Michael Franti, the singer, poet, and songwriter is currently on a summer tour with his band Spearhead. You already got to check out the Tour Update he did with us when he came to Los Angeles, but Franti was so inspiring that we had to share with you the wealth of stories he bestowed on us. The soul rocker talked with us about setlists, his love for music, his goals for touring, his documentary, and charity work. Check it out!

On what music means to him:

“Music has always been a catharsis for me, whether it was just me being a 12-year old dancing in my bedroom because my parents were fighting and I wanted to block that out, or if it was me as a teenager going to a mosh pit at a punk rock show, or if it is me being in a band creating a mosh pit at a punk rock show. Now, I write songs because it helps me get out the emotions that I am feeling. I’ve found that the more that I invest personally and am putting my vulnerability in music, it connects deeper with listeners.”

"Now, I write songs because it helps me get out the emotions that I am feeling."

On his goals for live performances:

“When you go to a live concert it’s not just the artist and the person out there experiencing it, it’s all of the people experiencing it together. My crew, management, and everybody involved has the same vision, we are here to promote optimism and make people feel that they can sit up and stand up a little bit taller as they walk out of here. And whatever they face in their life next whether it’s a personal thing or a political thing, or a new job, or a relationship at home, or their own sadness or depression, that they have a greater capacity to express it.”

"We are here to promote optimism and make people feel that they can sit up and stand up a little bit taller as they walk out of here."

On his Stay Human documentary:

“I started shooting the Stay Human documentary about five years ago and I was making a music video in Indonesia, and we always shoot our videos super low, no frills - it’s me and a cameraman and we just go out and shoot it. So we had all this camera gear there with us, and I said ‘there’s this good friend of mine named Robin Lynn who’s a midwife, who’s a super inspiring person, let’s just go do a quick interview with her and I’ll throw it up on my Facebook page.' So I called Robin and she was like ‘well I’m in the Philippians right now because this big hurricane; Yolanda, just happened.'

So we flew over to the Philippians and filmed her there amongst this wreckage, like giant ships that were washed up to land, and debris that was stacked 50 feet high with houses and bodies buried beneath it. Her story was so compelling and it moved me so much that I wanted to tell other peoples stories.

The film is about people that have inspired me and it’s really a film about how we, as individuals, get through the crazy moments of our lives. [...] So the film is me telling the stories of six other people but it’s also me telling how they have affected my life and growing up as a child until now, and my battle with depression, and how I’ve been able to overcome that."

On putting together a set list:

“When I make a setlist I start doing it right after the last show [in my head.] I’m thinking about what’s in the news today, I’m thinking about what I’m going to talk about in-between songs, thinking about: is this going to be a festival or a sit down show or just be playing acoustic, or is it going to be the whole band. And then throughout the day, I’m constantly thinking about it and I don’t usually make the setlist up until about half an hour before we go on.

It’s a combination of songs that people know of ours that they love and are expecting to hear, and I don’t want them to leave like ‘Aw man I just spent all my money and I didn’t hear the song I wanted to hear.’ And also new songs because we want them to become old and familiar to people.”

On his "Do It For the Love" nonprofit:

"My wife and I started a nonprofit called 'Do It For The Love,' four years ago and what we do is we bring people with advanced stages of life-threatening illness, children, and adults with special needs, and wounded veterans to see live concerts in any city by any artist. So people write to us and say ‘my sister has stage four breast cancer and she’s always wanted to see the Dixie Chicks’ and we get the family to go see the show. In the past 4 years we have sent over 2,000 families to concerts, everything from Drake and Beyoncé, to Garth Brooks, Metallica, The Opera, Elmo.

But we started this because there was a man, Steve December, and who is living with very advanced stages of ALS, which is probably the worst diagnoses you can get, one morning you wake up and your finger doesn’t work, a week later it’s your hand, then arm, and legs and eventually you die of paralysis. His wife was saying ‘he would really love to meet you because you are his favorite musician.'

So we invited him to the show and at this point I meet Steve, and he was in a wheelchair and couldn’t move at all except for his lips and his eyes. They were on the side of the stage, and I started played this song “Life is better with you” and I look over and Steve is whispering into Hope’s ear, and he says “I want to get up and dance,” so with all her strength she lifts his stiff body out of his chair and they have this beautiful slow dance, in front of 20,000 people at the festival, and everyone's cheering for them, and I’m crying, and my wife is on the side of the stage and she’s crying.

Afterwards, I said to Steve ‘What did this mean to you’ and he said ‘you know yesterday when I was wheeling around the festival, I’m living life very differently now, people didn’t know how to look at me, people would walk by and just sort of ignore me but after that moment I became Steve, and people were saying ‘Hi Steve’, ‘I’m so happy you are here Steve,' ‘Come have a beer with us Steve,' ‘Come dance with us Steve, we're stoked that you are here.’

I said to Sara 'let’s do this for as many families as we possibly can', and so if anybody has a friend or family member that needs music in that way, just write to us at Doitforthelove.org and any city and any country - we have been sending people to shows all over the world.”

--

Head to Franti's website for more information on tours, music, and more!