Cloud Cult is a band known for its unique blend of rock, classical, electronica and even folk music. In the past, they've released albums ranging from the emotional They Live On The Sun to their magnum-opus, Advice From The Happy Hippopotamus.
The Minnesota-natives will be in Madison tonight, performing at The Majestic in anticipation of their upcoming releases Running With The Wolves (an EP due April 20) and Light Chasers (a full-length album due August 17).
Cloud Cult's live performances reflect the band's style, one that experiments with different genres: The stage is filled with musicians holding a variety of instruments, ranging from guitars to French horns.
The performers on stage with the most striking presence, however, are not even musicians, but two artists who accompany the band. They paint on stage during the performance, and after the concert the paintings are sold to attendees, oftentimes with bidding wars arising between audience members.
Craig Minowa, the band's lead singer/songwriter, approached Cloud Cult's sound by explaining, ""We never really wanted to get too caught up in one genre, just because there is so much great music out there and it's a shame to get too boxed in on your instrumentation.""
As a result of the band's varied instrumentation, moving from the studio to the stage is quite the undertaking for them.
""The songs that are harder to do live are those that have a lot of electronica in them. I can see why other bands would hesitate to have such variation,"" Minowa commented.
But this embracing of a difficult skill is what makes Cloud Cult such a unique and intriguing band. They have maintained their sound with their talented multi-instrumentalist band members. In preparation for their current tour, they added one member who plays the accordion, French horn, trumpet and keyboard.
The new additions reflect some of the growth the band has gone through in the two years since their last album, Feel Good Ghosts. Between 2003 and 2008, the band released 5 albums, mostly focused on the grief coming from the unexplained death of Minowa and his wife's (one of the painters) son. Minowa described these albums as having ""a lot of emotion, and it felt like each song was a Polaroid of an instant, almost a Polaroid of the actual creation process. There wasn't too much emphasis on having everything in its right place.""
Since the recording of this album, however, production has slowed down. This is likely because of Minowa's new writing style.
""I started the writing process on pad and paper this time,"" Minowa said. ""This is the first album where I've done that—where a lot of the songs are written before I'm going into the studio.""
While some called those two years since Feel Good Ghosts as a self-imposed hiatus, Minowa clarifies, ""The writing process has always been something that's ongoing. It's something that I enjoy doing so much that even when I'm on break, the inspiration is still coming and I'm still working on it. We've had our new baby here for 6 months now and there's a lot of time where I'm just holding him and it's a pretty big inspiration.""
With this two-year break has come increased maturity and experimentation, something likely to be seen at tonight's show.
Cloud Cult will be performing tonight at the Majestic Theatre at 9 p.m. Tickets cost $15 and are still available.
