Cloud Cult’s a testament to that whole theory about pain and art and whatever. The shattering personal loss that front man Craig Minowa and his wife Connie have endured during Cloud Cult’s existence – the sudden and inexplicable loss of their first son, Kaidin – was clearly devastating, and fueled some of the most chilling, wrenching music this reviewer has ever heard.

Yet, they’ve stuck it out, and the band’s legions of fans have seen Cloud Cult absorb the loss and musically document their own catharsis and healing. The band is in the business of churning out genuinely hopeful music that doesn’t shy away from suffering (Polyphonic Spree) but doesn’t indulge it either (Modest Mouse). Listening to their complete body of work is a triumphant, thrilling experience.

I spoke with Craig over the phone last week, and found him to be one of the most genuinely kind and thoughtful people I’ve ever interviewed. He kept trying to ask me questions about my life – which I answered, but edited out of this piece for the sake of both your sanity and my own credibility, as I fairly emptied my guts. At any rate, what you see is what you get with Cloud Cult. Their front man is every bit as authentic and optimistic as his music would have you believe. Enjoy.

SSv: Your sound is pretty unique. How do you describe Cloud Cult to someone who’s never heard you guys?

Craig Minowa: You know, after all these years I still struggle with that one. [Laughs] It’s a mix of genres. It can flux between a rock song, to a folk song, to something a little more electronic-y. So, I just call it electric orchestral rock.

SSv: Well, that’s still unique. Off that, how has Cloud Cult changed since you first started it, both musically and conceptually? Is this thing what you thought it’d be when you first started out?

Craig: Oh no, not at all. The first three albums, or even four, there really wasn’t a thought or expectation that it would catch on to any kind of degree. No, those albums were albums that my close friends or my family bought, so I’d burn 20 CDs and see what sold. It didn’t really pick up ’til after They Live On the Sun, and then college stations started spinning it, and with each album it surprisingly continued to grow another step.

So, I’m continually shocked that it continues to have such good, long term, organic growth. I don’t really have expectations for the long term. I know that in the music industry, you can fall out of people’s favor as quickly as you can fall in it. There’s a lot of great music out there that doesn’t get the attention it deserves. And there’s a lot of poor music out there that gets way more attention than it deserves. So I guess I wouldn’t take it too personally if people decided that they didn’t like Cloud Cult anymore. [Laughs]

SSv: That’s refreshingly candid. I guess you tapped into something that really matters to people. Do you have any idea why people resonate?

Craig: That’s a pretty cool thing to say. I can’t really put my finger on it exactly. I think that we have a good group of people that everybody’s really authentic in the band. No one’s there for the fashion of rock and roll. We’re all there for the joy and the experience and the love of seeing a crowd respond to that. I think that honesty comes across in our music, and I think it’s a really fine line to walk. It’s really important to focus on humility. I think as soon as we lose that, we lose that authenticity, and that’s a huge part of what’s resonating. People find it digestible because it doesn’t come with any additives or preservatives.

SSv: I’ve seen you live a few times and you’re great. I like the shows a lot – what you do in studio sounds like it’d be hard to recreate live and I think you guys do a nice job.

Craig: Thanks!

SSv: I’m curious about the mask – every time I’ve seen you, you’ve worn it. What’s the reason for that?

Craig: Yeah. [Pause] I’ve always had a lot of performance anxiety, since the first time we’ve ever planned a live show. It’s pretty serious performance anxiety. So the first couple years of shows were really, really hard. I had so much anxiety and stress all the time, working up to shows and beginning the performance time. Once I’m on stage though, everything starts to feel different. I’m calming down. Music is sort of a spiritual thing that can reach states of mind that I’m not able to reach on my own, although I should probably learn how to do that. I’ve thought of that. Once the music starts I feel comfortable, but leading up to it I’m pretty stressed and it really wears me out. A lot.

There was a show a while back where I was taking a nap behind stage before we went out and I woke up from the nap and put the mask up on my head and I was in that sleepy state where you’re not really in the physical reality but you’re in the super consciousness a little bit. And I felt like the mask was sort of symbolic of that. So I kept it on for that show and it felt like I was never really out of it – that state of mind where you’re half asleep, half in the super-consciousness. And so I started wearing it for shows to get me into that state of mind. When I put it on back stage I feel like it’s getting me into the state of mind that I need to get into. It really helps my nerves a lot.

SSv: That’s really beautiful. Switching directions a bit – the re-masters you guys put out are really good, but why’d you decide to do them?

Craig: Well, when I first recorded They Live On the Sun, I didn’t have any expectations of radio play or thought I’d sell more than a few dozen maybe. And that was a really traumatic period in my life, so there’s some material on there that’s really just emotional and came from that time. I think it was really important for its moment, but I don’t think it’s something I want to propagate through the universe. I think it’s okay to have darkness in music, but on some levels, art needs to be for its own sake. It was medicine for that moment, not something that needs to be replicated. There were certain things on there that weren’t putting out the right types of energy.

And also, as things have grown, there were certain things that we need to be really careful of as far as samples for loops and things. Back then, I didn’t expect that there’d be any trouble with things like that. There were certain things that just got to be too problematic, like “Princess Bride” for example. There’s just no way to get licensing rights for that without going bankrupt. [Laughs]

SSv: I wondered about that because I like that song so much.

Craig: Well, it’s just that I wanted an album that I could listen to in the long-term. And that my kids could listen to and not, you know, not ask certain things.

SSv: And you just had one, right? Not too long ago?

Craig: Yup, yup. We’re just getting his clothes back on right as you called. Five months this weekend. We’re getting nervous, we have this whole checklist of everything we need. And getting ready for this whole touring as parents with a baby thing. Beautiful, beautiful boy. We’re in love with spending time with him.

SSv: Is he going to have to get used to life on the road for awhile? How long are you gonna be out?

Craig: This our dabble into it – a toe in the water sort of thing. It’s a pretty tame show, we’re doing a ski resort up in Minnesota. Can’t get much more laid back than that. Over the spring, we’re just going to do a few shoes here and there. Feel it out. See how much we can handle for the national release in the fall.

SSv: The documentary, No One Said It Would Be Easy. What’s that about? What are you hoping fans take away from it?

Craig: You know, it was kind of a morphing thing over its evolution. Initially, we just thought it’d be a documentary of what happens on any given tour. But it ended up being a more in-depth look at the history of Cloud Cult. A look at some of emotional things that have shaped our history. It was all really the director’s vision and he did a great job. I’ve been really pleased.

I think if there was anything we hoped people would come away with it’d be understanding the band a little bit more. How unique it really is. We’ve been around a long time and it’s really a family. The music is really important to us and means a little more, I think, than some of the mainstream pop bands out there. There’s a lot of bands where their music means everything in the world to them and it’s great stuff, but unfortunately, the superficial bubblegum stuff is what’s cranking in the dollars right now.

SSv: They’re getting richer.

Craig: Yeah.

SSv: This is kind of a hard question – it might be impossible – but, what are some of your favorite songs that you’ve written. Which ones stand out?

Craig: Oh, that is a hard question. “Can’t Stop the Journey” was one that really hit me when it came out. It came out really fast. And, “Northern Lights” on Aurora Borealis is something that brings me to really weird places whenever I hear it. There’s a symbolism to the structure in that song. It’s a really cathartic process when I hear it. There’s some kind of emotional depth in it. There’s a lot of variance.

I like how things are switching with Feel Good Ghosts. When I go back to Who Killed Puck? it’s a lot darker than the kind of things that I’m listening to now. And I think it’s because I’m a parent and all, and I’m not the angsty teenager that I used to be. I’m figuring out other ways of elevating that energy level. That’s a horrible answer to the question. [Laughs]

SSv: If it was super easy to answer it might mean you’re not working hard enough on your other stuff.

Craig: Yeah.

SSv: What have you seen people take away from your music? What are you trying to give people when you play a show? What are you offering?

Craig: Initially, it was just art for its own sake. Who Killed Puck?… the desire there was to have this environmental message. I was really struggling at the time and I thought writing music would be better than if I didn’t write at all. I was really struggling with doing music or environmental science at that time, so I put the two together. That one had more of a purpose. It was everything I wanted it to be at the time. There wasn’t any expectation that people would actually listen to it.

But things started to change after that with They Live On the Sun and Aurora Borealis. We started getting letters from people who’d either lost a child too or lost someone who was close to them. And those got more frequent after Happy Hippo came out. And then, after I started seeing radio play go up, I realized that if you’re going to write something, you should have it mean something. Because if there’s that many people listening to it, it should have a cause – some sort of positive effect.

Then, there was a lot of intention that there would be some sort of medicine to come out of it. Most of the time it was medicine from something that I was going through that was helping me learn something. Not necessarily “I-know-it-all” preachy stuff, but something I need to hear right now. On tour, I sing these every single night, and I needed it to mean enough that it always meant something. So, in short, it continues to provide that on some level for some people and for the rest, it’s pure listening enjoyment. [Laughs]

SSv: What is it going to be that’s success? When are you going to be able to say, ‘There, I did it?’

Craig: I think we’re at the level that we’re comfortable with. That I wouldn’t want it to get much bigger. It’s already sort of leaning in this way where… I don’t know. I think that there’s a healthy balance right now and things can get out of balance pretty quickly in the music industry. The music industry’s a pretty dangerous and dirty place. There’s a lot of people out there looking for a cheap way of making money. I’m comfortable with where we’re at. I would be concerned about it getting bigger because I want us all to keep our heads and stay in spiritual balance. In order to be able to continue to create on a healthy level.

At this point I feel like I could say, if everything was done, I had a successful career. As long as I choose to continue to do it, everything that we create and the shows that we do, I hope people continue to have the same sort of energy level as what we’ve had so far. The album right now, we’re putting a lot of energy into it. I think if it sells the same as Feel Good Ghosts I would feel successful. You know, like I said earlier, I had to get my head in the spot, even if it doesn’t sell well, I’m really happy with it.

Like the last album, Pitchfork Media beat the crap out of it. Gave us, oh man, the worst rating. I was really depressed for about thirty-six hours. And then I realized, it’s really unhealthy to measure your success by how someone else is feeling about you. We’ve got to grow beyond that. Maybe that’s the ultimate measure of success. When you hit that point where it doesn’t matter what anyone thinks about you anymore. As long as you feel good about what you’re doing.

SSv: Pitchfork’s full of it. I loved Feel Good Ghosts.

Craig: That’s awesome, man. Awesome.

SSv: It’s been fun to chat with you. I had a lot of questions to ask. I can sleep again at night.

Craig: They were really interesting questions. Thanks for the interest.