“We feel very free and relaxed and that’s why we do various experiments”

On Sunday evening, at the M2 Event Venue, concert fans were treated to two interesting recitals performed by the Cluj bands Symphress and Bossferatu, who offered the attendees portions of metal – symphonic rock and darkwave with postpunk flavors. The band Symphress released the album “Pseudo” on this occasion.

Bossferatu consists of Dan Barbu and Teodor Pavăl, supported by a sampler for percussion and the synth line. In what follows, I conducted an interview with Bossferatu.

What kind of music do you play?

We, Bossfeartu, sing a kind of post-punk, darkwave and dancy. This with the dance… it’s somehow our idea to write songs that are darker… but also danceable. We are fans of old school horror movies and we compose songs that in terms of tone and vibe take you to a melancholic sensation. We shaped our sound in such a way that there is interactivity. We don’t want to be shoegaze. We want to dance with the audience and have fun.

At this concert you also sang a cover of The Weeknd – “Blinded by the lights”.

Why did you choose this piece?

We love the track first and replaced those happy synths with darker stuff. Last time in Timișoara we sang Bauhaus. Now we had another cover by our friends from SPP – Inima. The original is a ballad but we sang it in our own style. We feel very free and relaxed and that’s why we do various experiments.

You recently released your second album. Do you think there is an audience that appreciates darkwave music in our country?

We met at the Pink Turns Blue concert that took place in Cluj, where we saw that there is an audience for this kind of music. We are among the first to sing something like that, after She, who we really like. There are other projects and this music is being consumed more and more, it’s a revival. The world also listens to Joy Division and Depeche Mode and Deftones. We like darkwave and we think there’s an audience for that. The first album was with songs in English, and on the second we tried to add a native element in post-punk. It is very difficult to write songs in Romanian in this musical genre. Our texts may well be considered farcical. As if they weren’t serious. The texts are derived from personal experiences… dreams… grievances… which we mask in a way a bit cool.

What was your best moment so far and why didn’t you release the albums on CD?

Our best moment was in Cluj when we released the song “Nocturn”, which had a lot of views. We made the entrance free and we had a lot of people. It’s filled, that’s a big deal with free entry. Above all, we had many encouraging words and for us it was a sign that we are on the right track. I haven’t released CDs because people don’t ask for that anymore. We better get out an artbook with caricatures of us…or something else…a beer opener with Bossferatu on it. We want to put out vinyl in the future… but we can’t afford it yet.