Rock Monsters Romania

On June 20th at Rocanotherworld, you can catch Pinholes live on stage.

Formed in Iași in 2011, Pinholes is an alternative rock group united by a shared obsession with their Moldavian roots and a distinctly Eastern European aesthetic.
For over a decade, they’ve been traveling across Romania, convincing audiences that you can really dance to sad music.

Drawn to metaphors and unapologetically dramatic, Pinholes blends elements of alternative rock, post-rock, and post-punk in search of emotional and sonic balance. Known for their introspective lyrics and atmospheric sound, they stand out as one of the most expressive voices in the Romanian alternative scene.

We wanted to find out how they’re preparing for their return to the festival stage, what Rocanotherworld means to them, and how they see the evolution of their music in 2025.

Before getting into more intense music-related questions, how are you feeling after a tour that just ended and as the summer festival period begins?

I think, honestly, we are kind of burned out. It was one of our hardest (short) tours we ever did. We had to „fight” for every ticket sold, everything that could go wrong went wrong and we ended the tour low on spiritual fuel, money and everything in between. It feels that it is harder and harder to sell tickets if you don’t have a gimmick or you are not one of the “historically” loved bands.  

In one of our concert reviews that came out this year there was a paragraph that said something along the lines of: “I don’t know why Pinholes are not more famous than they are, and I think the band does not know why that is, either.” And that kind of stuck with me, in a good way. I felt like someone understood our struggles.  

We are getting older (doh!) and I think we need to update the ways of promoting our music. So, we are doing some planning and rebranding in the background. 

Your version of “Astenie” is both powerful and haunting. What made you choose this particular track by Ada Milea and Silent Strike for a cover? Was there something specific that resonated with you?

It`s a song that has been on repeat for us ever since it came out. It was a stand out song from the album Alb, which I think came along with a number of Sunete magazines back in the day – but I might remember it wrong. As we were huge fans of Ada Milea at that time, and still are, there was no other way to listen to this feature, but to get your hands on that album. 

In the past couple of years we kept talking about doing some cover songs, just for fun or as official covers. An – it would be super cool if we would play Hardcore Moldovenesc by Zdob și Zdub exactly how they played it in the 90s – type of situation. There is a short list somewhere and maybe one day we will record some more covers. 

Given how strong the reinterpretation is, many listeners are curious if this was a sign that you are working on something new? Maybe an album or an EP?

We are always working on something new and trying to take our time with the material. It is a bit tricky, because now we all live in different parts of the country. So, it will be a slower process than usual. The ideal situation would be to come out with a full album, if we were to tour again. For now, we just need to live a little bit and find our inspiration outside the gas stations and the inside of our van/cars. 

You always said that you were “adopted by Iași”, so it’s always a bit more special to play concerts at home. What’s the best and the worst part about performing in your adoptive home county?

Yes, none of us were born in Iași, but part of our musical journey and education was made while being students in Iași. The band was formed in this town, in a period pre-social media where you just had to just play concerts and „get gud”. We were all involved either with another band or cover band, just trying to figure IT out. After Pinholes started to pick up some traction, we kind of got our hopes up, but we just didn’t have the finances to support this high spending – low income type of life. So we needed to figure IT out again, and ended up in different cities. 

The type of music we made, although it was not reinventing the wheel, was still original, sappy and interesting to listen to. Bands like Vița de Vie, Travka, Luna Amară, OCS and Robin and the Backstabbers, all the big guns, were really supportive of our music, so we were very confident of our approach. But we came out in a period where the industry was booming with already-made great bands and finding a spot among them was really hard to get, all while the main alternative radio station went offline. I could name dozens of bands that started at the same time as us and are all gone now. 

To cut the story short, everytime I come back to Iași, I`m taken back to those days and feel grateful about where we are now as a group and how we started. 

The best part is always the people that come to our shows and give us a lot of love and appreciation. In our last tour, Iași was by far the best city we played in. The worst part is always hope; so, give everything – expect nothing. 

You also have a concert in Iași this autumn, a special trio show alongside Fluturi pe Asfalt and Nava Mamă, which is highly anticipated. How did this idea come along?

We wanted to do this concert for a couple of years, and a lot of times people came up to us with the suggestion to do a Sfânta Treime show. Of course, we wanted to do it but it is more difficult than expected to bring us all together, logistics wise. 

The suggestion came again from bandbook so we talked about it, and found a period where we are all available. We are also at a point where we can support our technical needs by ourselves, so it makes everything a lot easier to put together. We are still planning out the set and the show as a whole, but it is happening! For the Bucharest show we sold out most pre-sale tickets so that gives us a bit of wind under our wings. Might also be a chance to put back on the market our record label, so a bit of update on the merch end will be a must!

Looking ahead to this summer, you’ll be performing at Rocanotherworld. How does that feel? What should the crowd expect from your set?

A bit anxious, honestly. As I said in the first question, we ended up a little burned out after the last tour and I think we are in need just to spend some time together and just have a laugh, drink some cold beer and play a great show. 

One can expect some very specific neo-tristesse Pinholes set full of bangers. 

What is your message for the people who are coming to your set at Rocanotherworld and are reading this interview?

“E cineva supi aicia? E cineva depri? Asta e pentru tine!”

This is also the 10th anniversary edition of the festival. Do you have a special message for the organizers?

A huge congrats for keeping the festival alive and for always focusing on bringing Romanian bands on their stage. 

Tickets and multi-day passes are still available on the official website (www.rocanotherworld.com), so don’t miss the opportunity to see your favourite bands live!

Text and Interview by Radu Mihai and Ionela Pleșan