/>
The members of Cake, from left to right: Vince DiFiore, Paulo Baldi, John McCrea, Gabriel Nelson and Xan McCurdy.
Credit: Tim Jackson
READ MORE ABOUT:
Vince DiFiore has a day job playing trumpet, keyboards and providing percussion for a band called Cake. The emphasis is on day, since Vince and the rest of the band are recording album No. 6 in a studio powered entirely by the sun. The house, in Sacramento, California, has been fitted with 13 solar panels by a company called Borrego Solar. Remember that name, Borrego. The California company gave the band a good deal on the equipment.
Vince recently chatted with Planet Green about the new album, working with photovoltaics, and how all of his band's songs are actually "bummers."
Cake is known for high-powered tunes like a cover of "I Will Survive" and originals like "The Distance," and "Short Skirt/Long Jacket." The songs are delivered in a pithy, rap-like style by singer John McCrea.
Planet Green: So you play trumpet in a rock band? Shouldn't you be all about wind instead of solar?
Vince DiFiore: (Laughs) Yes, trumpet players are usually in some sort of a brass section, not out front. Me playing trumpet, it's as if I were some sort of guitarist or something like that.
Being musicians, we're aware of environmental issues, being individuals living in the United States at this time. If you read anything, you're aware of all the issues. We felt like we needed to do something as individuals. One of the things we could do to maybe help out our conscience was to go solar. It enables us to make this whole album solar-powered. We only work during the day, when the sun's out.
PG: Has that limited what you're able to do, when you're able to work. Is the album all acoustic?
VD: No, you wouldn't even tell a difference from inside the house. We're attached to the grid also, so if for some reason there was no sun that day, we might need to be able to use a little from the grid ... On a whole, we're using less than we're making. The balance on our local energy bill is a negative balance right now, a negative $12.
PG: Vince says the band hopes to pay off the solar panels in about 15 years, little by little, through the power that they save. Not a question, just a segue:
VD: We certainly don't have illusions about saving the world, but we wanted to do something to make us feel better about what we're doing. We're consumers just like everybody else and going out on tour takes a lot of energy. We use fossil fuels to go on tour just like anybody going to work. We know that the planet can't sustain that kind of activity. But that's our livelihood, so we wanted to do something to make a difference.
PG: Do you think people have misconceptions about solar power? Did you?
VD: No, it's something I've been thinking about probably for 20 years. My brother was really gung ho about it. He wanted to get into the solar energy business a long time ago. So I've known about photovoltaic cells for a long time. My biggest concern was that the panels we're going to be really visible from the street and draw a lot of attention to our house. Actually, they lay low on the back side of our house. They lay low, and they look beautiful.
PG: What's plugged in in the studio?
VD: Everything we need, definitely. We're running a dual processor computer, maybe two or three amps at a time, some keyboards, some lights. Everything, the 13 panels take care of it.
PG: Vince says the band's time in the sun so far hasn't inspired any songs, or figured into the album's title. It's still untitled. So then what's the new album about?
VD: A lot of the songs are a mirthful view of the end of the world. A lot of the songs have to do with blurring the line between personal relationships and the state of the world. Entropy. So in that sense, there is a relation with our energy consumption.
PG: So are all the songs a bummer? Depressing?
VD: Our songs are usually all bummers. There's something uplifting about a bummer. That's what the blues are about ...
Everybody's really happy with (the solar studio). It makes the mood better. Psychologically, what goes on when people are turning off lights, turning down thermostats, the consciousness of energy being used, the tension that it creates, that's been eliminated.
Cake plans to release the new album in the spring of 2010 and begin a supporting tour in March or April. Vince really wishes fans would check out the band's web site at cakemusic.com, and take advantage of a car pool page, for people to share rides on the way to shows.
Cake also gives away a tree at every show, to someone who answers a trivia question, does the most push-ups or something ridiculous like that. The winner is supposed to take the tree home, plant it, take a picture, and send it back to the band to be posted on the web site. As a result, Cake is probably one of the only music groups with its own tree page on the internet.
Fans who just can't wait for a new disc, and would like to hear what the band is up to, can sign up for free ringtones. Six sound bites will be released to members of the band's mailing list. While the ringtones are 30 seconds long, Vince promises the band is working on an album with a collection of full-length songs.
More from Planet Green
"Power Up The Planet" Brings Solar Power to the Poor, and Global Grooves to Your Ears
'Making the Band' Songstress Tackles Another Reality: Climate Change
16 Big Green Ideas We're Thankful For
