In Tune with the Earth: An interview with Cloud Cult's Craig Minowa

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Rock stars. Some time in the last decade, the ever-unpredictable rebels stopped smashing guitars and started cleaning up after themselves. And not just in their hotel rooms -- this new breed is treading lightly on the planet.

Perhaps you've considered the toll our beloved music industry takes on the environment, with its plastic packaging and intercontinental tours. Cloud Cult certainly has. The innovative indie band, based from an organic hobby farm in northern Minnesota, produces music through the self-created label Earthology Records. Though no one buys Cloud Cult albums just because of their eco-conscious bent, it's refreshing when a talented group not only sings about the value of earth and life, but backs up those lyrics with some respectful production moves. Seemingly small things like recycling plastic CD cases, offsetting emissions, and supporting renewable energy all show Cloud Cult's consideration for the planet. In an interview with Utne.com bandleader Craig Minowa explains the messages behind the band's music and their environmental ways.

How would you describe Cloud Cult, musically speaking?

That's always a tough one. We generally get categorized as college indie rock, and that's a very large genre of sounds, but it tends to be a little more experimental than mainstream music. We don't adhere to any single genre, so if you're listening to an album track by track it can change a lot. You can be in the midst of a song that somebody would consider straight-up folk, and then go to something that seems more rock, and then go into something that's almost techno. It kinda flops all over the place. We don't want to get pigeon-holed as a single genre because that would get boring.

Are there lyrical themes?

Definitely. There seems to be a progression with the lyrics. With each album they seem to be evolving more and more in a philosophical, spiritual analysis. Not in a preachy sense, but more in trying to understand what it all means and really taking a hard look at mortality. And trying to put value on the short time that we have here on the planet, trying to understand or at least pontificate about what happens after we leave here.

The band has received a lot of attention for being an eco-conscious and socially responsible band as well as a musically sharp one. Can you explain the steps you've taken to earn such a reputation?

From the very start things have been different with Cloud Cult than with a lot of your traditional bands out there. With the first album (Cloud Cult was just me at that time; it was a studio act), I finished and realized that there was really no way to duplicate the CD in a way that I felt comfortable with, since that first album had some inclinations of environmental messaging in it. (I went to school for environmental science.) So with the first album I had to start from scratch in figuring out how to duplicate the CDs in an environmentally friendly way, and that's where Earthology Records began.

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