Spearhead leader Michael Franti has been on the cutting edge since forming his first band, industrial rap/punkers the Beatnigs, in 1986. His next group, Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, kicked it up a notch, more closely identifying with hip-hop and taking an even harder political angle. Unfortunately, the Heroes style of intelligent, political hip-hop was about to be swept under by the tidal wave of tiresome gangster rap even as they rose from the ashes of the Beatnigs in 1992. The Heroes pretty much evolved into a cult item, with celebrity fans like U2 taking them on tour, or admirers like producer Hal Willner tapping them to work on albums with the likes of William S Burroughs. They certainly weren’t about to break into the mainstream of mid nineties rap, but considering the difference in ideology between, say, Dr Dre and Franti, that was a foregone conclusion. Now, with the seven piece Spearhead (together since 1994), Franti has toned down the noise and brought in heavier funk/world beat elements, but his lyrics continue to challenge and provoke, completely at odds with prevailing sentiments in mainstream rap music.

Franti: "Yeah. It’s kinda like, if you just read the lyrics you would think that hip hop was taken over by the Republican Party, Fox News or something. It’s gone so mainstream, and they just espouse the values of the right wing in America, you know: get rich, step on anybody to get there. Yeah, it’s hard for me to listen to lyrically but I love the beats and I love the music that people put out. And there’s still a lot of great hip hop around the world, a lot of great underground scenes in every town making the best music."

SEE: Like the Quannum Projects folks in San Francisco?

Franti: "That’s who I feel my closest connection to, because they’re in the Bay area, and like you said, they put the fun back in the funk."

SEE: On your latest, Everyone Deserves Music, you’ve got a guest performance (on We Don’t Stop) by Gift of Gab from Quannum veterans Blackalicious. Those guys seem closest in musical spirit to a lot of what you’ve aimed for with Spearhead.

Franti: "Yeah, that’s what we try to do, be uplifting and soulful and speak about things that, ah….well, I speak from the heart, about things that concern me."

Franti has always spoken from the heart, and he holds his activist ideas dear. In song and in speech he’s railed against the death penalty, globalization, and has been a high profile critic of the U.S government, persistently questioning the invasion of Iraq.

Franti: "I think that’s a big question for the whole world. It’s also a question for my country to ask themselves, you know. A year after the war, are we really safer after spending millions of dollars on the war, have we really in fact made ourselves more hated and in doing that more vulnerable? Big question everyone needs to ask is do we want gunboat diplomacy or do we want to actually sit down across the table from someone and use diplomacy?"

SEE: So I guess you must be feeling like there’s no actual Democratic alternative, since John Kerry actually voted for the war.

Franti: (Laughs) "It’s a nightmare. But, uh, I just came back from a trip to Iraq, Palestine and Israel, and I’ve seen firsthand what the war has done to people. And I don’t think that we should be just voting Bush out of office, I think we should be court martialing our Commander in Chief and then sending him to the U.N High Court like we send Milosevic and other people. Because…just to see the devastation that’s taken place in Iraq first hand….there’s no justification for it…no moral justification for it at all."

Edmonton

Franti last came to Edmonton on a wing and a prayer tour with his first band, the Beatnigs, in the late eighties. Signed to Jello Biafra’s Alternative Tentacles label in San Francisco, the band tooled around North America in true indie punk style. They camped out at a local garage rock band’s house and played noisy, careening rhythms to a small number of bemused punks at the old Multipurpose Rumpus Room. It was a strange and wonderful gig to behold.

Franti: "Yeah, that was the one time I played Edmonton. I…vaguely recall it. I think we played with SNFU. They’re still going, huh? That’s awesome; I love that band. You know, I used to live in Edmonton for a year, I don’t know if you know that. I lived there when I was in grade nine, and went to Highlands Jr High School."

SEE: Did it have any effect on you, being transplanted for that one year?

Franti: "It did, it did, even though, ah…Canada has a pretty similar culture (to America) if you compare it to Asia, Europe or the Middle East, but it’s still vastly different in terms of…the notion that you grow up with that America is the only place. That what’s good for America must be good for everyone else. When you travel out of the country, you find that what’s good for America is shit for everyone else. And that (living in Edmonton) really kinda shaped my world vision when I was a teenager."

SEE: So, aside from your Beatnigs experience in the late eighties, this’ll be the first time through in close to twenty years. Do you have any nostalgia for Edmonton? Do you have any desire to check out the old stomping grounds?

Franti: "I’m gonna try and see if I can drive by my old school, maybe my old house; but the one person I wanna see is my old basketball coach. I’ve kept in touch with him by phone over the years: he went on to marry my old typing teacher. And uh, he used to play for the Eskimos, he was a punter for the Eskimos. Then he started teaching Phys Ed at Highlands. It was kind of a hard time in my life: my father was at the peak of his alcoholism at that point, and he (his ex coach) was the closest thing that I had to a connection with an adult male in my life."

SEE: He must be pretty proud of how you turned out.

Franti: "I think so. I mean he’ll get a call from me and he’ll say ‘what’re you doing?’ I’ll say ‘I’m travelling, playing music,’ he’s like ‘haven’t you settled down yet?’"