{"id":3052,"date":"2011-08-03T14:53:54","date_gmt":"2011-08-03T21:53:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=3052"},"modified":"2011-08-03T14:53:54","modified_gmt":"2011-08-03T21:53:54","slug":"michael-franti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2011\/08\/michael-franti\/","title":{"rendered":"MICHAEL FRANTI"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/h1>\n

MICHAEL FRANTI<\/h1>\n

A sonic innovator with a sunny disposition\u2014even in the hospital<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Michael Franti has long been acclaimed by critics and a devoted cult of fans for his fusion of hip-hop with blues, reggae and soul. But last year Franti and his backing group, Spearhead, were surprised to find a mass audience with the breakout hit \u201cSay Hey (I Love You),\u201d a charming nugget of reggae-pop. \u201cWe\u2019ve gone from traveling in vans and playing in the street to performing festivals around the world,\u201d Franti says. \u201cWe never set out to have a big hit. It\u2019s amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

An extended tour to support their breakthrough smash allowed them to test out new material. \u201cWe saw the reaction from the crowd,\u201d says Franti, who formed the group in 1994. \u201cWe\u2019d often head to the portable studio after the show and make changes.\u201d But even as his career soared, Franti struggled with health problems.<\/p>\n

He was hospitalized with a near-fatal ruptured appendix last summer, just as \u201cSay Hey\u201d was climbing the charts. \u201cI get this\u00a0text saying the song\u2019s in the top 20 and I told the doctor, \u2018I\u2019m not gonna live to hear it on the radio,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cWe both had a big\u00a0laugh about that.\u201d\u00a0Franti\u2019s new album, Sound of <\/em>Sunshine<\/em>, is a bright, infectious suite of songs born out of his extended hospital\u00a0stay. \u201cEvery day I\u2019d have to get up and gingerly walk up to the window,\u201d recalls\u00a0Franti. He endured those hard times by pouring his energies into new music.\u00a0\u201cIf the sun was shining, it was gonna\u00a0be a great day and I\u2019d bring out my\u00a0guitar,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019d be some days\u00a0when it wouldn\u2019t shine and I\u2019d put the blankets back on and imagine\u00a0myself in a sunny place. I wanted to make\u00a0a record that would bottle that feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n

He brings the same optimistic outlook to his numerous humanitarian causes. Franti, who\u2019s famously gone barefoot since 2000, is an active contributor to Soles for Souls, a charitable organization that donates old shoes to those in need. He also founded San Francisco\u2019s Power to the Peaceful festival, an annual event that boasts 50,000 attendees yearly. This year\u2019s festival will\u00a0be held Sept. 11 and 12. \u201cA lot of schools were being shut down and a lot of prisons were being built,\u201d he explains. \u201cWe want education to be a priority, so the festival being around Sept. 11 just shows that this issue\u00a0is an emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Blake Boldt<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MICHAEL FRANTI A sonic innovator with a sunny disposition\u2014even in the hospital Michael Franti has long been acclaimed by critics and a devoted cult of fans for his fusion of hip-hop with blues, reggae and soul. But last year Franti and his backing group, Spearhead, were surprised to find a mass audience with the breakout […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[623,2284,10156],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3052"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3052"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3055,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3052\/revisions\/3055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}