Rock Monsters Romania

Summer is almost over, but there are still a few concerts that should be on your must-see list before September 1st.

One of them is definitely the next Rooftop Series concert, on August 21st, featuring Toulouse Lautrec and Rana.

Toulouse Lautrec are a reminder of Little Paris in the 2000s, a black-and-white snapshot from a “Back to the Future” film scene where the actor uses a 16″ wrench. Toulouse Lautrec borrowed from the painter’s personality and spread it across radio waves and stages throughout the country. In an era of the “post-” prefix, Toulouse Lautrec are post-indie rock, post-mainstream, and post-underground. They have managed to survive MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Spotify, and are now navigating artificial intelligence. They are, and have remained, four guys playing guitars and drums, reinventing themselves for 14 years. They have 5 albums, dozens of songs in the charts, dozens of music videos, and countless concerts across about seven countries and seven seas, as far as they can remember.

Last autumn, they released their latest album “Ultratonic,” and at that time, we tried to find out more about the band and album in a short interview:

You’ve been performing since around 2009. How do you view the journey from then until now?

It a was a hard way, it was running, avoiding collisions, slipping and sliding. It was not necessary the band itself, but everything surrounding it, from venues to publishing, to social media, radio stations. Otherwise we are happy by the way we evolved as people and musicians and we owe a lot to music.

Looking back, do you feel you’ve remained the same at your core in terms of music, energy, and the message you convey? Or do you feel you’ve transformed over the years as you’ve evolved as artists?

We definitely changed. People recognize us, that’s true, but since the first album there were so many facts. We wrote about revolutions, gold, personal life. We became less pure but more complex.

What does “Ultratonic” represent, and how did the idea for the album come about?

Ultratonic is our sixth album, it is our getting over pandemic, which was a huge turn off. “A fost sau n-a fost” was our creation in pandemic and Ultratonic returns to enjoying life and mainly music.

What inspired you in creating the album?

It is an album focused on music and with small speeches about personal life, stories of life in general.

What generally inspires you? What keeps you singing without pause?

Well, that singing without pause it is something. It is hard to say for sure. It is not for a living, it is not about being musician. I would say it is the passion of creating, of generating things. It is magic when you put them together and you can say wow, I like. But, why not stop one day? Maybe that day will come, maybe not. Maybe one day one doesn’t need to go public with these creations.

Rana is a melancholic alternative rock band from Pitești, formed in 2016. Their sound ranges from alternative rock to indie-emo, with lyrics that predominantly explore themes of love, while occasionally touching on social issues. In 2025, they released a new single titled “Să zburăm” (“Let’s Fly”), the first track from their upcoming album Despre dragoste și alte dezastre (About Love and Other Disasters), set to be released in spring 2026.

Before their show, we had the opportunity to talk to Bogdan Tănăsescu about it and about the band’s upcoming album.

A lot of people know about Rana, but if you had to describe the band in just one word, what would it be and why?

Very good and tough question at the same time. Right now, I’d say raw — because from the beginning we’ve focused on raw emotion in what we wanted to transmit, and this idea hasn’t changed since we started in 2016. I think this is what makes the band stand out, because through sound but also through lyrics, we try to bring to the surface certain things from within ourselves — and, obviously, from those who listen to us — things that are often hard to recognize, undistorted by the outside world. Things that sometimes just need to come out of everyone. I think that’s the beautiful part of art: it gives meaning to your feelings when you’re searching for it. It’s something comforting, safe.

Your live shows have always been emotional. What kind of energy do you want to bring to the Rooftop Season this time, and what surprises are you preparing?

We like to think of a Rana concert as an emotional rollercoaster. There are many energetic moments, filled with distortion, but also many more emotional, intense ones. That’s what we want to bring to Rooftop Season on Thursday: to take the audience through different states. When we started this project, we called ourselves a melancholic alternative rock band. Things have shifted a bit over time, but that will always be our root overall. Still, we promise it’s going to be a show that’s also cheerful and fun — not just sorrow from beginning to end, as it might seem.

It’s also special to perform at TNB. How does it feel for you?

For me, it’s a very interesting moment as an artist. When I started university and was studying at the University on Edgar Quinet, I would always see the TNB and how grand it was. It makes you realize how small every person passing by really is — that’s how imposing it feels to me. Later, I started going to the theater quite often, I saw many plays in all the wonderful halls there, and now here I am performing for the first time. When you say TNB, you clearly say culture, and I’m so happy about this series that brings two worlds together. I’m truly grateful to be a small part of this connection.

You released a new single, “Să zburăm,” back in April, the first one from the album that you’re going to release in the spring of 2026. Are any more singles planned before that? What should people expect from the album?

We’re about to release another single very soon — more precisely, in September — and we’ll also have a concert in Bucharest to celebrate it. It’s the second single from the album that will come out in spring 2026, and it’s called Război — a minor key song, more dramatic, more in the band’s old style.

Right now, we’re working on the album, and little by little it’s taking shape. We’re very excited about how it’s turning out, both sonically and message-wise, and I’m very proud of the lyrics — which doesn’t happen often. The album is definitely an important milestone for us, after 10 years of activity. It will be called Despre dragoste și alte dezastre (About Love and Other Disasters), and it will revolve around this great theme that has haunted art forever — and probably always will. It’s built around different feelings and experiences that I think everyone has at some point — some of the most beautiful, but also some disastrous.

Even though we don’t really talk about it and try to ignore it, August was also a difficult time for local bands, with new taxes and more worries. How does this impact a local band’s activity and, why not, the shows?

It’s clear that this increase in taxes has a huge impact on bands. We’re trying to keep going as before. Anyway, in our band we all have jobs and don’t do just music. Whatever comes from music is a bonus or gets reinvested into recordings, instruments, or other expenses that keep this passion alive. I think ticket prices will go up, and this will be felt a bit in concert attendance. We’re waiting to see in the fall how things really look when the club concert season starts. Still, we won’t give up performing so easily — the road has always been tough in this industry, and we knew that from the beginning. We don’t forget why we started it in the first place — out of love for music, for art, and for everything we feel and want to share with ourselves and with the audience.

What would you like to say to the people who will be in the crowd on the 21st of August and are now reading this interview?

I’d tell the people coming to the concert that I think it’s the right moment to enjoy what’s left of this summer (a time that always turns me upside down, personally), and for two hours to live a little more in the moment, in the present, without worries about the future, the past, or anything else. A sort of escape from the real world. We’ll play as if it’s the last time we do it, and we hope the audience will resonate with us.

Tickets for the concert and for the next Rooftop Season concerts are still available here.

Interviews by Radu Mihai and Loredana Stângaciu