Ravinia 2022, Issue 2

VANDI ANGGA “It was the first guitar that I ever played,” says the globally recog- nized musician, humanitarian, and award-winning filmmaker who has topped the Billboard charts with hopeful hits such as “I Got You” and “Sound of Sunshine.” “I learned on that guitar, and it’s still the guitar that I play every night onstage. I play it whether I’m playing in front of 40,000 people at a festival or just sitting here with me on this bus right now. I feel her spirit in this guitar.” In fact, the guitar serves as a centerpiece of sorts in Franti’s latest music video, for his single “Brighter Day,” which was filmed in Bali and features people from all walks of life experiencing a wide range of totally understandable emotions when living in today’s world. But on this day, as Franti holds his precious guitar in his hands, the undeniable king of optimism and good mojo also seems in tune with his varying emotions. And on this day, he sounds some- what weary. “I’ve really been going through a time of deep self-reflection,” he states from an early stop on Michael Franti & Spearhead’s new Follow Your Heart Tour. “I’ve had moments of incred- ible gratitude and clarity as of late, but then I always seem to go back to questioning the world and what my role is in it.” The man who has long been open about his past battles with anxiety and depression draws in a deep breath. “I’m rather baffled by it all.” And in one short sentence, Franti reminds us all that he is, in fact, human. “My dad passed away last year of COVID,” Franti says quietly while also mentioning that the devastating event eventually caused him to write his optimistic new song “People Need People.” “And I lost some friends to COVID too. It made me really question everything. It also made me face my mortality more than ever before.” But instead of letting it tear him down, it eventually ignited a fire in the 55-year-old’s soul to find his way out of the sadness, and into the light again. And it’s this light that shines brightly on his 12th studio album Follow Your Heart, which serves as the follow-up to 2020’s Work Hard and Be Nice . “At the end of the day, ‘follow your heart’ is the answer to every question,” says Franti of the symbolic backbone of the album that features the enthu- siastic single “Good Day for a Good Day,” which just went and marked the band’s 10th top-25 AAA hit. “All of the big questions in your life are driven by that simple act of following one’s heart. When I think back on my life, it’s the moments when I didn’t follow my heart that I made the poor decisions.” Understandably, Franti refuses to dwell too much on those poor decisions. A vision of a man currently basking in the success of a multi-de- cade career, Franti lives a life where he spends far more time looking forward than looking back. And on this partic- ular day, he is looking forward to fi- nally getting back to Ravinia Festival. “It’s the perfect setting for me because I love to get in with the crowd,” says Franti, who will perform at Ravinia Festival on July 9, his first visit splitting stage time with G. Love & Special Sauce back in 2009. “I love to go all the way up to where people are sitting on the lawn with my micro- phone and move through the audi- ence. [Ravinia Festival] is that kind of a magical setting that, while it is large, there’s also an intimacy there that’s created by the people who are there making moments of their life there.” He lets out a slight chuckle. “Oh, if that lawn could talk.” RAVINIA MAGAZINE • JULY 4 – JULY 17, 2022 8