Cloud Cult finds its cinematic foothold with 'The Seeker'

"Cinematic" is a word overused by rock critics to describe many a band's music, but for Cloud Cult the term not only applies but has now taken on a literal meaning — kind of the way "cultish" did years ago for the Upper Midwest's widely adored orchestral rock ensemble.

With its latest self-made album, "The Seeker," the Minnesota/Wisconsin group's long-festering visual side came to life like never before in the form of an accompanying movie of the same name. And it's not just a little homemade movie shot over a long weekend. The on-screen version of "The Seeker" features a pair of real Hollywood actors and the kind of strong emotional and spiritual current that defines the band's music.

For Cloud Cult frontman Craig Minowa, the film is just another extension of his songwriting, much like the painters who famously work alongside the musicians at the band's concerts.

"In my mind, my songs are always inherently visual pieces, even if the visuals aren't ever seen," he said.

Calling from the woodsy homestead he and his wife/bandmate Connie Minowa share in Viroqua, Wis. — most of the rest of the band lives in the Twin Cities — Craig said "The Seeker" wasn't the first Cloud Cult album he dually envisioned as a movie. Thanks to a GoFundMe campaign and a growing filmmaking know-how, though, it was the first twofer Minowa's team was able to pull off.

The movie has already screened in a few cities, including at the Riverview Theater in Minneapolis as well as in Chicago and New York. Because it's also being submitted to film festivals, though, Cloud Cult has refrained from further screenings and will instead just stick to promoting its new album the old-fashioned way: with a sold-out concert Saturday at the State Theatre.

The initial idea was "to have a video come out with a song each week, in part to bring attention to the album," Minowa explained. "A little over a year ago, though, it started to turn into an overarching story line, and the story itself was modest enough in logistics that it seemed possible to pull off as a whole movie."

"The Seeker" is based more on death and the great beyond from a child's perspective. Such songs as "Time Machine Invention" and "No Hell" were inspired firsthand by the ongoing weakening of Craig's father from an ALS-like genetic disease, which also claimed the life of Craig's aunt and grandfather.

"Not only was I lamenting my dad's decline, but I was getting a lot of testing done myself to see if I had it," said Minowa, 43, who now has two more children at home with Connie. "So I was thinking a lot about my kids, and what would be the words I would want to leave to them."

With an all-clear doctor's report and a finished album in hand, Minowa started plotting out the movie with Johnson last spring. During a particularly dismal part of that process, they reached out to a longtime fan of the band, actor Josh Radnor, who had just wrapped up his nine-year run on the hit CBS sitcom "How I Met Your Mother."

"He and I had some e-mail exchanges where we found we had a lot of the same interests, philosophically speaking," Minowa recalled. "One night I felt like the whole film was about to tank. I thought, 'I'll just reach out to Josh and see if he happens to be available to come up and hang out on set for a few weeks.' "

A sure sign Radnor was the right man for the job: "He happened to be doing some spiritual seeking down in Peru when I e-mailed him," the singer added.

Aside from a scene where the band is performing around a campfire, Minowa stayed away through the movie's shooting and instead "trusted Jeff and the rest of them to do what they do well," he said. Scenes were filmed around Deer Lake, Wis., as well as along the North Shore and in Minneapolis.

The results were pure Cloud Cult, though. Characters in the movie struggle with death, bond with nature and seek out higher meaning in a story line that would naturally suit any Cloud Cult album.

Minowa was unabashed about the fact that the themes of his records haven't changed much over the course of his band's 15-year career.

"A few albums back I thought maybe I was getting redundant," he said with a laugh. "Ultimately, though, I thought about how there are some songwriters who are really good at writing love songs, and they do album after album of that, and it's fine.

"I'm comfortable being a songwriter who primarily writes about our spiritual journey. It's what music is to me: a sacred ritual and, in a lot of ways, my spiritual practice."