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

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As far as the band goes, the recording studio is here. That's where the last three albums have been recorded. With the new album that's coming out we've been doing some recording at the bass player's recording studio, Essential Sessions Studios, down in St. Paul, too. So we have two studios going at once.

[The farm's studio] is a very modest studio, and I much prefer working in it, just because it tends to be pretty quiet and I like it mellow. With the touring you're always in busy club settings and in the heart of really big cities. It's nice to get back from the tours and come back to the farm and sit out on the deck and watch the aurora borealis and then go downstairs to the studio and write a song.

Is it difficult to balance all of these different aspects: the band, the label, and the thought that goes into making it a sustainable project?

For the band and the label itself, that's not all that difficult. It really is more than a full-time job, and unfortunately just because of the level that it's at, it's not a full-time job that pays enough to cover all the bills associated with it, plus living expenses. So on top of that I also am an environmental scientist for the Organic Consumers Association. So a good chunk of my daytime hours are actually spent doing that work.

When we're touring I've got mobile technology on my laptop, so while we're cruising down the highway I can be online researching studies and writing reports and things like that. It's incredibly difficult to juggle. It's really, really exhausting, and I'm hoping that sometime soon finances start working out. Album sales are picking up and tours have actually generated funding, whereas in the past you'd lose money being out on the road, as most bands do. But we're finally to the point where the crowds are big enough to validate driving all over the country a few months out of the year.

Speaking of your shows, did you want to say anything about the live painters you have at them?

Personally I've always liked going to see bands that have some sort of interesting visual thing going on. Unless you're a musician, it can get boring watching a musician play for an hour. It's interesting but I even get bored after a while. Music's great, but there should be something there that titillates all the senses.

We've got two full-time Cloud Cult painters that tour with us and they do paintings from scratch as we perform on stage. Connie Minowa is one of them and Scott West is the other. The paintings go up for bid at the end of the night and the highest bidder takes it home. That's how they make their money on the road, and at the same time it gives the audience something fun to watch.

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