Music is a source of solace and nourishment in the best of times and the hardest of times. It has been for so many of us in this year of pandemic, and Cloud Cult is on every playlist Krista makes. Craig Minowa started the band in 1995. Its trajectory was cathartically changed the day he and his wife Connie woke up to find that their firstborn two-year-old son, Kaidin, had mysteriously died in his sleep. The music that has emerged ever since has spanned the human experience from the rawest grief to the fiercest hope. We welcomed Craig and the whole Cloud Cult ensemble to On Being Studios in Minneapolis, for conversation and music, in 2016.

Craig Minowa is the founder, singer, and songwriter of Cloud Cult. Their albums include Light Chasers, the acoustic live album Unplug, and The Seeker. Craig holds a degree in environmental science from the University of Minnesota, and is the founder of the environmental nonprofit and record label Earthology.

This interview is edited and produced with music and other features in the On Being episode "Craig Minowa & Cloud Cult — Music As Medicine." Find the transcript for that show at onbeing.org.