Cake singer talks about going green, getting out from under label’s thumb

Cake is reportedly the first major band to record an album in a 100 percent solar-powered studio in America. From a glance, that seems unlikely, since Cake's biggest classic hits aren't environmental but are about cars and relationships ("The Distance") and women wearing short skirts ("Short Skirt/Long Jacket").

But Cake had a eureka moment about solar power while touring Germany.

"It's not sunny there, but there's solar panels on every roof," says singer John McCrea. "In Germany, even the most conservative people are way into solar."

So Cake went home to Sacramento and had solar panels installed on their studio to record this year's "Showroom of Compassion." And McCrea put solar panels on his family's house.

You're probably thinking, "Well, rich bands can afford to do that."

But McCrea says everyone can, thanks to two companies, Solar City and 1 Block Off the Grid.

"Solar City will actually buy your solar rig for you, and then you just go on paying (your current utility bill average to Solar City) for the next 10 years, until it's paid off," he says.

"And when power prices go up in the next five or 10 years, your (electric bill) is going to stay the same. You're locking in."

Meanwhile, 1 Block Off The Grid signs up large numbers of residents in a city, then negotiates on their behalf with insulation companies and manufacturers to install solar panels for, say, 500 homeowners at a time.

"They leverage their buying power. That's what we did here -- my family. We got a really good deal."

He says 1 Block Off The Grid will end up saving him about $8,000 in utilities.

Cake's recording studio sends leftover solar power to the public utility, which pays Cake about $25 a month in return. The only shocking thing about solar is how easy the process is, he says.

"People have this big mental block about it, because they don't really understand what happens," McCrea says. "But it's nothing. It's just making a decision.

"You do have to get permits -- but the company does it. You don't have to do anything. There's a bunch of refunds, too, that the company will apply for. ... And you get to write it off your taxes."

All you really need is a house that gets hit by sunlight.

"It makes so much sense in Las Vegas," McCrea says.

True. Will more Las Vegas homeowners, recession and all, follow Cake into the future?

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When Cake's new album, "Showroom of Compassion," came out in January, it debuted at the top of four Billboard charts -- the main Albums chart, Rock Albums, Alternative Albums -- and Independent Albums, meaning Cake self-published "Showroom."

Yes, Cake is off the grid of the music industry: No longer beholden to the whims of record labels. No longer giving big chunks of sales grosses to those labels.

McRea credits the loyalty and trust of fans to buy an album without hearing it first.

"As a teenager, I needed to hear a couple of songs before I was willing to buy a record with 13 songs. I get a tear in my eye to think that many people went on a limb for us."

But we Cake fans know Cake albums are reliable. McCrea says that's the goal of the band, to spend years making a good album, and not just singles for phone ring tones.

He doesn't miss major labels.

"So many times, we've released albums in this crumbling record industry where just on the day of release, everybody at our record company is being fired."

Cake's breakthrough record, 1996's "Fashion Nugget," is the only album that wasn't pulled apart by a label's getting bought suddenly, or by the decline of the music industry, he says.

In some ways, music executives are just "professional diners," eating up band's grosses with business lunches, he says.

"They're professional socializers. And then there's all this corporate culture on top of it, with people playing a game of 'Survivor,' " he says.

Self-publishing isn't a piece of cake. Cake had to find a distributor and a publicist. If they wanted to get on the radio, they would have had to have hired a radio publicist, too.

"You're running a business," he says. "Musicians, in a perfect world, wouldn't have to do that. If it were the '70s, we'd be throwing TV sets out of hotel room windows. But it's not the '70s."

It's satisfying for Cake to take control of their destiny, he says.

"By the same token, all that time we're spending doing that is time we could be playing our instruments. So its not optimal, but it's reality."

Fortunately for Cake and unfortunately for record labels, Cake fans stand by their band, and the song does not remain the same.

Doug Elfman's column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Contact him at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.