Always one to add the sunshine to a cloudy day, Michael Franti & Spearhead just premiered the touching video for his new single, "I'll Be Waiting." The anthemic arena-rock ballad is the third single featured on group's latest inspired and inspiring new album "The Sound of Sunshine" as a free download. Known early on for his politically charged messages, the lead vocalist Franti's musical mesh of Hip-Hop, roots reggae and rock helped to launch Spearhead into international success. A veteran vegan and always socially conscious, Franti's reggae soul is truly compassionate.Franti told Billboard magazine how a certain well-known Irish band inspired this song: "Many years ago, I opened for U2, and I was so impressed by the way they can write something big and yet intimate. Coming out of hip-hop, it was a lesson to me and I started to aspire to blend the eloquence of great hip-hop with the melody and power of great rock. With this song, I wanted to write something that was the kind of powerful anthem that people in an arena could sing. It's a song about being there for other people, ready to catch them when they fall."
The San Francisco-native gives some personal filler on the song describing it on his blog writing as: "an epic and vast song about intensely personal experiences. At it's core it is a love song, but not in the classic sense of the phrase. It is a song of searching, failure, growth and healing. It is a love song between a friend who is addicted to heroin and his lover who is desperately waiting for him to clean up. It is a love song for a single mother who has just seen her teenage daughter run away to the city, only to come home pregnant and alone. It is a love song for an over-demanding father who's son has gone off to war only to come home broken with scars inside and out. It is a love song for a bus driver who spends his whole day helping others only to come home to his wife who is battling cancer."
Michael Franti & Spearhead are always a positive force - whether singing about social responsibility or celebrating the sunshine. In new video, Franti takes us on an emotional rollercoaster telling the story of the song through a number of perspectives, including a tearful homecoming for a soldier. Sunny weather, tearful homecomings, and moments of love and happiness illustrate Franti's ideology on the meaning of life. The video is a sunny, sentimental scenes of everyday people and performance footage mix together for one feelgood mash-up.
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