Music for the Revolution: An Interview with Craig Minowa
Craig Minowa is the man behind both Earthology Records and the band Cloud Cult. Earthology is the only nonprofit record company in existence to offer environmentally and socially friendly CD replication, in addition to a host of other sustainable initiatives including 100% recycled/reclaimed jewel cases, the highest recycled content papers on the market, with non-toxic soy inks and a CD replication process that involves recycling of CD cut scraps into milk cartons. Cloud Cult is an adventurous, passion-fueled outfit headed by Minowa -- a band that embodies everything that he and Earthology stand for. We caught up with him for a chat about what makes Earthology so different, and when the rest of the music industry will catch up.
SASS Magazine: Earthology is the the only nonprofit record company in existence to offer environmentally and socially friendly CD replication services, in addition to the multitude of other fabulous things it does for the planet and its people. It seems that it should be more popular than it is. Why aren’t there more out there?
Craig Minowa: I think it all comes down to a cost thing. We find that to be a pretty consistent reasoning for it; we’ll have bands call us and be interesting in doing replication through Earthology, and I would say we lose probably 70% of them based on the price, because it is more expensive to do than to replicate on a conventional level. That’s for multiple reasons, but the reason that it’s cheapest to go through the conventional process is because you’re externalizing all your costs on to the environment. I think every player in the industry would be a lot more environmental if it was at face value, more affordable, but it isn’t because it’s cheapest to get rid of your waste in not such a responsible way. It is a little more to figure out how much co2 you’re putting out with shipping, and with production, and how much energy you’re consuming and then buying the green energy credits so it’s wind powered and to plant the trees to absorb the pollution you’re putting in the atmosphere and to source your paper 100% post-consumer recycled. But, if everybody was forced to pay the costs that they externalize on the environment, it would be more expensive to do it the conventional route, because you’re creating a lot of health damage to the human population and the environment by creating the polyvinyl chlorides and the dioxins with the paper-bleaching process and all of that, but, of course, industry doesn’t have to pay for those types of damages that they. If they did, it would be cheapest to do it the environmentally-friendly route.
SM: So when you tell people what Earthology and Cloud Cult are in to, not only with the label but personally and philosophically, what kind of reaction do you get from other musicians as well as the music industry crowd?
CM: From the music industry, I think they’re starting to lend an ear to it a little bit more, because it’s getting to be more of a popular, trendy kind of thing, to be somewhat ecologically responsible. So you have labels like Sub Pop that are trying to really mitigate a lot of the damages that they’re doing to the environment and trying to increase the amount of recycled product that they’re using (Editor's note: see our interview with Sub Pop artist Kelley Stoltz for more details); ASCAP (The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) just launched a new initiative to try and "green" their whole business plan, to a degree at least, you know, increasing the amount of recycled paper their using and things like that. So I think there’s a lot more interest now than there was a decade ago; it still ultimately comes down to the cost. If you’re talking to one of the major labels, for example, about releasing a CD with 100% post-consumer recycled paper or whatever environmentally-friendly option you want to use -- even if you’re shooting a dime per unit above what it would cost to do it with the conventional route, that adds up, with mainstream sales, to several thousand dollars of lost profit for them, so that’s where they immediately shy away from it and say, "Well, that’s a great idea, but, we’ll keep trying to do better via other methods by using recycled paper in the office," or something like that. So, hopefully, ultimately, the prices will continue to get a little bit more competitive, and ideally we’d have something that would be comparable to what they do in Europe, where the environmentally-friendly methods are subsidized a little bit by government funding, in which case, it would become much more competitive.
SM: Okay, you’re saying that even though it's not perfect, we might be approaching something of a tipping point in the industry. For a long time, rock 'n roll has been associated with the rock 'n roll lifestyle and crazy excess, and just doing whatever you want to do because you’re a star, but people like you prove that you can be a rock musician and still be socially and environmentally responsible. Will the mainstream ever catch on to that?
CM: It’s tough to say. If it's something that can continue to be considered hip, then a lot more people will jump on the bandwagon. There are a lot of people who are interested in it and get involved with it just because they really believe it's the right thing to do and feel a calling within themselves to follow that path and pursue the better, more ecological routes, but I think for a lot of other people who might not be as educated about the issues, or, like you say, are more in to the carefree rock 'n roll lifestyle, where it isn’t necessarily cool to care about those things, it's going to have to become something that’s considered to be hip and they'll wear that philosophy. If that’s what it takes, that's fine with me (laughs). Any way to get the mainstream on board, because we’ve got a lot of work to do, and if you have to convince them it's cool, then that’s totally fine.
SM: So how do we make it more hip?
CM: One thing that's been really helpful with that is seeing more bands trying to clean up their act. Dave Matthews is trying to green his touring, I know, for example. In western culture, it seems, and, especially when I look at all the glossies out there, it's clear that the deities are not the spiritual leaders or politicians; they’re what you’re seeing in the entertainment glossies, and I think that's really unfortunate, but that’s western culture. The more those people that mainstream culture worships are practicing a more ethical and ecological lifestyle, the more the mainstream population will follow. It's just like fashion; if the right people wear it and it ends up the right places, it'll be considered hip and everyone else will jump on. It'll be uncool to throw a piece of litter on the ground.
For whatever reason, the environmental field has become stigmatized, because a lot of people started equating being environmental with being an unclean hippy. You hear a lot of derogatory terms about kind of thing; I think people like SSF are really smart to recognize that it’s not only about getting the message out, but about giving the movement an overall facelift and making people realize that it’s fun and it’s cool and that’s a good place to be.
SM: Wow, thanks for saying that. We think you're pretty much the cat's pajamas, you know. Let's switch gears just a little bit. You say you used to have "a lot of unrealized dreams about bringing environmental education together with music and art." Have any of those dreams been realized?
CM: Well, we’ve kind of played around with it on some different levels. We’re in the process of getting the 501(c)3 for Earthology so we can start applying for grants that would help us start branching out a little bit. The kinds of things we've done so far -- and there are other bands that do this, too -- is having nonprofit tabling at the shows, so people can be out and having a good time and enjoying the music and having a beer or two and maybe shuffle over and learn something. It might be information that they aren’t normally exposed to; particularly in the club setting, there are folks there that might not be comfortable with going to an environmental convention or something like that. By bringing it into an unexpected environment like that, you expose people who might not ordinarily be exposed to it.
I think by having in that kind of setting, it also creates a subconscious connection of something like, "Well here I am, dressed up on a Saturday night, having a good time at this cool club, checking out these cool bands -- oh, here’s this organization here," and I think there’s a subconscious thing that connects there and connects that organization as a cool thing, too. Hopefully, then, people will be interested in at least signing a petition, or donating an hour of their time or ten bucks, or whatever. With that said, we haven’t been doing that as vigorously over the past year since we've been doing more national touring. Initially, when we were doing that, we were doing more regional shows and there was more of a focus on that kind of thing. With all the touring and with everything expanding, we’ve been using all of our energy just trying to keep things together, and haven’t yet established a national network of local organizations that we could line up and use for whatever city we’re going to. We've talked about adding this at Earthology, once we get some grant funding, to have someone whose job is to organize the nonprofit tables wherever we go. Right now, my wife and I both work in the environmental field, so when we aren't touring or working on the album, we're busy with that. She's a children’s environmental health coordinator, so she helps "green" schools and make them environments that aren’t using toxic cleaners and things like that, and I do a lot of work with sustainable agriculture. I think as Earthology grows, we’ll be able to connect those two together more, where people that are checking out Earthology and Cloud Cult can more easily connect to an information network about those kinds of issues.
SM: When it comes to actually making the music, how do you manage both sides or yourself? In other words, do you find that your sustainable philosophies take precedence over artistic goals, or the other way around?
CM: It’s a pretty good balance right now; they both take a lot of time and lot of energy. I’d say about half my time is spent on environmental stuff and the other half is working in artistic space, and both those aspects help each other out a lot; I can get done with a long day of environmental research and stuff like that and then step into the studio and make some music; it seems to work both sides of my brain, so it feels very complete.
SM: What kind of things do you like to do, both as a working environmentalist and musician, on a day-to-day level, in terms of lifestyle habits that inform your life as sustainability enthusiast and musician?
CM: I really enjoy the process of trying to "green" things more, and figuring out ways to make the whole process more ecologically sustainable as well as economically sustainable. For whatever reason, there’s a huge open niche in the music world right now for a truly environmental CD replicators, and an easy method to help bands figure out how to totally "green" their tours, for example, so I really enjoy the process of researching that and figuring out an honest take for those kinds of things. Statistically speaking, you can estimate the amount of CO2 you put out on a given tour, but then to sit down and honestly figure out how many trees you have to plant to truly absorb all of that, and then consider how many of those trees are actually going to live their estimated lifetime, and figure out how many extra trees you have to plant to compensate for those, I really like figuring that out.
We’ve got our organic hobby farm here, as well, and we’d really like to do more of that; we just got done with a good canning session a couple weekends ago, so that’s really good, too. Ideally, there’d be more of that, too; getting out and getting our fingers dirty would help create the ultimate balance, for me.
CM: I think the people that have an aversion to the environmental movement carry some kind of pessimism in their heart about what it’s really going to do. Especially when you’re living in a concentrated city, when you see garbage and cars everywhere, it can seem feudal. So, the most important thing to do is separate your mindset from society as a whole, and really take responsibility for yourself. It’s really easy to feel like it’s a feudal movement when you’re looking around and seeing what everyone else is doing and get a mob mentality that reaches critical mass. Until you have enough people that are thinking for themselves, the rest of the people aren't going to catch on. It’s kind of clichéd, but it really comes down to the individual. Every single person has power in shifting the movement; once you decide for yourself that you want to do it for yourself because you wish that everyone else would, it becomes more enjoyable. It isn’t as hard as what some people assume. I think a lot of people assume that if you’re truly environmental, you’re giving up on all these pleasures and you’re living in a cave somewhere and you can’t do anything, but in actuality, you can live a better life once you make that decision. I think by physically living that way, it resonates on a deeper level within yourself, too; if you’re eating better and living better with the natural environment around you, something happens inside that feels better, too. So the point is to take responsibility for yourself, and know that once you do that, your own personal life is going to be better but you’re also going to inspire people around you to change, too, and they’ll inspire others and that’s when the movement really starts rolling.
SM: That’s awesome. What else do you want people to know about what you’re working on these days?
CM: Yeah, going back to the whole "style" issue -- I love what you’re doing, like I said – I think that’s a really important thing to recognize. With Cloud Cult, we get press about the environmental things that we do, people assume that we're either a preachy folk act or a hippy jam band, because that’s what they equate with environmental music. In actuality, if you saw any of us on the street, you wouldn't size us up to be in that clichéd portion of the movement, and if you heard the music, you wouldn’t think to yourself that this is "environmental rock." I think there’s gotten to be a really bad stigma on all of that, and I think that people really need to separate their minds from the idea that being an "environmental person" that they all of the sudden have to, I don't know, wear patchouli or something. You can be your own person, and still have that lifestyle, and it doesn’t have to be freaky. I think some people think it’s almost freaky and foreign, and since they don’t understand "organics" or some of the other buzzwords, they think that there’s some kind of weird thing going on. You can be an ordinary person and still live an ecologically sustainable life.
Craig Minowa is founder of both Earthology Records and Cloud Cult. The band's most recent release, Advice from the Happy Hippopotamus, has met with much critical acclaim and can be ordered directly from the band's website. Earthology is the only nonprofit record company in existence to offer environmentally and socially friendly CD replication, as well as a host of other services designed to promote sustainability in the music industry and throughout the world.