Sergio Motta - Before forming the band Inquire, two members played with the band 
Trespass and another played with the band Kampai. Due to that experience, what could
you musically extract from the previous bands to be added to the current band?

Thomas Kohls: All the members of Inquire have been playing progressive rock for more than 20 years in a lot of different bands. Trespass and Kampai were two bands with a small success in the local scene. At that time we were more oriented towards Genesis and Yes music. With Inquire we are more trying to find our own identity.

Thomas Kohls: We don’t have contact to the progressive rock scene in Cologne or Hannover. We aren’t even been aware of a scene in these cities. You are right, there were a lot of progressive rock bands from Hannover in the 70’s. for exemple, Eloy, Ramses, Jane and the early Scorpions. Nowadays it is very difficult to get people attention for sophisticated music. Young people are more interested in Rap and Pop and just want to have fun. There is no room for progressive music or art anymore.

Thomas Kohls: As we started Inquire some years ago, it was clear from the beginning that we wanted to write a concept piece. Searching for a concept of our second Cd we discovered the movie ‘’Die Bettwurst’’, a German creation of 1970. This film is one of the most anarchical ones of the German movies and it reflects the social changes during this time in a very satirical way. Psychoanalysis and subversion, petit bourgeois nature and anti-imperialism are exactly the contradictions we tried to realize musically. We are of the opinion that social topics and progressive rock fit very well together. All of this, together with a pinch of absurd craziness; this is Inquire. For us the music is cheap alternative to psychoanalysis. Movie like ‘’Die Bettwurst’’ is a good therapy against today’s mass hysteria.

Thomas Kohls: We can only speak for ourselves here. First of all it is easier for us to sing in German. However, our compositions are mainly instrumental and we use the lyrics only to enhance the music. To use different languages is also part of our concept. We guess a reason for many German bands to sing in English has a commercial background or the German language simply sounds too rough.

Thomas Kohls: Yes that’s right, we are all avis soccer fans and we meet each other every weekend in one of our ‘’Bundesliga’’ stadiums to talk about this and that. Many ideas for our music have been created in this relaxed and unaffected natural atmosphere. It might sound somewhat strange but to watch a soccer game for us, is after a hard working week a place where you can find peace and silence. And therefore it is a good place for inspiration.

Thomas Kohls: The cover picture has been taken by a friend of ours on a trip to Portugal. We all liked the picture and it fits well to the music.

Thomas Kohls: At the moment we are working on our new album. the composition work is already finished. It is a 60 minutes concept piece based on Jean Paul Sartre’s novel ‘’Nausea’’ and the Cd will be entitled ‘’Melancholia’’.  We are  releasing likewise a live bootleg; the sound quality isn’t that good but the Cd has some funny tracks on it and a wonderful cover.

Thomas Kohls: This is actually a joke, but who knows one day our dream might become reality. A twenty-five minute hymn for a soccer world championship composed by one of the great prog bands.

Thomas Kohls: Besides our own band we are very much interested in the progressive scene. We listen to a lot of progressive stuff and read all the magazines. It is a shame that this huge movement of progressive rock only exist in the underground. To the scene here in Germany we do not have any contact. We’d like to say thank you for giving us the opportunity to present Inquire in this interview. Good luck and our kindest regards to the progressive lovers in Brazil.

 
Sergio Motta
is a friend and partiner from the Progressive Rock And Progressive Metal Site

Dieter Cromen - Guitar
Born in 1961.He begun playing guitar at the age of 14 in his fathers orchester. He studied with various teachers and played in a lot of different bands.

Robert Köhler -
Keyboards
Born in 1969.First piano lessons at the age of 8. He studied music at the university of Cologne and plays every sunday church organ in Cologne.He is often on tour with a cabaret show.

Thomas Kohls - Drums and Percussion
Born in 1958. He begun playing drums at the age of 14 and studied at the Modern Drum Studio in Germany with several teachers. He also plays with Uli in the infamous Düsseldorf located band "Stay tuned".

Uli Mückenheim - Bass
Born in 1964.He started with the bass at the age of 14 and played in a lot of different styles.He has been playing with Stay Tuned for 10 years and was involved in many other projects.

Discography:
Within 
The Neck Pillow 
Das Auge ist der erste kreis (live)

Inquire Home Page
www.inquire-music.de/

Inquire was founded in late 96, but all members played Progressive Rock in other bands before Inquire. Robert Köhler was keyboarder with Kampai and participated in two CD recordings. All other members were members of Trespass, a band which existed from 1984 to 1993. Trespass released one CD and a video which could be seen on German Television.

Thomas and Dieter played together in two more Progressive Bands. The music of Inquire is influenced by all the Prog Bands from the 70`s like Camel, Genesis and King Crimson as well as the so called Kraut Rock Bands like Grobschnitt, Amon Düül 2, Guru Guru and Kraan amoung others. Robert studied music in Colonge Germany and is part of a lot of other projects beyond Progressive Rock. All other members got an music education on private schools and play only with Inquire at present.