Interview: Craig Minowa (Cloud Cult)

By Rob Mitchum | 3.12.07

For more than ten years, Craig Minowa has been making records as Cloud Cult, whose panoptic indie-rock sound is backed up by truly independent ideals: self-released records, a not-for-profit mentality, and environmental activism. This last aspect of the Cloud Cult character is borne of Minowa’s education in environmental science, which led him to work with organizations like Greenpeace and Clean Water Action and enact a band policy of “green” records and tours. Thrilled to find a verifiable scientist/musician, and fascinated by what seemed to be several references to the biology of mood and emotion on the band’s upcoming record The Meaning of 8, I asked Minowa several questions via e-mail for a feature you may have already read.

Rob Mitchum: Have you ever been treated for depression, or any other mood/anxiety disorder?

Craig Minowa: Yes. Shortly after my two-year-old son left the planet the doctors put me on some anti-depressants, because they were afraid I was going to try and follow my son to where-ever it is he went to. The doctors thought they could fix my grieving by adjusting my brain chemistry with pharmaceuticals. The brain is an organ like any other. We take insulin for the organ dysfunction that causes diabetes. In the same manner, the brain can be an organ that can need similar assistance here and there. I think there are instances where a person would be well suited… for the need to ingest certain elements to balance their neurochemicals, but that I was not one of them, so I got off those drugs after a few short weeks.

I think many doctors freely prescribe these types of medications to deal with the negative effects of a mental problem, while they tend to completely ignore the causes. In my instance, my kid had just died. I needed to just cry for a long while and grieve, but the doctors thought it would be best to cover up those feelings with drugs. Our physicians need to get better at determining what is a mood problem brought on by a chemical imbalance, and a mood that is brought on by psychological trauma. Each of these should be treated in very different ways.

RM: What have you read or heard about neurochemical causes of mood and emotion, and where did you get this information?

CM: My academic background is in the biological sciences, so there were a lot of brushings in my studies with neurochemicals. I've also done some research into investigating the neurochemical reactions in the brain due to spiritual practices such as meditation and prayer. It's interesting to see that certain areas of activity in the brain of those on LSD coincide with the same activity one sees in a person in a deep state of meditation. The lesson you can take from that is either that you can take drugs like LSD, because they will trick you into thinking you're enlightened. Or you can take the lesson that you can change your own brain chemistry and activity simply by having the self discipline to exercise your brain in certain ways on a regular basis. I prefer the latter.

I've also done a lot of research on food and its impacts on neurochemistry. There are certain synthetic ingredients that are found in a lot of common foods that are excito-toxins, which trick the brain into being stimulated in different ways. The same holds true for the synthetic compounds in foods that are now being connected to things like Attention Deficit Disorder. And then there are the thousands of different types of pesticide residues we eat in our food, some of which have now been shown to mess with neurochemistry. In short, brain chemistry is altered when we ingest something, whether it's food or a pill. We are what we eat. When I eat healthier foods, I feel better in the brain. Dietary changes won't work to fix everyone's mental problems, obviously, but you'd be surprised at how significant our diets' roles play in our mental well being.

RM: "Chemicals Collide" seems to portray the fluctuations in mood from brain processes in both a positive and a negative light, as both confusing and "beautiful." Do you find the knowledge that brain chemicals play a role in controlling emotion and mood to be reassuring, or threatening, or disturbing, or anything else?

CM: “Chemicals Collide” is really about all of the different chemicals that collide around to make the universe what it is. The brain is just one example of how these incredible elements mix together to make complex reactions. It's really no different than the rest of the universe.

Mix different types of chemicals together and you'll get different colors or an explosion or a tasty recipe or a new energy source or even life. It's the same in the brain. I think the brain is just something we perceive reality through. The brain is not the essence of what we are. Some scientists want to claim they have it all figured out, and that the brain is the center of it all. But there's a whole lot more going on than they're comfortable with accepting.

In that sense, I'm not afraid of the fact that the brain is a mortal organ and that it can be persuaded to function differently when exposed to different chemicals. My brain is not me. It's just another one of my physical senses through which the real me sees.

RM: Have you felt an influence of any drug you have taken on your creative process or musical ability/performance?

CM: No. I know a lot of musicians resort to that. I tend to respect a song more if it wasn't drug induced. For me, writing music is as close as I get to meditation. It's a chance to get close to the ghosts. Writing music is a drug enough for me, and for me it's better than any anti-depressant or psychotropic. I can get to some pretty strange places in my head after being in the music studio for 12-15 hours or so.

RM: What led you to write so directly about brain function in songs like "Chemicals Collide" or "Take Your Medicine?"

CM: “Chemicals Collide” really isn't directly about brain function. The songs are actually more directly about psychological and spiritual function. "Take Your Medicine" is literally about conjuring up the strength to face the ugly things in yourself that most of us prefer to deny exist. In the case of this song, taking one's medicine is not about popping a pharmaceutical but is more accurately about having the guts to do some not-so-fun inner psychological work. Scientific studies have shown you can alter your brain chemistry simply by choosing to practice thinking in a different way. In that sense, "taking your medicine" means having the discipline to break some bad mental habits and thereby changing your brain chemistry. Letting go of the inner monsters referenced in that song has helped me feel much better. But it wasn't an easy psychological process getting through that.

RM: Can you talk about the line "damn that stupid brain" in "Brain Gateway?"

CM: The brain is the goofy little organ that tries to define our reality for us. Buddha saw the brain as an organ that should be exercised in order to give the soul a living gateway to enlightenment. I'm not Buddhist, but learning ways to alter brain function that can provide different ways of perceiving reality is deeply intriguing to me.

Our brain makes us feel separated, whereas quantum physics has clearly indicated otherwise. The brain creates the illusion of being isolated. So you have to alter your brain's thought patterns to see things differently.

In this song, the character turns his brain into a gateway that allows him to see the afterworld. From listening to it, you don't really know if he got to the afterworld by attempting to kill the brain via suicide or by utilizing the brain as a meditative tool to get to the other side. But when he gets through that brain gateway, he hangs with the ghosts for a bit, learns some lessons and comes back. In the end, he gives thanks for the things he did not appreciate prior to leaving, while, at the same time, scolding himself for allowing his brain to overlook all of that beauty in the first place.