Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast - EP 91: Michael Franti

Episode Date: July 14, 2020

Join us for another adventure through psychedelic landscapes with Andy Frasco. Breathe deeply & relax your ear holes as they gulp down the audio positivity deeper into your psyche; cuz on the Interview Hour we welcome the peaceful protest legend himself, Michael Franti! Michael fills us in on what protest looks like while being "stuck" on the beautiful island of Bali. Arno introduces Ernie during halftime and Caleb sings. Stay focused! And don't forget to keep up the fight for justice. This is EP 91. Follow us on Instagram @worldsavingpodcast For more information on Andy Frasco, the band and/or the blog, go to: AndyFrasco.com Check out Andy's new album, "Keep On Keepin' On" on iTunes Spotify  Power to the Peaceful michaelfranti.com Produced by Andy Frasco Joe Angelhow Chris Lorentz Audio mix by Chris Lorentz Featuring: Ahri Findling Arno Bakker  Caleb Hawley Shawn Eckels 

Andy, this is Bruce from threesome. We were just messaging about you coming over and fucking my wife this weekend. I don't want to be too forward, but it's been a while because of the quarantine. Nobody's been able to come over and she kind of needs to get fucked. So here's what I'm thinking. Maybe you come over July 4th. You dress up like Abraham Lincoln, and maybe she'll dress up like Mary Todd Lincoln, and then I'll just be in the corner jerking off as you kind of

deep dick my wife. She's into it. I'm into it. This is the kind of stuff we do all the time, so don't be weird about it. I just want you to come over. I'm a huge fan and love to see you go to town on my wife. Give me a call back if you're interested or just respond to any of the messages I've sent you on the app. Again, July 4th weekend, you, my wife, sex, and then me in the corner just jerking off watching. Okay, super excited. Bye.

Bye. All right, and we're live. Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast. I'm Andy Frasco. How's everyone doing? How's our hearts? How's our heads? Are we staying fucking focused?

Do I need to play the fucking music? It's four months in, baby. You know what time it is. You got to stay focused is You gotta stay focused You gotta keep Survive in advance Like fucking Michael Rapaport says Survive in advance, baby

We're gonna make it through this The quarantine The great quarantine of 2020 We're gonna look past Excuse me When we're 80 or 90 We're like, yeah What'd you do in the great quarantine, Frasco?

Well, grandson I learned about the drug DMT. I've been taking a lot of hallucinogens lately. Not a lot, but once a week. I'll go and dive into the deep end, see what's up, see what kind of cobwebs I need to suck out of my mental vacuum so I could try to be a better person tomorrow, you know, I'm working on, I realize, you know, I'm only getting older and I need to, you know, start trusting in my feelings, you know, it's weird because I'm going to have a sip of coffee. It's like 8 a.m. on a Monday. Before the release day, I procrastinated to do an opening.

But that's life. I've been super busy. But hold on, let me have a sip of coffee. Fuck yeah. But yeah, I've been keeping myself busy. So I was like, you know, might as well explore myself internally, not externally. So I started taking DMT with the homies, and it's pretty cool. I mean, you know, I was like, I'm like, oh, Joe Rogan fucking loves this shit. So I'm like, oh, let's try it out.

If Joe likes it, then I'm going to like it. And it was good. You know, it gets a little intense at times. it it was good you know and it gets a little intense at times but like i wasn't like billy strings was like oh i saw some fucking aliens and i they took me into their spaceship i'm like um i didn't really see that but i did see that like energies were um the people that care about you you know they love you and they want to support you and they have your back so i've been building this quarantine family and and I love them, and we've been just hanging out every Saturday.

My boy Jeremy Sulkin, DJ Sleepy, the Fraskettes, Dee, Drew, Bree, you know, the whole gang. And it's just been nice to have some friends and take a step back from our busy lives and focus on what's important. And that's living present and living with people who care about you and loving each other. And, you know, so shout out to DMT for, oh, that's the moaning sound. But shout out to DMT and the hallucinogens for helping wake me up a little bit to find out what intimacy is because it's important.

This is scary times. We don't want to feel like we're alone. Quarantine already makes us feel alone. So don't let your brain trick you that you're completely alone. Find some friends or call your mom or call your dad. Tell them you love them. Tell them you care about them. You never know what's going to happen out there.

That's the beauty of living in the present because in the present, we're fine. Or maybe we're stressed out or have anxiety or whatever. But in the present moment, when we don't think about the past, we don't think about the future. We just think about that first second, like right now. Just think about that right now. What's going on right now in your life? What's happening? Feel pretty still. You know, even when you're stressing about future conclusions or past situations, we tend to lose who we are at this present moment. And maybe you weren't feeling

sad at that present moment. And all of a sudden something triggered you and bam, you're sad again, or bam, you're depressed, or bam, you have anxiety. Just take a breath. Know that this too shall pass. And we're going to make it through it because we're fucking strong. And we're going to kick this shit's ass. Corona is going to be our bitch after this, do I have to put on the fucking music again, I'm just kidding, but I just want to say, you know, Michael Franti's on the show, and he taught me a lot, he's stuck in Bali, y'all, I mean, I would say stuck, but he, yeah, he can't get out of Bali, and so he's there. He's been there since March or April. And he's there until September. And, you know, especially now through all the protests and stuff and whatnot, you know, he's the protest king.

He's been talking about all this stuff since 1987, y'all. So I feel for him. But he's fighting the good fight. And I'm glad he's finding peace. He's in love. He's got a baby. I mean, it was a great interview. I think you guys are going to really like this Michael Franti interview.

He's everything I thought he'd be. He's genuine. He's smart. And yeah, maybe I have a man crush on him, but shout out to Michael Franti. It's going to be a good interview. We have a good show for you. So sit back, relax, enjoy your life. And before we start the interview,

I'm going to tell you this one more time. Don't be so hard on yourself. Do not be so hard on yourself. Life is short. We fuck up. We're human. We have faults, but that doesn't mean that you have to be so fucking hard on yourself. Who cares? We fucked up. That's why we live in the presence. We don't fuck up again. So stay focused. Take some DMT if you have to. No, don't do it if you don't like to. I also tried ketamine. I didn't like that. I mean, it was cool, but I had to like snort in my nose, kind of like I had a relapse of cocaine. I'm like, ooh, this is like cocaine. Then I realized this isn't like cocaine. And so I tried it. I'm like, yeah, I don't think I need to do it again. But just take care of your body and drink water. I was going through an anxiety

attack, pretty heavy. I've been hitting it hard since Thursday. I've been Airbnb in my house. I've been living at everyone's houses. So when I do that, um, I just party my ass off cause I can't say no. So learn how to say no, learn how to trust yourself, learn how to be the person you want to fucking be. Because the end of the day, the only person that leaves you is yourself when you die. So love it, appreciate it, and don't regret anything because we all have faults. We're all human. We all think about the past and what we were, what type of asshole we were, or who we made fun, all that stuff. We'll always think about that, but take a step back, take a breath, live presently,

and I think we'll fight this anxiety, I think, and we're going to make it through this fucking quarantine 2020 because we're fucking strong. We're fucking powerful. All right. Enjoy Michael Franti, and I'll catch you on the tail end, guys. Love you. All right. Next up on the interview hour, we have Michael motherfucking Franti.

Chris, play some Michael Franti. This guy's been in the scene since 87. Rocking, rolling, writes great songs Inspiring, just a legend It was like Mr. Happy Interviews Mr. Happy It was fucking awesome He's a good guy He's been stuck in Bali And he's just been trying to protest

From far away With all the Black Lives Matter Protests And what's going on in our country. So he had some insightful things to say. So ladies and gentlemen, please enjoy Michael Franti. Wait, I wish I could find a better way to say this This world is so fucked up but I ain't never giving up on it

Never giving up on it Never giving up on it This world is so fucked up But I ain't never giving up on it Never giving up on it Never giving up Wait I wish I could find a better way to say this

We ain't asking for money We just wanna make change We do it for all of the people who need it cause they got a voice and a name I can't believe how we're living today, I got this anger and sadness and pain They can build walls but we can build bridges and we can be part of the change Oh wait, I wish I could find a better way to say this I wish I could find a better way to say this This world is so fucked up but I ain't never giving up on it

Never giving up on it, never giving up on me, never giving up on me This world is so fucked up, but I ain't never giving up on me Never giving up on me, never giving up on me Michael motherfucking Franti, dude. What's up, man? What is up? How you doing? I'm good, buddy. How you doing? I'm doing great. Technically, I guess I'm

stranded on a tropical island. We came out to Bali. We own a hotel here called Soul Shine Bali. It's a yoga hotel. So I was leading a yoga retreat with my wife when the pandemic kind of came in and we were like, oh, we'll just stay out here a couple more weeks

because our tour has been postponed, see what happens. And in those couple of weeks, they locked down the airport to in-going and out-going flights. So we can't leave the island. Hold on, so you've been stuck there for months? For months, yeah, yeah. And they're saying now that it'll be actually September 11th. I don't know why they chose that day,

but September 11th is the day when they say they're going to open the island back up. Oh, my God. You are like a Bali man now, buddy. I'm like Bali Gilligan. What do you like? Tell me about Bali. Have you been able to leave the hotel? Oh, yeah. We were able to leave the hotel and, you know, we can move around.

And there's, you know, there's surprisingly little COVID here. I mean, it's impossible to tell, you know, what the real numbers are because the health system here is so limited. Yeah. So test is limited. And but but the reported deaths are only five um in bali so far it's hard to believe that number is real but it you know that's what they're saying but um everyone has to wear a mask wherever you go if you travel in between villages there's like checkpoints that that require and they stop you if you're not wearing a mask even within the

village there's many checkpoints anytime you go to a different neighborhood, hand washing everywhere. Most businesses are still closed, but restaurants have reopened with limited hours and social distancing and stuff like that. So it's not that much different than what's going on in the States. But nice thing is that Bali is, the reason that I came here in the first place 13 years ago is that it's just this incredible land of culture. And the culture, the Balinese culture, they do everything together. So they have a system called the Banjar system, which is groups of about 75 families, and they do everything by consensus. So if they're deciding they're going to build a new road somewhere, everyone in the community has to agree on it before they actually do it.

And it's really amazing. They have a self-policing system where they have different members of the community rotate, being like the security for the community. they have different members of the community rotate being like the security for the community. So it's really an incredible culture and incredible art and beauty and of course, natural beauty of this tropical island. But really, it's the Balinese people that make it so amazing. So is that the reason why you picked Bali to do this yoga retreat or who like had that in your ear to like, Hey, let's fucking do a yoga retreat in Bali. That sounds amazing, dude. I never imagined in my life that I would ever be a hotel, a hotelier as you call it.

You're like Wes Anderson, dog. You're like Grand Budapest, dog. Yeah. Well, what happened was I came on vacation one time here with my girlfriend and we loved it so much. And someone that we met was like, you know, you should buy like a little piece of land here and you could build a house like slowly bit by bit. And then when you retire, you could come and stay here. And so we did. We came and we bought some land. It was very cheap at that time.

And with the intention of doing that, slowly building a house. But then when we got the foundation of the house built, she broke up with me. Oh, no shit. Heartbroken with a piece of concrete in the jungle. Tell me about that. So why'd you guys break up? Was it just not there? You didn't feel the love? No, she had just come out of a relationship before she got with me and she just needed some space to kind of go do her thing. And we're still really close friends and she's actually still a partner in the, in the hotel and runs it on the day to day of it.

So we're still, we're still friends and it all worked out. But I love yoga so much that I was like, let me build a hotel where the biggest room on the top of the whole building is the yoga studio. And so we built this, you know, five bedroom building and built a yoga studio on top and people started to come to practice yoga and do retreats here. So eventually we just, each year we started adding more rooms and now we're up to 32 rooms. And if there's two restaurants on site and a couple of swimming pools, we just put a slide from one yoga studio into the swimming pool.

So when you're all hot and sweaty, you can swim from yoga into the pool. That's fucking epic. I mean, that's what it is, right? I mean, isn't that life? Labor of love? Yeah. I mean, how is it being a hotel owner when tourism is kind of cut? Well, the thing was, I've never been somebody who bought stuff.

I don't buy cars or jewelry or clothes or obviously shoes. I've always said, let me put whatever money I earn back into, you know, things that would earn me money with the thought that, you know, someday music is not going to happen, but I'll have like this other business to fall back on. So, you know, then the pandemic hit and music stopped. And then no one would come to the fucking hotel. Oh my God.

So are you living in the hotel? Yeah. So we're staying in the hotel. And actually right this moment, we're actually at a different hotel just because we wanted to go somewhere kind of on slash vacation, 30 minutes away from where we live.

Is Bali small? Bali's small. It's probably like, I think it's 30 miles by like 25 miles or something like that. So it's small. There's about 3 million people who live here though. So it's pretty big, like a big city on an island. Yeah, it's epic. I mean, do people know you out there?

Or is it like, do you feel like you could hide? I mean, you're tall, you're tall, dog. You know, I've been here. I've been here on the island long enough that a lot of local people, especially in the area we live, everybody knows me. And they're like, hey, there's the tall dude on the scooter. You know, there's the guy carrying the basketball. You know, like I go play basketball every day with my wife.

So people in the community know me. And then a lot of the expat community who lives here, they all know who I am. So yeah, I'm relatively well-known here. But everybody here is so chill that it doesn't matter. It's a nice kind of being known not like a an annoying kind of people pestering you being known so do you feel lone uh loneliness that you can't help in a way out there because you're so isolated from the matters what happened in america and one yeah i mean How do you feel about that?

Well, I feel, yeah, I do. I feel like I miss, in a way, being back home in the States, just in terms of the sense of connection, especially when you've seen people walking in the streets and protesting. That's something that's been a part of my life for decades. I've been an activist in that way. But one of the things I've learned about activism is that you should measure activism not by whether you showed up at the protest. You should measure your protest by the progress that happens as a result of it. So some of the things that I'm most concerned about right now are like how do we turn this energy that was created

into actual results and move the needle on policing in our communities, that move the needle in normalizing anti-racism, and that move the needle to change laws by getting people elected who are the ones who are going to vote to change those laws and do both create new policies. And so all of us can do that in different ways. Some of us do it through posting things on social media. Some of us do it by being in the street. Some of us do it by having those uncomfortable conversations with their friends and their family and people at work. Some of us do it by anonymously donating to charities that are nonprofits that are doing

that great work. So there's a lot of ways that we can do it. And it doesn't have to necessarily ways that we can do it and uh it doesn't have to necessarily be location um driven these days now that we have um you know this medium that we're talking on right now you know i mean you're doing a podcast too that's pretty impressive are you doing it from there well you know i actually started that last year and so we we uh stockpiled you know 20 plus episodes we put out one a week so i i have a whole bunch stockpiled but yeah we're starting to to uh do them from here as well yeah so what is uh how how is artists uh can we do to help save or help you know help this world out with you know through activism and stuff. Like you said,

what can an artist do, you think? Just speak the truth? Yeah, there's a number of ways that I've found. In my life in music, my music has always been overtly political. Ever since I started in 1987, my first record was my band The Beatniks.

Man, you do not age, bro. You're like Benjamin Bundog. Thank you, man. And then in, so, you know, there's ways that people can shine a spotlight on particular issues. That's one way of, as an artist, that you could do it. Another way is of, like I mentioned, raising funds for particular issues. And another way is appealing to people's moral values

through your music. And I think at the end of the day that the last one is ultimately the most important one it's like uh I shouldn't be have to be the one telling somebody to vote for anybody yeah and and at the end of the day I I wouldn't expect that if a celebrity told me to vote for somebody that I'd fucking listen to them. Why should that be the thing that made me switch? But what does appeal is when you appeal to someone's moral compass and you say, we should have compassion for people in the planet. Like that's a very, very strong value that all of us should hold. And, and so then when it comes time to choosing, like, do we want to choose

somebody who is like in support of, you know, the fossil fuel industry or someone who's in support of like renewable energy? Well, like it should be, there shouldn't be any question in people's minds, you know, when you hold leaders up to these litmus tests that we have. And these days it's like, there's 30 or 40 things out there that all of us should think about. And if we're thinking people that we should care about, you know, there's obviously the Black Lives Matter movement, the environment, you know, equity for all people and, you know, so many, so many issues that are out there.

And we can't possibly do all of them. Like you can't possibly be a good activist for all of them, but what you can do as a musician is pick one or two issues that, that, that you feel the strongest about. And, and the way that I kind of judge that is by, does it break your heart? Like what breaks your heart? You know, and for some people it's like, they really identify with, with people, with girls who are cutting, you know, other people really identify with what's happening in the dakotas with the pipeline other people really are concerned about what's happening

with our oceans and you know i'm here close to ocean and the reef is being destroyed very close to here so everyone has their issues that's closest to them that that breaks their heart that they should get involved then as an artist and say this is my issue then there's then pick like four or five other people whether they're artists or activists or leaders somehow in the world that are working to fight for other issues that you care about and use your ability to amplify messages to help heighten their message along the way. And so that's how I feel like artists can be involved. And then every now and then artists are called to do an event,

to play, to raise some funds, or to do an event to raise some awareness for something. But that's not every day. But our activism should be every day in what we say, what we do, and the other people that we help magnify. Do you think social media is hurting or helping activism in 2020? Yes. I think here's the thing. I think at the end of the day, it's all it's all positive.

Anytime issues are brought out into the open and we see things that that that need to have light shine on them, shine on them. Where I think that it hurts is that people start like I remember like three years ago. I remember three years ago, I mean, not three years ago, three weeks ago, maybe four weeks ago, everyone on social media had suddenly a Harvard degree in epidemiology. It's like everyone,

people are citing all this stuff and I'm like, when did you fucking go to school and get an epidemiology, bro? You know? And coming up with all these just like crazy you know ideas about what the statistics and the numbers mean and are they real are they not real and i'm like leave that shit to the people who's dedicated their life to studying you know um and and and then and then when the black Lives Matter kicked in,

now suddenly everyone's an expert on race relations, like overnight. Like, again, you went to fucking the best school in the world and have studied race relations for 30 years or something, or black history for 30 years. And so what happens is it gives everybody this illusion that their thought process is the only one out there. And that if anybody disagrees even subtly with my thought process, that I'm going to try to take them down or tear them down. And so we have people who, like I mentioned, everybody's trying to do something.

You know, they're trying to normalize anti-racism. They're trying to, they're donating to things. They're reposting things. They're having those difficult conversations and they're trying to support, you know, Breonna Taylor or Elijah McCain or, you know, George Floyd or his family or whoever is in the news at that moment. And then somebody doesn't post something for a day and then everybody jumps on their ass about, you didn't fucking post enough. And I feel like that's where we lose in social media. People have to understand, you know people are generally if you're moving in the same direction that's what we want it's really hard to get someone from

a to p but you could get someone from a to b and b to c and c to d and we're all in different phases of our understanding of of um you know, you know, these issues. And so, uh, we can't tear people down just because they're not where we are on the spectrum of understanding. And, and, and, you know, in every situation, all of us find out later that where we were, what we were thinking was the right thing three years ago is actually like the needle has moved way over here now. And what we were thinking three years ago isn't even relevant anymore. Yeah. So I just feel like we've got to be kinder to each other along this journey and more respectful

and to leave space for people to learn and people to um to learn and and have teachable moments and and uh and grow from it do you think people because you're you're you know your career has been activism in your music and because you don't say something every day do you feel like you're getting chastised for that or how do you sometimes i do yeah sometimes i do and sometimes i get people saying oh you know michael's music was way more overtly political before and now he's you know not addressing the issues like directly and um in his songs and one of the things that i found is like when you write a song about an issue as soon as that issue goes away the song becomes irrelevant like not necessarily irrelevant but it becomes just a historic snapshot of that moment you know

like for example i have a i have a song called good to be alive today and i mentioned the ebola crisis in it and uh um his alliance is ebola crisis and ISIS is taking heads off. And it's like, that's what was happening in that moment. We remember that time when there was Ebola and ISIS was like beheading people, you know, but that's not happening like right in this moment. But the thing is, what I was trying to say is that people should have compassion for, you know, for health and for the work that health workers are doing to try to solve this, you know, the epidemic of Ebola. And that when I was mentioning, you know, ISIS taking heads off and then the next time I was like, a drone is bombing the village

and taking kids out. It's like ISIS is doing that. And then we're doing basically the same thing by like bombing this village and killing children with drones and shit. The problems don't go away, but when you write about them overtly, the context of the song goes away, moves on.

And so the song later doesn't speak, doesn't ring out the same way it does. Now, if I was going to follow the same thing, it's like, I got to be a new service as a songwriter. And now I got to write about COVID. And next year, it's going to be COVID 2021. And I mentioned COVID-19. So that's why I say, rather than So that's why I say rather than write songs that are literally about the, what's happening in the news cycle, it's better to write songs that are about the moral compass that we all have of, of compassion so that we, we know what we,

the decisions that should come when any issue comes up. Yeah. Because compassion is not a 2020 problem. It's been our whole existence problem. So with that being said, we need to be a little more vague as songwriters so songs can't be timeless. Yeah, I think it's not necessarily... I hear what you're saying.

I don't know if vague is exactly the right word. Yeah, I might be saying the wrong word. To me, it's like speaking to the heart more than speaking to people's heads. You know, it's like, how do you tap into people's emotions that make them feel something so that they're moved to make change?

And that's ultimately how people make decisions in their life is when their core emotions are like moved. And so that's, yeah yeah that's how i think in that the problem with social media because we like you said before it's like we have to say something all the fucking time we have to post something we have to do and it kind of it it deflates our words because some days we don't have the thought to you know that we really want to put out now we look like an asshole because we're not speaking about it because people are just talking like like my question to you is is overthinking ruining productivity i i think so i think

um you know one of my songs this new record i say you know it's it's like it's the whole song is about under thinking things you know it's like oh no and the songs they don't overthink it don't over drink it you know it's like we sit there at times and we just dwell on things so much that we or just drink our way through it so much that we that we can't figure out really what we, what we're trying to say or what we're going to say, you know? And, and then we, and then we do things that we later regret because we act so reactively to a

situation. And then we go, ah, fuck, now I got a back pedal because I shot my mouth off so hard here. And so there's, it's, there's mindfulness to everything we do. And the other thing is like people will say stuff like, oh, you didn't comment on this thing. You know, we noticed you were missing from social media for four days. And I'm like, yeah, because you know what? I have a thing called the life. I have a 22 month old son. You know what? The way that I could affect change in this moment is helping him like play with this worm. You know, and that was more important than me reposting a million things that everybody else is reposting. I saw you guys reposting this shit.

I didn't need to repost it. You know, it goes back to putting pressure on the celebrity to tell you like it's the same thing why we have a donald trump in the in the presidency and like it's yeah why do we why in america's in bali and like i tore i'm in a band i played with you a bunch actually um throughout the years but i toured in europe and they don't idolize celebrities as much as americans do why do you think americans idolize the celebrity why do we need to know what cardi b needs ass you know i'm like i'm not sure um um you know maybe it's because they have a i i don't know i don't know if maybe they have a longer

history with like kings and queens and shit like that and maybe there's a little bit of a maybe there's a you know some disdain there from that i don't know um or maybe it's not even true maybe maybe they do at this point uh but i think that um celebrity culture it's like when people have eyes on someone it's like people want to hear their opinions and they want to know where they're at because it's like a litmus test for where everybody else is thinking, you know? And I don't think that's necessarily a healthy thing for a society to have. But I also don't think it's something that people who are in the public eye should shy away from, you know, because, uh, what I'm thinking is there's probably a likelihood that there's hundreds or

thousands or perhaps millions of people out there who are thinking the same thing, but who don't have the courage to stand up and say it, you know, like the fact that it's become so normalized that we can lock up children. It's crazy. Like, I'm like, who the fuck thought that that was ever okay? Like, and yet it is. And you have people go on the news and justify it and say oh you know it's it's

just you know it's the law and the laws were created and well the laws are fucked up but that's the law yeah and so it's important for people to speak up and say what it is that they're thinking and they're feeling and it's important for um people who have the public eye or have their followers or whatever, whether it's 500 or 5,000 or 5 media, to be self-reliant and to do their own research and to think for themselves and to question what's happening out there. And to do it in a way that encourages dialogue and isn't just mean-spirited of, fuck you, I disagree with you, you know, but is a way that encourages trying to understand, look, I really get, I love that when I see that on my feeds and people are,

will write something either to each other or to me and go, look, man, I'm really trying to understand where you're coming from. Can you like shine a little more light on it rather than like, you're a dick. I hate you. You know, you spell their T-H-E-I-R instead of T-h-e-y apostrophe r-e and i fucking hate you you know it's like that literal it's everyone you know like what did you learn in bali about humanity that we could teach to americans you know there's uh there's reverence here that i've never seen anywhere else and what i mean by that is Balinese people are Hindu and every morning they get up and

they put out offerings. They actually do it three times a day. They put out offerings, little basket, it's got flowers in it, some rice, maybe a coin or something else. And it's got four different colors of flowers for the four directions. And they put it out in many places of their property all during the day and and it when i first came here i was i was just stunned by it i was like wow people do that and then they get run these offerings get run over by scooters and it's like kind of like a waste of time and energy but then i realized after these many years of being here that it's it's a way that it's like tuning the guitar in the morning. Like people get up and they do this meditation and it tunes them back into like the beliefs of their culture of that compassion and that connection to nature and that listening to the voices of spirit and of reaching out to one another

and having this community. And so it's about mindfulness. And at the end of the day, that's the thing that I feel like the world is calling out for more than ever is for people to be more mindful. And like you said, like not overthink things, but connect to their heart and let their heart lead and be mindful in the words

that they choose to use and be mindful in the way that we react, be mindful in the way that we connect with others and the way, or the way that we critique others. And, and so, I think that that's, that's the main thing that Bali has taught me is that, that the importance of mindfulness, and it's not that I'm there, like I'm, I'm far from that, you know, I get reactive and, you know, me and my wife have our spats and I do dumb stuff and, but I do appreciate and understand the importance of mindfulness. And that's what my yoga practice over the last,

since 2001 has been about it, about, you know, trying to connect more mindfully to everything I do. Yeah. I mean, I mean, I totally agree, bro. And so it's 2001. So what, what happened in 2000 that made you feel like you needed to take a breath? Like, were you into like addicted to anything or what? I went to yoga, my first yoga class right after 9-11. Yeah. No shit. Tell me about it.

Well, I was on tour and I was super stressed out. My body was run down and I was partying way too much and um right after 9-11 occurred um i went to yoga class and i walked into the class feeling just really stiff and stressed out and i walked up and still super stiff but but a little bit less stressed out and i was like wow i need this like i whatever this was i want more of it you know and so I started going to a different yoga school every day on tour I would just call up schools or just you know google schools and and and be like I was class of four let's go and my guitar player Jay and I would go literally every day to a different school. And it just became a part of my life. And so many changes started happening. Physically, my body became more limber. I had

injuries that I'd had for a long time that started to heal. I started to change the way I was eating. And mainly that mindfulness. When we practice yoga, what we do is we put our body in these challenging positions and it brings up all these sensation. And then we choose through our breath, we start to breathe through it and we choose to not put a label on it. Instead of going, ouch, this hurts, we go, oh, okay, I'm feeling this sensation in my hip. Now I take one breath and now it's less. I take another breath and it's less. I take another breath and now I'm here. I found I've just been able to hold this pose for 30 seconds. And now I'm moving into the next pose with breath. And okay, now I feel my hip loosening

up. Now I'm going to the other hip and it's going to start the same way and and oh but now there's a different sensation that's come up and what happens in life is we as all these different sensations come up we just we start labeling them we start reacting to them instead of mindfully breathing through them and finding approach we we just We just react. And that's what yoga is, is that practice of mindfulness so that when we get into challenging situations in life, we've already intentionally put ourselves through challenging situations in the mat so that we are prepared for how to respond to them

when we're out in the real world. So it's the art of being present. It's the art of being present. It's the art of being present. And so was it hard for you to be present? Like does the idea of success, because 2000, you're popping in 2002, right? You were popping then. So was it stressful to keep that success going? Like what was going on in your head during that time that made you feel like yoga

or being present was the answer? Oh, well, the main thing was, uh, I just wasn't being super mindful about what I was doing, the way I was taking care of myself. So,

um, you know, I wanted to be out there making music that was changing the world every day, but I, I was partying way too much. I was smoking tons of, you know, I wanted to be out there making music that was changing the world every day, but I was partying way too much. I was smoking tons of, you know, it was like 11 a.m., 11 p.m. Every day I was smoking weed. My manager used to hand me a spliff right before I walked on stage. We'd give each other a pound like this.

I'd have the spliff in my mouth. I'd walk out on stage, take a couple of big hits, and I'd hand it to the first person i saw in the front row and it was like a ritual for me you know yeah and then um i started going to yoga and i'd wake up in the morning and i'd have this kind of like weed hangover and i get the down dog which is when your head's down and you're kind of a triangle hands are there your feet are there and i would get this like head rush like oh man i feel like kind of dizzy and so i'd say well i'm not going to smoke weed tonight because i'm going to go to yoga class tomorrow and then i'd be like i'm not going to smoke weed this morning because i'm going to go

to one after sound check and in a couple months passed and i didn't even think about it and i hadn't smoked any weed after like for probably a dozen years smoking weed like wake and bake style all day every day was it giving you anxiety um uh it was making me not have uh you know when i i feel like there's there's a real i feel like plant medicine is an important part of living in life and then there's, you know, through, you know, through mindfully accessing parts of our emotion and pulling down the filters that we have through using plant medicines, be they weed or mushrooms or peyote or ayahuasca or iboga or whatever medicine, it's possible for people to find enlightenment. But when you're using those medicines all the time without mindfulness, it does the opposite. It just, it can put you into a fog. And, and so I really believe that plant medicine is something that is, it can be an important part of, and people are starting to use it more and more in like tradition,

like, you know, like mainstream psychotherapy. Now they're using like microdosing. Yeah. Mushroom. Yeah. It can be, it can be an important part of people's healing, but it can also be a way that people run away from their life, just like anything else, just like, you know, getting online and using your phone all day, or just like, you know,

any other form of distraction or sex or drugs or whatever it is that you're using to, to numb yourself. So, um, yeah, I was definitely during that time, I was definitely, um, you know, I started smoking pot every time I walk out on stage just to get over being nervous. Yeah. What were you nervous about? Just basic stage fright, you know, just like, oh, I'm walking out on stage. There's a lot of people out there.

My adrenaline is kind of pumping. I'm getting kind of like nervous. Like, what if I fuck up on this song, you know? And then I have a hit off a spliff and now i'm relaxed and i'm able to go out there and and and so for me it was about being able to find that playfulness without having to you know smoke weed and um and so that that's you know that was one of the many great effects of practicing yoga. Yeah, it's fucking amazing because I do that, but I do that with basketball. I play basketball.

I'm a huge. Oh, we got to go play, man. I know, man. You'll be blocking my ass all fucking day, but I'll put up a fight. It is halftime at the Andy Fresco interview hour. Oh. It is halftime at the Andy Fresco interview hour. Oh, the spring, the love, the love. Oh, especially for you. We have for one hour, for one evening, for the entire night, the Asian Miss Sexy Saxophone, Ernie Chan.

Go, sex, sex, sex, Ernie. Go, sex, sex, sex, Ernie. Call 666 early. Call 666 early. Because there is never too much sex. Too much sex. As a musician, how hard was it for you to not think about tomorrow? And was the stage your sanctuary? Because it felt like it wasn't because you're anxious during those pre-times that you had to loosen up. Where was your sanctuary where'd

you go when you're feeling anxious besides the pod and the stuff and besides the yoga like were you hooking up were you having a bunch of one-night stands like what was tell me like or were you always like always had a relationship like i don't know much about your love life because we're not friends yet but i mean definitely in mean, definitely when I started making music in the late 80s, everyone was having one-night stands everywhere. It was just like part of music culture was hookups. But to answer your question, I feel like depression and anxiety and loneliness is a big part of was it was a part of my life on tour. It's like you're you're away from all the people that you care about all the time, even though you're playing for thousands of people.

You're not really connecting in a meaningful way with anybody. Like you go out on stage, you play for thousands of people and you might not have had a meaningful conversation the entire day i know and then you go to back onto your tour bus and you're by yourself or you go into your hotel room and you're by yourself and so um loneliness can be really really challenging and um and so you, again, like yoga and playing basketball, again, have been ways for me running, exercise, fitness, writing, songwriting is, is another one for me. That's the cathartic. And when I get into an emotional, really deep place, it's when I write my tunes yeah and through writing songs and writing lyrics I'm able to express really what's in my heart and find that

ease of heart again and you know I think you know in my life the way I grew up you know, in my life, the way I grew up, you know, I was adopted into a family when I was born. And my birth mother is Irish, German, and Belgian. My birth father is African-American and Nottoway Indian. And my mom thought I would never be accepted by her family because her father was so racist. So she gave me up for adoption and I was adopted by the Franti family. They had, they were Finnish Americans. They spoke Finnish in our house. They had three kids of their own. They adopted two, myself and another African-American son. So I grew up in this really mixed melting pot of a family. And,

really mixed melting pot of a family and um you know i was like the one of the only brown kids in in my class growing up and in my school growing up and i got picked on a lot because of that where'd you grow up in davis california okay yeah it's like a university town you know and and so you know throughout my life music became the way that I I was also the father who raised me was an alcoholic for most of my life and so there was a lot of just a lot of issues in the house that I grew up in and music became my way to sort of escape. Like I'd put on my headphones, I'd listen to music when my folks were arguing in the next room, or I'd put on music to try to like get away from the stresses of, of just school and the atmosphere I was growing up in.

And then when I became an adult and started touring, music became both a way to go into those things and write songs about things that were hurting me. But it also became an escape of like, oh, now I'm on the road and now there's a party tonight and now we're going to this place and that place. Suppression. And so, yeah, so it becomes both. it becomes both. And, um, you know, my journey in music has been to like really heal myself and, and to, um, get to a place where I can be a more fully functioning person and a better

father and best husband I can be and try to show up that way. That must be tough. Did you, when did you finally accept adoption? Did you always feel like you're unwanted? I did. And, and I, you don't know if I've really fully ever accepted it. There's times when I look at my son, I have three boys, one who's 33 years old, one who's 21 years old, and one who's 22 months old. And I look at my, my youngest one now, and I think, man, how hard would it be to carry, to have carried me for nine months. And then my mom held me for one hour and she gave me away. Yeah. Fuck. No. And I'm thinking like, what were the circumstances?

And, you know, she told me it was because her father was so racist and that, you know, not marrying my dad, that she never would have been able to raise me in her household. I can really empathize with it, really understand it. On the other hand, I feel hurt. You know, I feel like I see my kid and I go, wow, it's really hard for me to understand how anybody in any circumstance can give up their child. And, you know, when I think about it, I know she was doing the thing that was the most loving thing. But as a person who was in this situation, it's hard for me as a child to, and still as an adult child today, to grasp that you could ever give your kid up. Yeah. When did you find out? When did your mom come back into your life? Were you younger, older? Were you pop? Tell me about that. When I was 20, I conceived my oldest son, Cappy. I should say my girlfriend and I conceived him. When he was born, I just barely turned 21.

I just barely turned 21 and something inside me was eating me it was like I want him to know where he came from yeah and you know I grew up not knowing it it's like because I grew up not knowing it I really want him to know it and so I uh searched for two years. And it was like, back then, it was like microfiche files. There was no internet. There was no like dna.com or whatever. Unsolved mysteries. Yeah, you go to the county clerk's office and you go, give me all the microfiche files of all the babies that were born in the county on this day. And I was able to, from my birth certificate, I was able to match up the serial number on my birth certificate with a serial

number on these microfiche files that you roll through this, this screen, like an overhead projector, basically, you know, and, and I was able to find a baby boy that was born on the same day as me that had that same serial number on the birth certificate. And then I was able to get a name, just only the last names of my birth parents. And from that, I searched through the marriage records of the county and of the state of California. Little detective. And found that my mom had been married, or three women with my mom's last name had been married.

And, uh, cause I didn't have her first name and one would had been married a long time before I was born. So I figured that wasn't it. One was married a long time after I was born. I figured that probably wasn't it. And there was one that was married about a year after I was born. I kind of figured, Oh, maybe that one was it. So then I went to the state tax records, property tax records. I mean, it's amazing how you can find out people. Dude, it's kind of scary. I'm afraid of all the dick pics I got out there. Yeah.

So then I was able through the state tax records, I was able to find that they had some property in California, but the bill for the property tax was being sent to Massachusetts. And that's where I found my mom. And she was in Massachusetts. Wow. What was that feeling like when you first met her was really intense because, um, you know, I was, um, I was working with this organization called Alma, the adoptees liberty movement association. Basically it's kind of like AA. It's like a support group for people who are doing, um, are looking for a parent or a lost child. And the way that it works is people who have done it then work with people who are trying to do it and they give them their pass on their wisdom.

So this woman that was helping me out, she said, I want you to write a script for the first time you call her. And I was like, well, like why do I want to write a script for this? She goes, because she might pick up the phone and you say, you know, I think you're my mom and she might get scared and like hang up and then

you'll never want to call her back. Yeah. You'll feel like afraid, you know, that she's going to hang up again. So in the script, I, I, I wrote, uh, that I want you to, I have something at first, you know, is your name. You, you know, Mary Roder, at first, you know, is your name, you know, Mary Roderick is my mom's name, is, are you, I want you to write down my phone number just in case we get connected.

Disconnected. And then the second, yeah. And just, and the second thing was, does my birthday have any significance to you? So I asked her that. And she paused for a long time. And she was like, yeah, it does. And then I said, well, I was born on that day. And I think I'm your child. And then there was this long pause on the call.

was born on that day and I think I'm your child. And then there was this like long pause on the call and she was like, Oh wow. Like how, you know, how did you get my phone number? How did you find me? So I told her the whole story of how I had searched for two years and all the things that gone through. And, and she was really emotional and she's, you know, asked a few questions about me and where I lived. And, and, and then she was like, you know, I, I knew this all took place over, you know, an hour and a half me and where I lived. And, and, and then she was like, you know, I knew this all took place over, you know, an hour and a half phone call, but she was

like, I've got to like, take a break for a second, you know, and I'll call you back later. And so she went off and, you know, she, I guess, talked to her husband and who wasn't my father, talked to her husband and explained it to her. And then she called me back later and had more questions and she was just like you know I just really need to confirm that it's really you you know like some some mistake here you know and once we were able to figure out that that it was me then we made a plan to meet up probably like I don't know six months later I flew out and met her and introduced my son, my youngest son to her. And it was really very emotional. And then she connected me with my birth father. And a couple of years later, I met him. And so it's just been this whole unraveling.

You know, it's been, you know, many years now. I met her when I was 22 and I'm 54 now. So it's been 32 years of just unraveling all the know, it's been, you know, many years now I met her when it's 22 and I'm 54 now. So it's been 32 years of just unraveling all the emotions around it. What do you want to get out of that phone call? You know, it's really, that's a really great question because I think the main thing that I wanted was to just know where I came from. People take that for granted that they see their mom and dad and they hear the stories of their family and the way they grew up and their genealogy. But I never felt that as a kid.

I always, every single day of my childhood, felt like an outsider in the family that I was in. Do you still feel like you're an outsider in life? I feel, yeah, I do. I feel like everyone feels at some point in their lives like they're an outsider and that we're all trying to find this sense of belonging to a group or to a family or in a relationship. like belonging to a group or to a family or in a relationship. But I feel,

and that's where I feel like I identify with other people who are outsiders. And that's what my music has always been about. Yeah. Is like embracing difference and seeing difference as being beautiful. And I guess that that's, I guess that that's the way that I've grown now as an adult, that I still feel like I'm an outsider or that I'm different, but that I see that as being not something that you have to live in pain from, but something that is to be seen as beautiful. The fact that all of us are different, like that all of us go into situations

where we feel at first, like we're the only person who thinks or feels or looks this way. And then we find out that we're not, there are other people out there, hundreds or thousands or millions of people who share these same feelings. And, and that the reason I think that that's so important is that's where people lose the plot in life. And that's where people take their own lives or that's when people take the lives of others or that's when people do hurtful things to other people. That's when people get caught in addiction. That's when people get caught in hurting one another is when they don't feel that sense of connection. And when that longing just becomes depression

and anxiety and fear, and it builds up to the point where they do unhealthy things. And so unraveling all that is something that we all go through, no matter what our experience. And that's what I've learned. It's like, yeah, I grew up in this certain set of circumstances,

but there's other people who had their parents in the house with them who felt the same way I did as a kid. Yeah. Maybe that's why you became a musician, to run. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it is why I became a musician. Yeah, to run from that, but also to, to run into it and to write songs that speak to it. Yeah. Totally. That's crazy, man. So when, how long did it take you for you to accept your, your outsideness?

Yeah. I think, I mean, I'm still working on it, to be honest. Do you take therapy? I have. I've done years of therapy. I've done, you know, my yoga practice has been a big way. I have friends. I, you know, my relationship with my wife has been really important. important. You know, I was, I was married before for 10 years and now I'm, I'm, I'm, you know, I, I, I'm sorry, my life partner, we've been together now for 11 years as, as, as being a

couple and five years of marriage. And, you know, she's, she's my rock. She's my hub. And things happen in relationship for a reason, I believe. It's like we find people who push our buttons so that things can come to the surface that you can learn to deal with them. You know? And, you know, we're not perfect. We are far from perfect but the one thing that we do have is this commitment to each other to stick with it and to go through the rough times and to go through the challenges and to come out on the other side and and we come out on the other side of it with enough percentage that it's worth staying in the game.

It's like a baseball player. You know, it's like if baseball, someone's batting 250, man, that's fricking awesome. Like they're online to make an all-star team. If they're a good fielder,

you know, that's 25% of the time. 25% of the time, you know? And so, you know, in my relationship, like we're you know we're we're probably like 70 percent there like we have our things that we duck on over and over again but

i'd say about 70 percent of the time we're able to work through it within like an hour or two or maybe it takes the next morning but we get through it you know and and that's uh it's a blessing you know i feel like you know we're we're on the all-star team of relationships yeah that's crazy because i've never you know i never had a relationship in my life i was always just doing one night stands and and and whatnots and i was i was question is like what how do you finally tell yourself to stop running and actually go in and get the conflict that you need to keep a healthy relationship? I mean, did that take you a long time? Were you suppressing your feelings about with your loved ones? I mean, I had serial, serial monogamy, you know, I'd go for three years and then break up for three years and break them three years

and break up. I did that for, you know, several go-rounds. You know, I think that the main thing is that I'm, I really love connecting with one person. It's important to me. And I value the time that we have together because I feel like when we go through these rough patches, we come out the other side of it feeling closer than we did

when we thought everything was perfect the day when there was no problems. And that's so when you ask the question, like I have this song called Life Is Better With You and I wrote it it was Valentine's Day and we had this great Valentine's Day, it was like And that's, so when you ask the question, like I have this song called Life is Better With You, and I wrote it. It was about, it was Valentine's Day. And we, we had this great Valentine's Day.

It was like perfect. We were here in Bali or walking on the beach hand in hand. It was super romantic. We thought everything was perfect. And the next day we had this big blowout fight. And, and in the morning and we were like, man, who did I wake up with? Like, God, this, you know, like, I don't even remember. Yeah. Yeah.

Like, you know, and then, and then we talked about it in the afternoon. We talked about it over dinner. By the end of the day, we had patched things up and we had this feeling of feeling closer to one another than we did the day before when we thought everything was perfect and that's when i knew that i had it great with sarah that the two of us had like a great foundation of relationship with that we went through a shitty time we actually got through it and i had had many relationships before where that wasn't happening or We'd go through shit a few times and it would keep going and keep lingering for months and months and years.

And I think that a lot of it, it wasn't the relationship that was bad and it wasn't the people in the relationship that was bad. It's that neither myself or my partner had grown enough to be capable of doing that. So it wasn't that I was with a bad partner. It was that I wasn't ready yet to be showing up in the way that a real relationship needed. It's basically... That's awesome.

I'll let you go here soon, man. It's basically... Yeah, bring him in. Let me meet him. that's awesome I'll let you go here soon man it's basically it's basically you can't love anyone else until you love yourself in a sense right yeah that's true oh so cute this is awesome

I'll let you go Michael I'll let you go I got one last question man by the way thank you so much for your time you're a great guy you're everything I fucking knew you would be you're a fucking legend you've experienced a lot in your life and I'm so proud of you

as a musician we all look up to you so fuck anyone who says you have to say everything all the fucking time you do it when you want to do it. Um, last but not least, what do you want to be remembered by Michael when everything's said and done?

Uh, that I, I would love to be remembered that he was helpful. You know, if that's what my gravestone said, I would be, I would be a really nice thing. Um,

um, it's great artists, May Erlewine. She, she told me that one time, actually, she was like, I want to be known aswine, she told me that one time, actually. She was like, I want to be known as being helpful. And I thought that's a really good thing to be remembered for. And as a musician, you don't know who you really touch in your life. It's

impossible to know all the people who heard a song in the middle of the night when they just passed away and your song was the middle of the night when they just passed away and your song was the one that helped them to cry and grieve or maybe your song are the ones who helped them get to school every morning when they were in traffic with their kids and trying to rush and do all the things in life and your songs were the ones that helped them yeah you just don't know how your music affects people and so um i will I want to be remembered as being helpful to people who listen to my music, being helpful to my kids and my family, being helpful to the world in some way in a general sense of helping to, you know, shine the light on issues

and to, you know, make the world be a better place. And, um, you know, again, uh, you know, I'm not perfect and I've had my failings in life and, and I will continue to do that. But, you know, if you can at least do more good than you did bad, then that's, that's a life that's well spent. And so, uh, that's, that's what I'd like to be, uh, room for being helpful. Well, let's fucking go. My God, that's what you're doing.

That's what you're fucking doing, my guy, Michael. That's great. I mean, it's true, man. It's all we can do is try. And if we're just trying with the best intention we can do to try to help others, then, you know, we're doing all we can to help humanity when we leave this world. Thanks so much for being such a good fucking human. Go have fun in Bali. I'll see you

in 2022. I'm going to go play basketball right now. I'm about to go hit the court. Get 20 jumpers for me. Think about frasco while you do that. Have a great one, bud. Enjoy Bali. And thanks for being such a good guy, bro.

Thanks, man. Take care, bro. Later. All right. That was awesome. Fucking Michael Franti. Everything I always knew he would be. Unbelievable.

All right. I'll catch you on the tail end. Enjoy this in the meantime. And now, a message from Caleb Hawley. Thank you. through you you'll get the blessings I can't break through so tell me what it's like to have a dream come true

is it everything you ever wished for do you level up and yearn for more does fortune come knocking on your door each night Just having it easy

make you lose your fight Tell me what it's like to have a dream come true If I never know I could live through you You get the blessings I can't break through So tell me what it's like to have a dream come true Watching you flourish is a beautiful thing

But I get a bit sad just thinking of me And I look at this picture from 2003 I remember who I thought I'd be Tell me what it's like to have a dream come true If I never know I could live through you You'll get the blessings I can't break through So tell me what it's like to have a dream come true You'll get the blessings I can't break through

So tell me what it's like to have a dream come true All right, all right. There you have it. Thanks, Michael. Wasn't that the shit? God, he is fucking smart. Nice. Like, I was FaceTiming with him. I'm like, oh my God. Don't stare in his eyes too long. Because, you know, you fall in love with the guy. He's a great fucking guy. And, like, he looks guy. He's a great fucking guy. He looks good.

He's like 53, and he's just strong. I'm like, damn, I might have a man crush on this guy. So shout out to Michael, because he is that motherfucker. You know what I'm saying? Some people walk the walk or don't walk the walk and talk the talk. This guy does it all, and I'm just happy I got to share a little bit of time with him. So shout out to you, Michael. But that's it, guys.

Thanks for coming. Thanks for hanging. Dance party's been popping off. I think we have one more week left. Unless Twisted T renews our contract. Come on, Twisted. Give me some of that. Oh, that was the wrong one,

but I love that one. Look how funny this is. That's for Twisted T. Shout out to Twisted T. Shout out to Fourteener for getting me fucked up. Not fucked up, but just getting me on that weed,

that power weed is great. So if you're in the Denver area, Boulder area, go shop some 14-year weed. A lot of weed gives me anxiety. This weed doesn't, actually. It's organic, and it's fresh, and it's nice, and everyone who owns the joints are just super sweet. So if you're in the Colorado area, go to 14er. Go get some of that grass. Tell them Frasco sent you.

Maybe they'll give you like a free joint or something. I don't know. Maybe not. But go out there. They're good guys, and they support the podcast, and I want to support them, and they hook me up with weed. So thank you for the weed buds. But I'll leave you with this guys, you know, going back to finding out who you want to be in your identity, you know, and not worrying about it. Don't stop giving a fuck what everyone else thinks about you. You know, like I think that was the main reason why I never committed to a relationship is because I was afraid that whoever I got intimate with, I was going to be judged from others that I don't even give a fuck about. So find out what you love.

Find out who you need to be with in this life. This quarantine was a blessing in disguise. It's fucked up. We have no work. And I'm trying to pivot in my career a little bit until we could get back on the stage. You know, they're thinking that we won't even be back on stage until December, January, which is fucking sad. So use this time to find yourself. time to find yourself. Use this time to grow love deeper with your relationships, with your parents,

with your mom, with whoever the fuck that you had a salty relationship with and you feel like you want to rekindle it. This is your time to do it. Because all we're doing is just thinking about doomsday. There are some woke ass people out there. I can't even watch the Instagram. Everyone's like conspiracy theory overload. I'm like, what the fuck is real? What the fuck is it? It just frightens me. So I'm going to focus, instead of focusing on that, I'm going to focus on building relationships with the people I love the most and trying to be a better person. And if we could all try to be a better person. And if we could all try to be better people, one by one, I think we could live a better life and live a better life internally.

You know, like we live a great, we as Americans are fucking selfish in a way where we have everything we want and we're still bitching, you know. We got to think of all this third world country sometimes where they don't have shit, you know, and we're bitching're bitching that we have to stay in our fucking houses and shit. I'm like, take a deep breath. Find out who you are as a person internally. Love yourself. I'm going to say it again.

Love yourself. And we're going to make it through this. I'm telling you. We're going to stay focused. We're going to stay powerful. We're going to stay strong. And we're going to fuck this thing up because you are more powerful than you think you are. All right, guys, I love you. Um, who do I have on the show next week? I don't know. I'll find out this week. I'm interviewing a few, I'm interviewing a lot

of people this week. So, um, podcast overloads, um, shit show Thursday. I think Franti's on the shit show this Thursday as well With No no no Karina Reichman Karina Reichman's on the show This Thursday With Fuck why am I blanking out on who is the other guest

It was Karina Oh John Craigie Oh fuck yeah I forgot I got one of my favorite songwriters on the shit show Thursday. So John Craigie and Karina Reichman. It's going to be fun. So I'll see you Thursday. Saturday's dance party.

We'll see if they re-up my contract with the Twisted T so we can have more dance parties. If you're feeling the dance party, shoot me a message. Let me know you like it. And then I'll'll send it to twisted team like yeah look our fans like this you better rock no it's been fun everyone loves it it's just it's a blast so um those are my things i am i think i'm also doing a a virtual three-day festival. I got the band flying in town and we're going to do like a big old three-day fucking, it's going to be fun, a broadcast live from the house.

We're going to play the new album in its entirety. And then we have fan night where you're going to pick what songs we play. And then we're also going to do like a Weeby spelling. It's going to be hosted by Kyle Ayers. And we've got a lot of special things. The three-day event and all the band. We haven't seen each other since the beginning of quarantine,

so the whole band's flying in. And it's going to be a lot of fun. And I'll give you more information. I just wanted the podcast fan to know before I announce it. But it's going to be special. It's going to be the big three days. I haven't picked a name out for it yet, so if you guys have any ideas for what should we call it,

I'm thinking virtual pool party, because I think that's funny. But yeah, it'll be fun. So ladies and gentlemen, I love you. Be safe. I'll see you this week. I mean, I'm all over the internet with all the different shows I'm on. So

if you need anything, just Instagram me, message me. I'm a message away and I get a lot of messages, but I try to answer all of them. So if you're feeling low or you feel like you need to talk, hit me up because we're in this together. All right, guys, be safe. Wear condoms. Fucking quarantine babies are real.

And don't overdose. And love yourself. And love the world around you. And stay present. I love you. Bye. You tuned in to the third season of Blissful Blah at Andy Fresco's World Saving Podcast.

Thank you for listening to episode 91, produced by Andy Fresco, Joe Angel, I want Chris Lawrence. Please subscribe, rate the show on iTunes and Spotify so we can make this a worldwide phenomenon. For info on the show, please head to Instagram at worldfavingpodcast. For more info on blog or tour dates, head to andyfresco.com. Check out the new album, Keep On Keepin' On. Or let Andy entertain you at a Thursday night online shit show. Or at this crazy Saturday night wanna dance with somebody dance parties. This week's guest is Michael Franti.

Find him on, surprise, surprise, michaelfranti.com. Our special guests this week are Sean Eccles, Caleb Hawley, Brian Swartz and Arno Bucker. Oh, right. Summer season is here. no festivals, no music. So instead of trying to keep the lip going and hoping to find some shitty paid trombone at JubaGigs this summer, I decided to reroute. Building closets and wardrobes, build a tiny summer house and do some painting. It will be October in no time.

And yes, I sort of hate it compared to the wonderful life I lived. But I'm also thankful that people trust my skills or my good looks or whatever they have my back and i managed to make some money the big danger in this line of work actually it pays a lot better than being a musician all right how are you doing making ends meet No work? Putting on a virtual dance party every week? Let's make sure to carry each other, get one another's backs, keep each other safe, keep each other sane, keep each other healthy. Let's unite, for it will be a long road ahead. See you next week.