The band known as 'Cloud Cult' has recently released a new 14 song CD titled
"Aurora Borealis". On the evening of Jan 9th , 2004, the band had
their CD release show in the 7th Street entry at First Ave in downtown
Mpls. A few days before the show, the following short interview with
Criag Minowa occured in anticipation of a successful release of their
new material upon the public where ever there be ears on tour and on
the radio.
PK : Is the long list of radio
stations that play 'Cloud Cult' across the country the result of a major work effort or more of a delightful
surprise?
CM : I worked my behind off on mailing out CDs
to the stations and then calling them one after another, hour after hour, with
the hopes that they would just listen to it and consider playing it once. From
there, it’s up to the public to decide if it’s going to chart. If no one calls
in and says they liked it, it pretty much dries up there. That’s what’s so great
about noncommercial radio—it’s pure democracy. People play what they want to
play, because they like it, not because they’re getting paid by some big record
company to play some over produced song to the masses over and over and over
again. We also have a grassroots team of people calling stations during our
radio promo time from Planetary and Team Clermont. The point is to get it on air
and hope people call in. The more they call, the more it gets played. The more
it gets played, the higher you chart. I was ecstatic to see charting in 54
cities nationwide, and am hopeful about the coming album, “Aurora Borealis”, as
well.
PK : Do some of the instrumental moments within your recordings result by means other
than conventional musical instruments?
CM : Anything and everything is an instrument.
If I hear something in everyday life that sounds musical to me, I try to record
it and make it rhythmic. So far, that has involved a gamut of sounds, including
boiling macaroni, kids playing outside, beating my chest, milk cartons, sticks,
rocks, rivers, fingernails, bones, etc.
PK : Is your environmental activism
the strings of your musical inspiration or more so
notes within your creative process?
CM : I am a hybrid with as much of a need to be
a musician as to be active in working to protect the natural environment. I’ve
always been pretty sensitive about mortality, so I don’t deal well with the
thought that my actions have a direct impact on destroying the habitat and lives
of so many other beings out there. In that sense, I do my best to live an
eco-lifestyle. I even had to start my own record company, because there were no other companies out there that
would replicate and distribute the CDs in a way that I felt took all necessary
considerations of impacts on the environment. The CDs are packaged in reused
reused/cleaned jewelcases, the inserts are 100%
postconsumer recycled paper, printed with nontoxic soyink. The shrinkwrap is nontoxic
LDPE rather than the industry standard toxic PVC, the studio is powered and
heated by geothermal energy and is located on a small organic farm. All profits,
after expenses are donated to environmental charities. There’s a lot more I
could do. I’m still a hypocrite in many, many ways. But at least it’s a
start.
PK : Which songs on the new CD do you feel best represent the title
'Aurora Borealis'?
CM : Aurora Borealis is all about dreamy open
spaces. It aspires to give the feeling of watching the Northern Lights from
various settings, like the city, country, from inside a machine, from a top a
tree, etc. In that sense, “My Fictitious Life with Amily” is the albums first step into the ethereal unknown,
and it resides there until the end hidden track. Obviously, the song “Northern
Lights” is the peak of the Aurora Borealis display. In that song, there’s really
no shape to the music, just a swelling of sound and magnetic waves as the spirit
world, for a moment, becomes tangibly overlaid on what we like to think of as
the “real” world.
PK : The pierced eye of enquiry may
wonder who does your CD artwork and if any of
the band members have additional artistic persuits?
CM : I actually did the artwork for the last
three albums, but Aurora Borealis was done by Scott West of Skyfarm Records in Milwaukee.
PK : Are there plans for more
elaborate shows or projects to follow the CD release show at
First Avenue?
CM : Yup, yup, yup. The Cloud
Cult “Mini Woodstock on Wheels” concept of including more and more performance
artists, environmental groups and multimedia visualizations at the shows is
continuing to grow. We will be doing a Mini Wood stock on Wheels tour in late
April over Earth Week. In the meantime, we’re doing shows around the region, as
well as the East Coast and southern US.
