Cloud Cult: Orchestral Pop, In The Studio

Cloud Cult has traditionally focused its songs around big ideas, and the group's latest record, Love, is no different. The band writes in the liner notes of the album: “…A life lived with intention on Love is a life well spent, because that positive energy goes on forever.”

Cloud Cult brings that positive energy to the Soundcheck studio for a live performance and interview.

Set List:

• "The Show Starts Now"
• "Meet Me Where You're Going"
• "You're the Only Thing in Your Way"

Lead singer Craig Minowa, on what music he and his wife, Connie, play for their kids:

Most of the time it’s kind of bubblegum oldies. We’ll do tubby time and have ‘50s and ‘60s rock. And there’s big band music during lunchtime. Classical music in the afternoon…. [My son] did pick up on “Gangnam Style” somewhere, and he wants that all the time. Although he calls it “Twinkle Twinkle Style.”

Minowa, on the theme of love that pervades the record:

[Connie and I] had a child pass away about a decade ago, and there was a period where we kind of had to throw our philosophies and beliefs out the window — anger at the universe kind of thing. There was a rebuilding situation over time, and the lyrical writing process with Cloud Cult was a big part of working through that. And with this album, there was a recognition of that recurring theme that there’s a purpose that we’re here for and there’s a calling. And that calling is to live a life in love.

Minowa, on offsetting Cloud Cult's carbon emissions while on tour:

It’s a two-tiered thing. There [are] formulas online for planting trees — a certain number of trees to absorb a certain amount of carbon dioxide. And we plant four times as many as those calculations, just to sort of account for trees that aren’t going to live through their full cycle. And then to put the power back into the power grid, we donate money to have power generated by wind turbines on Native reservations. And that puts as much back into the grid as we use on stage.