The Inquisition - CLOAK/DAGGER

I heard about Cloak/Dagger, out of Richmond VA, after their 7"on Grave Mistake Records, and listened to a few of the tunes. Then "We Are" came out and I was hooked. And rightly so, it seemed that Album was on everyone's mind in '07. My old band had the opportunity to play with them in Jan of '07, and they killed. Seen them a few times in '08, most notably playing with one of our other favs, Fucked Up. Jason took the time out to get strapped in to the painful rack that is The Inquisition. -MR. Mogul

History in Their Words:
We started out with no goals and we wanted to do a band for fun and maybe play a show here and there. We recorded a demo and it went over well so we decided to play some shows. After that we recorded a 7" for Grave Mistake and did some weekend tours and some short tours on the east coast after our record came out with the help of Paint It Black, Government Warning and New Mexican Disaster Squad. We signed to Jade Tree and recorded our full length in Kentucky with Chris Owens of Lords who rules and has a dirty true punk studio with the best skate park I've ever been to or seen close by. Jade Tree put out our full length and we had the great idea of jumping right into touring at age 30 and we lost A LOT of money. We toured the US and no one knew about the tour, we toured Europe and some people knew about the tour, we toured Canada and some people knew about the tour and after more weekends and The Fest we flew to the UK and it was nice to see some people knew about the tour.


The Inquisition:

1. Why are you in a band?
I love to travel, to play shows and the process of writing and recording these songs. When we started I wanted to be in a band I thought was fun and that I thought was a challenge to be in and this definitely has been. I'm very proud of everything we've done so far.

2. Do you consider your band successful?
We have had a lot of positive feedback from people that we look up to and respect that like this band and what we've done and that means a lot to me. On the other hand we have lost a lot of money and not every show we play has people going crazy but I would still consider us a minor success. For this band to be "successful" monetary wise we would have to come back from tour with money for rent and that hasn't happened yet but that's not the goal.

3. What are you currently listening to?
Sonic Youth, The Shitty Limits, Taxi, The Saints.

4. Who are your primary musical influences and do you think they are obvious?
I would say Black Flag and Hot Snakes and they are pretty obvious. We don't directly sound like either of them but they are definitely an influence on us and people can usually tell. I dressed up like Henry on Halloween when we played Alabama and my costume ruled.

5. What other band(s) are out there that we should be listening to?
The Shitty Limits, Wasted Time, The Ladies, Marked Men.

6. As a band, what was your best show/experience yet?
We played Milan when we toured Europe and everyone knew the words and it was non stop crazy with stage dives, moshing, people dancing and not moshing dancing but really dancing and people breathing fire in the back of the room. That's all you can ask for.

7. What was your worst show/experience?
We played Berlin on that same tour and everyone got too drunk to play except me since I don't drink. Our bass player at the time Adam fell off the stage which was about 4 feet tall face first and it was bad. I was the only one that noticed. After that we argued on stage about stopping and then kept playing. There was about 300 people there and we sold one 7" before we played. After the bad show we got rushed out since there was going to be a dance party later and on the way back to the hostel Adam almost got jumped by three Germans. It just wasn't a good night.

8. What's your writing process like?
Collin our one and only guitarist writes all the songs and then he shows us at practice. Matt our bass player records them and sends me mp3's and then I obsess over every word when I write lyrics to them in my car. We really try to make it a point to not over analyze or spend too much time on songs but I can't help it. We all work out the kinks by playing the songs a lot. We have recorded a lot of songs that didn't work out but we like to try to give everything a fair chance.

9. Do you see yourselves still doing this in 10 years? Why?
Definitely not. I think that there's a time and a place for everything and that's what makes hardcore and punk a genuine thing. There's no reason for Minor Threat to be a band right now and I'll never see them as much as I would love to but maybe that's a good thing. When it's time for us to break up and when we run out of ideas or things stop being fun I'll be ready to call it a day.

10. Are there any shows or releases you want to pimp?
We are taking a break from playing shows to record another lp sometime soon. We have a two song 7" coming out on Jade Tree in the next month or so and our friend Dave Brown has a photo book called Adult Crash that comes with a 7" where we covered a Warzone song that is out now. Thanks for reading and thanks to you.