5 Questions For: PLANT

Emerging onto the Bucharest music scene in 2021, the trio PLANT, sometimes stylized as plantplantplant, has quickly made a mark within the local underground community. Comprising Sergiu Frățilă (vocals and pedals), Dan Gugiu (more pedals), and Teodor Șindrilaru (acoustic pedals), the group distinguishes itself through a raw and introspective sound. On April 4th, PLANT is the local representative at Bucharest’s Europavox Festival at Control Club.

PLANT’s music resonates with listeners for its authentic exploration of contemporary themes, wrapped in a sound that pays homage to the post-punk tradition while carving out its own unique space in the Romanian music landscape. Their debut EP, DEMOS, showcases a range of songs that navigate through a spectrum of emotions, from the ennui of kitchen apathy to the complex feelings of longing in the digital era. Their latest album, Electrocasnic, further delves into this emotional turmoil, offering a melodically rich yet punk-adjacent auditory experience. With their next performance soon, we grabbed PLANT as the next 5 Questions For….

What is your favourite thing about your home country?

The landscapes, the varied social and cultural influences, Romania has always been a place where the “east” and the “west” met and collided … and the shawarma.

If your band was a piece of visual art, who would be the artist behind it? (painter, sculptor, filmmaker, new media producer, etc)?

The cheat answer is our dear friend Toma Hurduc, who has taken amazing photos of our shows. A more revealing answer would be a mix of Wong Kar Wai and Danny Antonucci.

What is your most unusual source of creativity?

We’ve been inspired by all sorts of random events, from the absence of a band member at one of our rehearsals to a song that started as a joke while we were in the car driving to a show.

What was your experience playing at Control Club before? Describe the vibe.

Control Club is where we feel at home! Being located in Bucharest, having the best sound engineers around bringing the best crowd together regardless of the show. We recall doing an almost 2 hour sound check for a 1 hour show the first time we played there. That’s one of the few times we sounded exactly how we wanted to!

What does the Europavox stage mean to you?

The Europavox means a chance to cross the border artistically. Being a young band whose lyrics are all in Romanian, it’s hard for us to surpass our native country in terms of audience.