JPG: Now the material for the new album, was any portion of it written beforehand or did it all develop along with your brighter outlook after the surgery?

MF: I wrote some things beforehand. I had actually written a version of the song “Sound of Sunshine” that we were performing out on tour with the Counting Crows when my appendix ruptured. But then afterwards I wrote a different version, which is the first version on the album, which is a really more upbeat version than the other version that I had written which was kind of the sound of sunshine going down, like going down at the end of the day, end of plans, you’re just relaxing, kicking back, you’re letting everything from your day just wash off your shoulders. But I wanted to write one that was kind of the morning version when you first get up and you see the sun or you’re out in the sun in the day; that sense of joy and exuberance that the sun brings.

JPG: Going back to the idea of transitions, you’ve had a really lengthy and exciting career from Beatnigs to Disposable Heroes to Spearhead but this time you’re coming off a commercially successful hit single. What was the thinking going into it this time? Is there pressure to do it again?

MF: I’ve never really felt pressured to do anything except make the best music that I can make and that’s what we set out to do this time around, but it’s what we set out to do every time we’ve made a record. With this record I really wanted to make sure the songs that we recorded were songs that when we played them live they came off just as easily as they did on the album. So we went in and recorded some music but then we went out on the road with John Mayer and every day we were out with John Mayer, we would play the songs live and we would see how the audience would respond to them. Then, we would go into the dressing room. We would set up our portable studio there and we would re-record the songs based on if the audience was dancing or if they were singing along or whatever. And it ended up being 90% of the stuff that we recorded in the locker room ended up on the album.

JG: Is it strange, as far as success, having a track on “Now That’s What I Call Music” or even having “Say Hey” on an Oprah commercial and a Corona commercial?

MF: Oprah’s been using it. There’s a Corona Light commercial that used it. It’s in a whole bunch of movies. Yeah, it’s been a weird thing, especially after 20 years of making, you know really at times, dissident music. And to then hear my songs in shopping malls and when I’m riding in a taxi in New York City or an announcer say, “That was Miley Cyrus’ “Party In The USA” and then here’s Michael Franti with “Say Hey”.’ That’s been kinda weird, but I’m grateful. I remember when I was a kid listening to AM radio, we’d listen to whatever was on and we’d go camping and listen to these songs and they became a part of my childhood. And I’d think the same way if my song is part of somebody’s beach barbeque on the Fourth of July. Then, that’s an honorable place to be in someone’s life.

JPG: Maybe I’m just old school in some ways in regards to hearing songs on commercials. I’m still a little torn. Do you have control over where the song goes?

MF: We approve everything that we do and we turn down a lot more things than we’ve agreed to but I look at it differently. There was a time when you’d make a record and you’d go out on the road and you tour just to support the record. Now, we’re one of the bands to do between 220 to 250 shows a year and our money comes from a lot of different sources. And we do a lot of things for free. I make films about political issues. I do benefit concerts. We do all kinds of different things. The money that goes in comes to us like from a movie soundtrack or a commercial goes to help support the work we do for free. We do the Power to the Peaceful Festival, it’s 50,000 persons, the festival that’s free every year, and it takes an incredible amount of money out of my own pocket to be able to do that. These things balance out. Because of downloading, we don’t make money off record sales anymore and you just have to create a new model for the way that we do things. A lot of people ask me that and they’re all holding a beer at my shows saying, ‘Hey, do you like to do beer commercials?’ (laughs)

JPG: I was thinking about someone like Moby who sold all the songs from his album Play for commercials or other sources and then gave all the money to charities. I guess the last thing is, when I was originally preparing questions for this interview, it was when the last combat troops were leaving Iraq. And I’m thinking of your earlier songs and how you covered such subjects. I just wanted to get your feelings about that moment on where we are and where we’re headed?

MF: Well, I was thrilled. I was up late. It was about five nights ago and I was on the internet and this report came on that the last combat troops were leaving Iraq that moment. Yesterday, I was in the airport in Atlanta and there was two soldiers who’d just come back from Iraq, who were just getting off the plane there, and I’m super glad because I was there and I saw what it was like for those guys and I saw the effects of power gone on everyday people in Baghdad. This was not a war that I supported from the start and so I’m glad to see it ending.

But, really for the people on the ground in Iraq, things are far from over and even though our combat troops are gone, we set up a giant military base there, the biggest one in the world in Bagdad, and so it’s going to be an ongoing thing there. I’m somebody who really believes that spending money on students, spending money on teachers, on our scientists, the best that we have to offer to create new energy practices, is money that is much better spent than on blowing people up in other countries. So, I’m gonna continue to preach that message.

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