Michael Franti & Spearhead

One of the most positive and conscious artists in the world today, Michael Franti’s performances highlight his desire to communicate directly with his audience, while his music is a powerful force that can instantly and almost chemically change your entire mood. “Music is sunshine,” says Franti. “Music is something you can’t hold in your hands, smell it, taste it or even see it, yet somehow just coming together and feeling these little vibrations that tickle our eardrums can somehow lift us all up out of our most difficult moments in life to unimaginable heights.”

Franti’s singularly open spirit reflects his own eclectic and intriguing background. Michael was born to an Irish-German-French mother and an African American and American Indian father in Oakland, then adopted by a Finnish American couple who raised him along with their three biological children and another African American son. While studying at the University of San Francisco, Franti formed the punk band The Beatnigs, and later the far more hip-hop inflected The Disposable Heros of Hiphoprisy. Through it all, Franti has crossed all sorts of musical and physical boundaries in order to make music for everybody.