Rock Monsters Romania

On November 11th, Alone at Parties are releasing their brand new EP, Petals, under the Cirkular record label. 

The release is a mixtape that marks a shift from the sound of their debut Familiar Faces. This time, the acoustic guitar stayed in its case, and in came punk energy, lo-fi textures or electronic beats. Still, melancholy stuck around.

The EP opens with Self-Help Books, a track about pop psychology, oversimplified ways of understanding & improving oneself. Lazăr, the singer, recalls its beginnings: “It quickly came about one hungover summer morning while grabbing a coffee and noticing a tacky self-help book on the counter. It was one of those rare moments when the lyrics poured out in one go. We’ve first made a softer version, but I kept feeling that something punchier would work better. I’ve wanted a punk song ever since I was a teenager, and this is the closest I’ve ever got to one (so far?!).”

Finding the final form for Losing Friends was a real challenge. “We were really close to scraping it. It took two years, a hummed chorus melody from our producer Andrei, a lyric stolen from a line in the TV show Too Much and an outro confession over what sounds like a digital comet losing particles to finally make it come together.”

The title track – Petals – is a collaboration with the Bulgarian artist Desi Latinova on vocals, shifting between intimate verses & soaring choruses and featuring a broken faux rock guitar solo. “The song was born on the last day of the Bridging Balkans Borders songwriting camp in Sofia”, says Lazăr. “It was inspired by the co-existence of grief and love and touches on the reassuring Buddhist perspective on death.”

The closing track, Stay In, brings the EP full circle: “It was actually the very first song of what eventually became this band, going back seven years. We kept looking for a place for it on a release and it’s finally found great company (even if it’s a song about spending too much time alone).”

With these four new songs, the band explores new sonic ground while staying true to their introspective roots. A quiet evolution that feels both surprising and inevitable.

Alone at Parties is a five-piece band from Cluj, Romania, composed of Andrei, Casiana, Florin, Frankie, Lazăr. Their sound blends soft synthesizers, playful electric guitars, subtle acoustic rhythms and warm, moody vocals into an introspective indie mix.