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Taken from California Chronicle (Jun 11, 2010)

Franti commits to sunny outlook

by Mark Jordan


Michael FrantiLast year, after having drudged through the rock-and-roll trenches for 15 years, reggae rocker Michael Franti and his band Spearhead finally had a commercial breakthrough with their song "Say Hey (I Love You)," off their sixth studio album, All Rebel Rockers . Originally released the year before, the infectious Jamaican dancehall ditty featuring singer Cherine Anderson and produced by the legendary duo Sly & Robbie finally cracked the Top 20 and became one of 2009's songs of summer.


"It was the first time we ever had a song in the top 20,000 before," says Franti. "It was just a big shock. I've never really looked at whether a record was on the radio as a measure of our success; if it were, we would have had 15 years of non-success. But to finally hear it, I have to admit was nice. We just felt incredibly grateful that our music was getting heard by a bunch of people who never heard us before."


Franti's enthusiasm was immediately dampened, however, when the 44-year-old was rushed to the hospital with a ruptured appendix.


"I just remember sitting there, thinking, 'Great, I've finally got a song on the radio, and I'm not going to live to hear it,'" he recalls. "Coming back from the surgery made me think a lot about my life and my music. Everyday I'd go to the window and look outside and say, 'Is the sun shining today?' And if it was, I'd feel uplifted, and I'd say to myself, 'I want to make music that does that to people.' So even if the sun isn't shining, you can put your iPod o n and feel that sense of uplift and positivity."


That was the seed of Franti's new record, Sound of Sunshine , due in stores this August. Though Franti - whose previous work includes such titles as "I Got Love For You" and "Nobody Right, Nobody Wrong" - has never exactly been Mr. Sourpuss, the new record is his most explicit effort yet to spread good vibes.


"In my life I work hard to be a positive person," he says. "If we get people moving in the right direction, we can achieve anything. And that's what I want to put out in the music. If all else fails, I want people to dance and have a fun time with their friends. So you can't lose."


If Franti weren't capable of churning out great pieces of danceable, tuneful pop like "Say Hey" and the recently released Sound of Sunshine title track, his Pollyannaish worldview might be insufferable. But he has decades of musical experience to back up his play.


The multiethnic Oakland, Calif., native first got his start in a punk band called the Beatnigs. But it was in the early '90s as a member of the politically charged industrial rap group The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, who opened for U2 on the Zoo TV tour, that he first came to music fans' attention.


After that group broke up, Franti became a true troubadour, traveling the world with his guitar while taking special to care to visit some of the most troubled places on Earth, such as Iraq and the Gaza Strip.


"Wherever I would go, when I would start playing political songs, there would be people who would go, 'Sing us something that makes us clap and dance and sing," he says. "That's how my music has really grown. I don't want to be somebody who just talks about social issues. I want to make people feel good immediately."
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Originally published by Mark Jordan Special to The Commercial Appeal .


(c) 2010 Commercial Appeal, The. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.


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