Ground Control Touring

What do the Jackson 5, Axel Rose, Freddie Gibbs and Hoagy Carmichael all have in common? Indiana; that’s where they’re from and so is a band called Cloakroom. “Sleep’s Al Cisneros told me in confidence that he was also born in Indiana” recalls Doyle Martin of the three-piece shoegaze outfit.

Raised on well water, and born off the handgun highway it almost seems too easy to slap the label “shoegaze” on the group. The band’s aesthetic at first seems far more primitive than the likes of a third-wave shoegaze band in 2024, but upon further inspection Cloakroom almost seems intellectual, at least pseudo-intellectual. “Trust me we’ve heard every iteration of the genre: doomgaze, bootgaze, shroomgaze,” explains the band’s Bobby Markos, “I think we said shroomgaze originally.”

Be it the fool’s errand of traveling 3,000 miles in six days of touring or tracking an entire LP in a marathon 72-hour recording session, the Indiana-based band has found success operating in severe circumstances. When the human mind begins to break down from exhaustion, the three-piece works in a desperate harmony. “A hungry dog hunts better,” instructs their drummer Timothy Remis. The pressure keeps Cloakroom alive.

While the veil has been lifted and the band is a little more accessible these days, Cloakroom still manages to be an enigma. Captures like the accompanying music video for “Unbelonging” will give listeners a glimpse into the daily operation of the unit, which was filmed during their latest excursion to Europe, but there will always be details left to the inventiveness of others.

“Unbelonging” and the rest of their magnum opus was recorded in December of 2023 with engineer Zac Montez at Electrical Audio in Chicago and Rec Room Recording in Des Plaines, IL. Subsequent overdub and mixing sessions were held at Time Well Recordings and the song was mastered by veteran engineer Nicholas Townsend.

For some time now, Cloakroom has been condensing years worth of activity into small, implausible windows. Be it touring 3,000 miles in six days or tracking an entire LP in a marathon 72-hour recording session, the Indiana-based band has found success operating in severe circumstances. When the human mind begins to break down from exhaustion, the three-piece snaps into a form of auto pilot, which has been finely tuned by their respective 20-plus years of playing experience. And while the band has been shrouded in mystery since its inception in 2012, with people’s imaginations filling in the blanks along the way, they’ve taken to existing in a manner consistent with their folklore.

As they prepare to embark on another saga, playing 34 shows in 37 days across North America, the band submits their newest single offering, “Unbelonging”. Cut during the aforementioned 72-hour test of endurance, the song serves as a compartmentalization of singer Doyle Martin’s past along with a premonition of the roads ahead. What resulted is a Psychedelic Furs-esque, shimmering pop tune that has more in common with the pubs of late-70s London than the rest of Cloakroom’s back catalog. While there are glimpses of the band’s identity in bassist Bobby Markos and drummer Tim Remis’ rhythmic delivery, the trio has turned a page sonically.

Gone are the six-plus minute-long stoner rock opuses, replaced by a new approach attempting to blur every parameter set by modern rock standards. Taking notes from the playbooks of the Beatles and the Beach Boys on creating genre-bending compositions and reinventing sonic approach, the latest Cloakroom material continues the groundwork laid by their previous album “Dissolution Wave”, exploring all sounds imaginable under the umbrella of one thought. The song is much quicker in pace than Cloakroom devotees will recall, but the layers of delay, reverb and fuzz are still present. Think of a Cure song being dubbed onto Pavement cassette and you’ll be somewhere in the vicinity.

While the veil has been lifted, and the band is a little more accessible these days, Cloakroom still manages to be an enigma. Captures like the accompanying music video for “Unbelonging” will give listeners a glimpse into the daily operation of the unit, which was filmed during their latest excursion to Europe, but there will always be details left to the inventiveness of others.

“Unbelonging” and other tunes were recorded in December of 2023 with engineer Zac Montez at Electrical Audio in Chicago and Rec Room Recording in Des Plaines, IL. Subsequent overdub and mixing sessions were held at Time Well Recordings and the song was mastered by veteran engineer Nicholas Townsend.