Songs of solace to ease trying times
Cloud Cult brings playlist for emotional journey to City Winery
Like many working songwriters, Craig Minowa spent most of the pandemic writing deep, thoughtful songs about grieving, recovering and the nature of life. The difference is that Minowa, leader of the Minneapolis band Cloud Cult, writes those kind of songs all the time.
“Music is definitely medicine for me,” Minowa said in an interview this week. “I’m thankful to have my wife and my family and friends, because I’m overly emotional and can take the most celebratory and superficial of experiences and start looking way into it. They’re all very patient with me. But I would have a harder time trying to sing a song that didn’t take me on an emotional journey every night; that’s what we do. Each show has its trajectory and its emotional curve, and it helps us get back into the real world when we leave that stage.”
Making a rare tour with a full sextet lineup, the band plays a sold-out show tonight at City Winery.
Minowa has long turned to music for solace during trying times. Early in the band’s tenure he suffered the sudden loss of his infant son; this fueled a number of songs. New album “Metamorphosis” again confronts grief, but finds a few glimmers of hope in the distance.
“When we started working on it, the focus was on the idea of global change, wondering what our ancestors would tell us if they had advice for the human population right now. But when the pandemic happened, it led to a focus on personal growth issues like anxiety, depression, addiction. There is so much that calls on us as human beings to make massive changes, but we can’t do that if we’re busted up inside.”
During the sessions Minowa also lost his father, who is addressed by name in the song “Victor.”
“When people have passed, songwriting feels like there’s still a connection — like I can reach out to my deceased son or my deceased father and ask what they see out there and what sort of awareness they can provide. I think human beings have done that kind of thing for tens of thousands of years. Historically, the path we wind up on when we ask questions is that it leads to more questions. And you find that the only answer is to be OK with knowing there are things you can’t answer. You wake up every morning with a chance at another day. And that’s the fact, you always get the chance to redefine your life.”
All of which means that Minowa hears from plenty of people who’ve used his music to get through hard times, but he’s fine with that.
“When I started out, there wasn’t any intention beyond using my songs to vent and to grieve. And I thought it would maybe attract people who’ve gone through a bit of loss themselves, so that process has distilled itself over the years. The truth is that if you talk to anybody on the street, all of us have a pretty complicated and hard story going on. And that’s what life is about: It’s got beauty and it’s got wonder, but it’s also got a hell of a lot of challenge.”