English professor authors book on indie rock band Cloud Cult
A new book by St. Olaf College Professor of English Mark Allister chronicles the career of Cloud Cult, a Minnesota-grown indie rock band that has often been called “the most idealistic and least cynical” in the country.
The book, Chasing the Light: The Cloud Cult Story, traces the band’s rise to critical acclaim. Allister describes Cloud Cult’s unique philosophy and principles, including how lead singer and songwriter Craig Minowa created a zero-carbon footprint for the band’s recording and touring well before sustainable practices became mainstream.
Chasing the Light also details the band’s defining moments, beginning with the death of Craig and Connie Minowa’s two-year-old son and the hundreds of songs that grew out of the tragic loss.
“Cloud Cult’s story engages some of the great issues of any time: How do we overcome loss and move through grieving? How do we understand human life through the frameworks of spirituality, of life and death? How do we create positive messages through art? How do we spread love? Readers of the book will, I believe, contemplate such issues through the band’s story,” Allister says.
“I’d like to see readers come away with a renewed sense of hope that doing good in the world is possible, and that despair can be turned to affirmation.”
In addition to English, Allister also teaches environmental studies and American studies at St. Olaf. He hosts a weekly radio show on KSTO called Prof Rock with Mark Allister.