In an interview with The Current Morning Show’s Jill Riley, Cloud Cult frontman Craig Minowa describes the natural surroundings that formed the band’s new record, Alchemy Creek.

Cloud Cult will perform at Palace Theatre in St. Paul on Friday, Sept. 27, and Saturday, Sept. 28.

This transcript is edited for clarity.

Jill Riley: You're listening to The Current. I'm Jill Riley, and today I'm going to be talking with a regional musician. He is really the driving force and the songwriter, and he was the origin point of the band Cloud Cult, who are celebrating a brand new record. We've been playing about three songs from it on The Current. The new album is called Alchemy Creek. It is out now. A couple big shows coming up at the Palace Theatre in St. Paul, on October 27 and 28. I have Craig Minowa on the line. Craig, how are you?

Craig Minowa: Fantastic, but improving? How are you, Jill?

Jill Riley: Okay, I like that. If you wouldn't mind, I'm going to use that, if not out loud, at least, just for maybe my own calmness at times. So fantastic to hear from you, Craig. I want to get into talking about the the record Alchemy Creek, and really the inspiration for the album. Now, Craig, Alchemy Creek, I understand this is really because the creek played a part, really has almost its own voice and as an almost like an instrument on the record. Could you talk about Alchemy Creek and how it has inspired what the record has become?

Craig Minowa: It’s a little spot in the Driftless Region of Wisconsin, and I had a very challenging year, and this was a little spot... We all have little spots in our lives where, hopefully we all have a little spot where we can go to for a little safety. I guess this was kind of like Christopher Robin and that Hundred Acre Wood when he crawls through that hole in the tree and he's safely with all of the little characters back in the woods. This Alchemy Creek was really that for for me. It was a spot... I'd be able to drop the kids off at school in the morning, and then I would go to this little recording studio on wheels out in the woods right by this creek. I had all of my recording gear packed into this little tiny home, including the drum set. I would walk in that door and just let go. I felt so safe in this space, and really just kind of opened up my heart to the universe for healing, and begged for healing, and did my job of trying to step aside and let things happen. And so over the course of a year and a half there, by that creek, there was all sorts of recordings generated with the creek flowing always and evermore through the background, spring, winter, summer, fall, the whole time. So throughout the tracks in the album, you always kind of kind of hear that, that bubbling, bubbling water.

Jill Riley: Craig, I follow you on social media, on Facebook, probably Instagram as well. And you would give people some insight into, you know, what you described. It really looks like, you know, one of those tiny houses that you'd see on, like a TV show when somebody's talking about, like, living very minimally. It is right next to this creek, and you sharing videos of you, you know, even washing your face, you know, with the water from the creek. It kind of just drove home this, this idea that I've had of your connection with nature. Even as someone who's an environmentalist like you are to just let nature, you know, provide this bandage and ointment. As you know, you mentioned having a challenging year going through some really difficult things.

Craig Minowa: Yeah, that's always been kind of a safety spot for me, ever since I was a little boy. It's getting out to the woods, climbing up in a tree, and really trying to open up to whatever medicine could happen out there. I think there's a reason that when you go to the analogs of poetry that humans have made for for millennia, that it's often referencing nature. There is a very heartstrung tie that somehow provides us with medicine simply by stepping out barefoot into the grass or wrapping our arms around a tree or whatever sounds you're hearing from the from the from the creek, or from the birds in the sky. For me stepping out there was and is -- I mean, I'm talking to you right now from there -- an absolute necessary medicine. So we just got done with some West Coast tour dates, and I have it just programmed in that as soon as I'm off a flight and back, I get back to the woods. I wash my face in that creek, I try and really reconnect with the roots out here, literally. And ask that I can be as balanced in all of this as possible. Even in the songwriting or going out in the performances, of speaking from this place as much as possible.

Jill Riley: Craig Minowa of Cloud Cult is on the line on The Current Morning Show, talking about the new record, which is out now, Alchemy Creek. We're talking about the actual creek that is near where Craig has been making music, just out in the Driftless Region, keeping that connection with nature. Craig, now you mentioned that you were out on the road. How have the shows has been going? How has the audience been connecting with the new music.

Craig Minowa: It's been great. After this many years, you know, the music business is really evolving quickly, changing very, very dramatically. We've been fortunate to be releasing, this is our 11th album. You can't just assume that it's gonna continue. You wonder when you're gonna be stepping out into public and seeing things recede. And it's been absolutely mesmerizing to see the crowd turn out, you know, sold out shows in New York and in Portland, and just all sorts of gratitude. We've got the two shows at the Palace, the the show on the 28th that sold out. But after this many years in the business, all I can feel is absolute gratitude.

Jill Riley: Now, when it comes to the live show, the experience is very much a, you know, there are a lot of layers to the live show. Cloud Cult as a band, has always been kind of this multimedia experience. Just recently, we were, revisiting the Cloud Cult performance with the Minnesota Orchestra with the last record, Metamorphosis. And I wonder, as you plan to hit the road for this Palace Theatre run, how has the live show evolved? What are some things that you know you really want to make sure are incorporated into the experience of the band performing the music, but then the audience connecting as the audience.

Craig Minowa: Yeah, it's kind of a refreshing run. We were really, really blessed to be able to work with the Minnesota Orchestra on the last album release. And that kind of opportunity is, you know, once in a lifetime kind of situation. There are different kind of kinds of restraints that happen when you know that the album needs to be composed in a way that an orchestra is performing all the tracks, and that you're performing in a large hall, like the Orchestra Hall. So the whole time that album was being written and recorded, there was a huge wash of reverb on all of the tracks, so that you would know how this is going to come across in a huge hall. Sometimes that had some really beautiful, unexpected effects, and sometimes it was really limiting on what you could do with louder drums and guitars and things like that. And with this album, it was really no holds barred going into the studio and writing what needed to come out without any thought of how that was going to happen live. And then, as we're getting close to finishing the album, the band as a whole felt like that we all wanted to return to that rock venue kind of vibe.

This round of shows that we've been doing so far has been returning to those types of venues, you know, the full light show. We still have the brass and the strings, you know, obviously not a full orchestra with us. It's the type of venues that allow us to have a really dynamic set. And I have felt like, I feel like a set list is as important as how you put together the flow of an album. Like it needs to bring a listener through an emotional story curve. And I feel like, after all these years of different types of sets, this is my favorite set. Like, I feel like there is an alchemy that happens during the flow of the set, at least, at least for me. The band has talked about it too. It's bringing you through a storyline of emotions that ultimately dips you pretty deep into the heart and belly and then pulls you back up into the chest and and tries to launch you back out there into the world in a way that can hopefully feel motivating and empowering and a little bit healing. And I'm really excited to be able to do that kind of ceremony every night, and really excited to bring that back to what we consider our home turf, which is, you know, the Twin Cities area. 

Jill Riley: The band Cloud Cult is gearing up for two nights at the Palace Theatre this weekend. It is going to sound beautiful. I know that, you know, fans are really looking forward to connecting or reconnecting with the band, and that feeling that one gets at a Cloud Cult performance. I mean, anyone who's listening right now that has never been to a Cloud Cult show, there is something I think Craig, I mean, it's you have been through, not just the past year, have had challenges. I mean, throughout the time. I mean, Cloud Cult was born out of really processing tragedy. There is something about that that I think makes one more human and able to to connect with other human beings. But there's something that has remained just this constant of this, this inspiration and this really uplifting and hopeful direction of your music. I don't know if it's ever been stronger than right now with that message of processing and healing and going forward. Do you really feel like, you mentioned the word ceremony, that you're it's almost like bringing a ceremony? Do you really feel that kind of energy from the crowd?

Craig Minowa: Yes, I see music as a sacred, sacred tool that humans have grown up with for tens of thousands of years. It has the potential to be very powerful. Our ancestors would use it almost strictly for that kind of thing, for medicine, for connecting to bigger things, connecting to nature, connecting to the Divine, whatever the case is, music has has done that for us. And then there's even anthropologists who think that we sang before we spoke as humans. So this is a rudimentary language, and so as songwriters, performers, DJs on the radio, we have a not only a power, but a responsibility, to try and really understand that tool and use it in a way that can benefit a human population that desperately needs it.

Jill Riley: I'm talking with Craig Minowa of Cloud Cult the new record, is Alchemy Creek, and Craig I mentioned at the beginning of our conversation that we're playing a handful of songs from the new record. I wonder, when you talked about Alchemy Creek being made in the Driftless Region, you're by yourself. You're in this tiny house where you are just letting the inspiration come to you in a very natural way. You're getting out of the way and letting it come to you. What was that spark? What do you feel like that first song was that you were able to, sitting at a piano and feel it come through? What was that song for you?

Craig Minowa: Oh, a specific song. There's a song on the record called "One Human Being," and it's, it's a very lyrical song. There was a point in that song. I don't necessarily know that it was a spot where I recognized the album as it would be, but I recognized a turning point in my own inner alchemy and what I needed for myself. That song was helping me understand that I needed to let go of the idea that external things could be controlled so much. It's hard for us as humans. We want the best for the world, and we want to have a hand in that as much as possible, and with all of our loved ones and all of our surroundings. We want to help sculpt that Garden of Eden kind of thing. And it is a deep lesson in learning what things you need to let go of and what things you need to surrender to, and also to look inside and recognize how many switches and buttons and controls we have within ourselves that we haven't learned how to use yet. All this possibility for control within ourselves that we might be overlooking when we're so caught up in trying to control the external world. And that's where there was a sort of release and a surrender and relief, for me, was in that song. 

Craig Minowa: Yeah, it really feels like there is, there is a lot of freedom that can come from letting go of the things that we can't control. I have to imagine, is when you can kind of take your hands off the wheel and really start listening. Yeah. Well, Craig, we've been playing songs like "The Universe Woke Up as You," "As Beautiful as It Hurts," "I Am a Force Field." Can you talk specifically about that song? Because I feel like it is such a powerful, it's really relatable, but also just it is a very powerful declaration to just make as a person.

Jill Riley: Yep. The song is called "I Am a Force Field." It's from the new album, Alchemy Creek from Cloud Cult. Craig Minowa on the line. Craig, I want to say thank you so much for checking in and giving us some insights onto the making the record and the songs, and really sharing yourself with us on The Current. Best wishes for these Palace Theatre shows. There's a lot of excitement. There's a lot of energy going into these shows in the anticipation. So I just I can't wait to see it, and I'm sure that you guys are just really excited to perform it well.

Craig Minowa: Yeah, tying back to us in the beginning, about Alchemy Creek, feeling a little bit like that Hundred Acre Wood in Winnie the Pooh. That was a song that was a really rainy day last summer. I went to Alchemy Creek and went out into the trees, and was really struggling with trying to come to terms with the future me's and the past me's and the whole quandary of self-esteem and ego and all these things. You know, there's all these characters coming into the room so interesting when you read the Winnie the Pooh stories, how all these characters have different symbolisms of different types, and, you know, the Eeyore inside of me, everything like that. And that song really just sort of planted itself, it was one of those songs that writes itself. It was there, and I'm writing it down, and I didn't understand it, and I didn't get it at the time, but it was coming so fast that you just knew that your job was, as a reporter to write it down or whatever and not question anything. And the minute you start to question things in those situations, you block it up, and the flow is done. And so it was writing it down and really not realizing, until singing it, how, how much I needed that. And there's, there was a feeling of this little boy in the trees singing down to me that "I am a force field." You know, you go out and you feel just scared and vulnerable and fragile. And on a level of quantum physics, all of our atoms and molecules together are an energy field, and we are literally individual force fields walking around. Hearing that little boy scream from the top of the trees that to me, helped me step back out to the world, into the world, and say, "Okay, I'm gonna be okay. I can do this." Thanks a lot, Jill, and thank you. The Current is an absolute blessing to the Midwest that cannot be understated, an absolute blessing of culture. So thank you for being who you are.

Jill Riley: Well, thank you, Craig, for being who you are. Thank you for the kind words and best wishes as you move forward, we'll see you soon.

Credits

Guest – Craig Minowa
Host – Jill Riley
Producer – Nilufer Arsala
Digital Producer – Reed Fischer

External Link

Cloud Cult – official site