Cake's New Album Produced With Solar Energy

Posted on Nov 8th 2009 12:00PM by Benjy Eisen
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Cake frontman John McCrea believes in science. And science, he says, is asking us to change our ways. So before Cake began recording their new album in Sacramento, Calif. earlier this year, they made a few adjustments to Upbeat Studio in order to keep the beat still banging for future generations. They converted their studio to all solar power and made a pledge with Planet Earth to record the new album using 100 percent solar electricity. They're making good on their promise, even proving it with this two-minute video montage that documents the conversion.

"We thought of doing this a long time ago, but were always too busy to figure it out and implement it until last year," McCrea tells Spinner. "It just seemed very impractical to use natural gas and nuclear generated power here when there's constantly all this sun shining down. It gets hotter every year."

Hotter and more expensive, as traditional utility costs are soaring. Meanwhile, McCrea's plan is to have his Cake and, yes, eat it too. "Because Sacramento is lucky enough to have a public utility, we actually get checks in the mail every month for our excess electricity," he says. With traditional album sales slumping, Cake will be one band that gets to cash electricity checks with their royalty checks. Furthermore, McCrea says the solar power thing has been seamless and without incident. "This was a permanent decision," he says. "No reason to quit now when it's working so well."

Sorry Kermit - looks like these days, it is easy being green.