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Known for their ambitious fusion of experimental indie rock and chamber pop, Minnesota's
Cloud Cult also have a reputation for utilizing and promoting environmentally sustainable practices. Since emerging in the late '90s, the band have served as a model for gradual, hard-won success, relying on their staunch D.I.Y. ethos and self-reliant nature to create a consistent and inventive body of work. Bolstered by a unique stage show that paired their music with live painting and performance art,
Cloud Cult eventually began to earn more widespread critical acclaim for albums like 2004's
Aurora Borealis and 2008's
The Meaning of 8, which they released on their own Earthology label. Fifteen years into their career, the group achieved minor chart success with 2010's Light Chasers, then improved on it with 2013's
Love, a career peak that made it into the front half of Billboard's Top 200.
Cloud Cult have been the subject of a documentary film and created their own feature film to accompany their tenth album, 2016's The Seeker. After a six-year break, the band returned in 2022 with the full-length
Metamorphosis.
Cloud Cult was initially launched as the solo project of singer/songwriter
Craig Minowa, who began recording his first album while he was pursuing a degree in environmental science in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Despite interest from several record labels, he opted to self-release
Cloud Cult's 1995 debut, The Shade Project. Seemingly from the very beginning,
Minowa had a clear vision about how to conduct his business, and in 1997 he and his wife, painter Connie Minowa, founded Earthology, a nonprofit company devoted to promoting environmental sustainability and education as well as an in-house record label focused on releasing music and merchandise using primarily recycled materials. The company was based on their own organic farm, powered by geothermal energy and built partially from reclaimed wood and recycled plastic. The second
Cloud Cult album,
Who Killed Puck?, arrived in 2001, making the first official Earthology release.
After the sudden death of his two-year-old son in February 2002,
Minowa became reclusive and sought solace by writing a large volume of songs. Much of this material appeared on 2003's
They Live on the Sun which fared well on college radio and brought
Cloud Cult some national recognition. By this point, the live show had grown to include brass and string musicians as well as elaborate back-screen video elements and live on-stage painting from artists Connie Minowa and Scott West. The resulting artwork would be auctioned off to fans at the show's conclusion. The green practices extended to touring as well, with the band using a biodiesel van covered in solar panels and planting trees to offset their carbon footprint. 2004's
Aurora Borealis earned
Cloud Cult a Minnesota Music Award nomination alongside state icons like
Prince and
Paul Westerberg. Their eclectic mash-up of experimental pop, kitchen-sink percussion, and big-picture themes further developed over their next few albums, which arrived in quick succession. After the whirlwind of 2005's Advice from the Happy Hippopotamus, 2007's
The Meaning of 8, and 2008's
Feel Good Ghosts (Tea-Partying Through Tornadoes),
Cloud Cult took a break to regroup. However, they remained visible thanks to the 2009 documentary film No One Said It Would Be Easy - A Film About Cloud Cult.
Released in 2010, the band's eighth album, Light Chasers, was their most orchestral to date with a thematic bent toward spiritual matters. It also found some success on Billboard's Heatseekers and Independent Albums lists, charting a path for their commercial breakout,
Love. Released in early 2013,
Love made its way onto four American charts including a number 57 placement on the Billboard 200. After a string of sold-out tour dates,
Cloud Cult recorded a live acoustic anthology of their songs which was released on video in 2014 as Unplug - The Film. Over the course of his career,
Minowa has become increasingly involved in film, composing music for documentaries and frequently adding film elements to
Cloud Cult's aesthetic. For their 2016 album, The Seeker, a feature film of the same name was developed around the music and fared well on the festival circuit. After touring for The Seeker wrapped,
Cloud Cult entered something of a hiatus, which lasted into the next decade. The group broke their silence in 2022 with the release of their 11th album,
Metamorphosis, and a major national tour. ~ Timothy Monger