Being heavily-influenced by both radio-friendly and niche-specific acts, the four band members decided that trying to blend them would be an interesting experiment, and so Robbers On Parole was created with the intent of making pop-like songs which mix different genres. These include 90s rock and electronica, industrial rock, new wave, trip-hop, drum and bass, electropop and trap. The creative focus is primarily on the lyrics & message of the songs and sometimes the band rearranges entire music sections so they can better serve as a backdrop to the lyrical meaning.

The band’s love for cinema, theatre and experimentation has further led to a desire for music videos, which can be viewed both as short movies with their own specific narrative and as a thematic extension of the music.  Here, we get to know the band as part of our ongoing “introducing..” series.

What does the band name mean to you?

It evokes a picture or at least that’s what it does for us. Four robbers in a convertible – they just got out of prison and they hit the dirty, dusty endless road on some nameless highway on which anything can happen – it’s both dangerous and romantic, in a way.

Where is the band based?

We’re currently based in Sofia, Bulgaria, our hometown, which kinda has something both dangerous and romantic in it as well. It’s a contradiction that’s constantly following us and finds its place in our music as well.

How long have you been together?

A little more than a year now, we’re still babies, haha! But time truly does go way too fast and is also never enough, at least for us. We want to make music as fast as possible, go out on the road as soon as possible and record as many albums as possible and play twice as many gigs, haha!

What style of music do you play?       

We’re calling it alternative electronic dark pop-rock. It’s a mouthful but it’s the closest to capturing our specific brand of music. All of our songs contain these elements… while some might contain a few more.

Give us the story of the bands formation.

Well, two of us (guitarist/keyboardist Stephan and bassist Ivo) have known each other and played together for almost 12 years now, in many different bands, so when the time came to create this particular one there was no chance that one would go without the other, haha! Then we stumbled upon Monika, our vocalist, absolutely by chance, and immediately decided that she should be the voice of the new band – it was an absolute no-brainer. The final one to arrive was Chris, our drummer, and once we got him everything kinda clicked and we knew that this was the proper line-up, nothing less and nothing more.

Tell us about your influences.

They’re all over the place. We love different types of hybrid electronic music, The Prodigy, Nine Inch Nails, Massive Attack… we love all kinds of punk, from traditional to emo and we’re ridiculously excited about My Chemical Romance’s reunion… we love pop music and rock music of absolutely any kind, from The Weeknd and 21 Pilots to Placebo and The Cure. And all of us grew up listening to a lot of metal, with one band constantly in some way a part of our individual journey for the past 10 years – Bring Me the Horizon. Because of that, we love mixing all kinds of styles all the time and it shows in our music.

Tell us about your latest release.

It’s called Feel Complete and it’s a song about regret, mostly, and doubt as well – doubt that you’ll be able to grow past your flaws & mistakes and be a complete person again… but there’s also hope that some day it will be possible, so it’s not all that desperate. If you listen closely, you’ll hear it, we’re sure!

Where is your music available?

You can find us on YouTube, Spotify and Deezer, currently, you can find all of the relevant links a couple of questions down.

What are your goals for the bands future?

We want to record and release our first EP, which will include five or six songs (the first two of which are the already released – 2 Far Gone and Feel Complete) and then we’re thinking of going on the road for a bit to promote our music. We’ll probably start with our own country and if everything goes according to plan we could expand to some cities in Europe that we’ve always wanted to visit!

If you could share the stage with any other band or artist, who would you chose?

There are two bands currently that all four of us are dying to play with – 21 Pilots and Bring Me the Horizon. We’re all massive fans of both and we believe that our music will complement theirs in many ways. If at some point in our career we manage to do a gig with both of them together that would be the most magical and fantastic night of all our lives.

What can you tell us about your live shows?  

They’re somehow both exciting and intimate, we don’t quite know how we manage to do that. If you come to one of our shows there’s a chance that you might start thinking about things you’ve been avoiding, while dancing and jumping at the same time, haha!

Do you have any upcoming gigs to promote?

For the moment we’ll be focusing on getting back into the studio to record our next 3 singles, so we’ll be busy with that. But once we’re finished we’ll return with full force and maybe do that tour that we mentioned earlier.

What do you think sets you apart from other bands?

We’re mashup of so many things that you never know what the next song will sound like. What we enjoy in a band is for the music to be incredibly diverse and to take inspiration from all kinds of styles and moods. Every diverse band is diverse in their own way, which makes them unique. That’s what we love and that’s what we strive for.

Explain why you think a new listener should give your music a go.

It’s music that comes from our own personal traumas, fears and doubts – in a nutshell – bad stuff that we believe can become good by taking them and creating something beautiful, honest and therapeutic with them – that’s our music. And not only for us, but for everybody who’s experienced the things we sing about. People are not that different, we all ache the same way… so why not mend the same way as well?

What has been your biggest achievement as a band, so far?

We’ve said this before but it’s still valid – staying together. We’re all very different and our personalities are very pronounced, so we’re not always on the same page. Many bands fall apart for this exact reason. We won’t be doing that and we’re very proud of that achievement for which all of us are constantly working.

What else do you hope to achieve?

We want to play at a stadium in front of at least 100 000 people, and not just once but regularly! We like to dream big, haha!

Where can fans find you online?

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robbers.on.parole
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robbers.on.parole
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/RobbersOnParole
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/robbersonparole