from, just out of curiosity?
Franti: I’m in Seattle at the moment.

Q: Now, I believe that you’ve not performed at this venue before because it’s a fairly new one here in central Maine.
Franti: No, we haven’t, not to my knowledge.

Q: You seem to come to Maine on a fairly regular basis, I believe.
Franti: Yeah, we usually come to Maine every summer, usually we’re in Portland but sometimes we play outside the city, as well, we love it. It’s something we always look forward to in the summer, all the guys in the band enjoy getting out to whatever city we’re in and we love taking bike rides in Portland … being out there in the summertime, well, it’s a pretty special place.

Q: Now I understand that you have a new album coming out soon, correct?
Franti: Yeah, it just dropped a few days ago. I’m very excited about this record because it’s my favorite record that we’ve ever made. You know, we’ve never been that band that has songs in the big top charts, but it debuted at No. 2 on the pop album charts, it debuted one point behind Harry Stiles. I made a little Instagram video saying that he may be more stylish than I am but I’m definitely more hairy than he is (chuckle) … so we’re coming for him!

Q: One of the things I like about your music is the positivity, the inclusiveness, it’s such a good vibe that you have.
Franti: I write all my songs when I’m in the most challenging moments of my life and I’m trying to find the light and the optimism and the joy again, and over the last couple of years there’s been a lot of that. Just being an unemployed musician essentially for the last couple of years and trying to keep the lights on in my heart, how do we maintain this sense of optimism and hope when things seem really dark? Also in the last year-and-a-half my father died of COVID and my middle child, who we’re out here visiting in Seattle, is 23 years old and just had a kidney transplant seven weeks ago; so there’s been a lot to process. Music, for one, is cathartic to me, I write about things that I’m going through, that I’m having trouble with, but I always try to find the transformation in it and the light and the hope to keep going. And I do it in hopes that it will do the same thing for others when they hear it.

Q: What can folks expect from your performance coming up in Sidney’s Snow Pond Center for the Arts?
Franti: Well, my mission in music is to create experiences where souls can shine so that they can then go out and be inspiration for others. And so our shows are super high-energy but I also take a lot of moments where I break the songs down to acoustic so people can hear the words really closely.

Q: Nice.
Franti: I spend a lot of time in the audience, actually, with my guitar and with a microphone going through the far corners of the venue and being in the crowd with people at my shows. Our band is playing, I would say, better than we’ve ever played before, we all have this deep gratitude just to be able to do this, it’s something that we never imagined that we would have to stop playing music because of the pandemic. Of all the other things in the world that you could think of that could stop shows, weather, mass shootings, the pandemic was the least of our concerns and we came to realize how fragile the world is and how much we all need to be in deep appreciation and gratitude for the opportunities that we have to just play music.

Q: Would you take a moment to reflect on what it’s been like to be out on the road again as the restrictions are eased and things seem to be trending back toward normality?
Franti: To be out there again and to deal with the musicians has been healing for me because I look into the eyes of so many people who have gone through really hard times. I have written music for this tour that is really about tenacity and love and courage and devotion to our values and optimism and all that stuff wrapped up in a big dance party, so it’s good medicine.

Q: Earlier you mentioned your mission was to reach out and support other people and lead them through what they’re going through, and I think you have succeeded in that goal. When did you start heading in this direction?
Franti: Well, when it comes to making records I started in a little punk rock band I had in 1987 and I’ve been doing it for five or six months of the year, on tour, ever since that time. I’ve seen the world through music, I never thought that I would get out of the little town that I grew up in, music did that for me, and I have this deep appreciation for how music touches souls; I’ve seen it across every culture and I believe in the power of music. I always say, “I don’t know if {music} can change the world over night but I know it can help someone make it through a difficult night.” And that’s, most of the time, what we need just to get through from one moment to the next.

Q: What about the music behind the words?
Franti: I want it to be something that people can dance to and be triumphant in that way because those were always the artists that touched me the most as I was growing up: artists that could write incredible stories but make you dance.

Q: Like who?
Franti: Artists like Stevie Wonder, Sly and the Family Stone, Bob Marley, Marvin Gaye, Johnny Cash, John Lennon. It was important to me that the music had a great story but also had a great beat, too.

Q: You wear your heart on your sleeve, which is rare in the world nowadays and for that you deserve a lot of praise. Is there anything, Michael, that you’d like me to pass on to the folks reading this article about your Snow Pond Center for the Arts debut?
Franti: Well, if you’re looking for some uplifting come out to the show. My favorite part of our show is not the music it’s the audience, it’s the connection people feel there when they come out to the show. It’s the interaction between the band and our familia of folks who come out to our show, that’s what makes me do it every night, that deep connection with people who really care about the music, the people and the planet, and having a great time.

Lucky Clark, a 2018 “Keeping the Blues Alive” Award winner, has spent more than 50 years writing about good music and the people who make it. He can be reached at luckyc@myfairpoint.net if you have any questions, comments or suggestions.

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