“The only solution I see is to stop teaching young people literature that is completely inappropriate for their age,” believes Dan Byron, frontman for the rock band byron, in a recent interview. The artist has frequently spoken about the importance of reading and even founded a book club. “We would be much wilder and poorer without reading,” Byron says.
- Twenty years after its formation, byron – one of the longest-running bands on the Romanian music scene – has released “Why Should It Be Simple If It Can Be Complicated?”, a single that addresses contemporary social and political issues. The song includes lyrics such as “only I experience the world leaders are some traditional men / who insist on measuring their dementia and ostentatious impotence” or “may history be damned / given that it doesn’t want to teach us anything.”
The song urges listeners to look carefully and lucidly at the reality in which we live and while it may seem pessimistic, it has an energy that doesn’t weigh you down, but may even motivate you to do something. “We find certain subjects that affect me a lot and at some point tend to turn into songs,” Dan Byron told HotNews.
The song was written two years ago in Sicily, following a discussion about garbage and recycling, as the artist describes in the interview below. “I thought it was a temporary thing and wouldn’t be relevant later, but it seems to fit more and more with what’s happening now,” he explains.
The end of the song includes the audience in its structure, as You can hear a chorus formed by the voices of the audience at the byron “Brave New World” show at the Palace Hall, which took place in November 2025.
“Romania in 2026 is a little better than Romania in 1990”
– How did the song “Why Should It Be Simple If It Can Be Complicated?” come about and why did you decide to release it now, at the beginning of this year?
– Dan Byron: “Why Should It Be Simple If It Can Be Complicated?” was born two years ago in Sicily, following a discussion and a party, later transformed into a meditation on the pasts that still color all our presents.
I realize it sounds strange, but the discussion centered around garbage, and recycling. It seems to me to be the perfect demonstration that inspiration is all around us, you just have to want it and know how to collect it. Incidentally, we released it on the last day of the World Economic Forum in Davos in January. Everything in its right place.
“The residues of the past still affect us, both mentality and habits”
– How do you see the responsibility of an artist to signal important problems in society? Would you like to see more voices from the artistic community speaking openly about these themes?
– I don’t think artists necessarily have to have any responsibility of that kind, ultimately each of us talks about what we feel comfortable talking about. It’s true that I like those who grow a kind of reflection of their reality, but that doesn’t mean that those who opt for other themes are not equally valuable.
– The new song talks about leaders, about history, about the inability to learn from mistakes. How do you see Romania in 2026 and how do you see Romanians in this context?
– Romania in 2026 is a little better than Romania in 1990, but the residues of the past still affect both our mentality and our habits, and will surely continue to do so for a while. It too depends a lot on what happens to us, because it doesn’t depend only on us.
– In recent years, nostalgia has pushed a part of society towards discourses and politicians who question democracy, on the idea that “it was better before.” How do you see this nostalgia and how do you think we should relate to it?
– Anyone who says it was better before either didn’t live through those times, or is malicious. I can’t help but think of my grandparents, whose house was confiscated by the communist party and they were moved into an apartment building, or my mother, who was the only one in her office who worked. Oh yes, probably her former colleagues are nostalgic, because now the trend is to be put to work for the salary you receive.
– You said that history seems to teach us nothing. What would you like Romanians to understand from their own history, specifically?
– First of all, forgive me, but we don’t really know our history. How can you praise the murderer Zelea Codreanu or say that Ceaușescu was a patriot? Not to mention all the Dacopaths who read and reread that aberration about prehistoric Dacia and believe that we invented hot water.
“Romania doesn’t really have an export office for artists”
– You stated that the albums “Nouă” and “Efemeride” represent you more than the older material. As you approach 20 years of byron, what does the music that represents you now mean to you?
– All the music we’ve released over the past 20 years represents us, but let’s say that “Nouă” and “Efemeride” are more representative, also because they are more recent and because we didn’t rush. In the first part of our career we released a product every year, whether it was an album or a filmed concert. For each of the two mentioned above we worked for about four years. The funny part is that some people have the impression that “Nouă” is our first album.
– How has byron changed in these 20 years?
– In the early years we walked a tightrope — income was low, so the composition was incredibly unstable and every new step was a chore. With the first albums we didn’t really manage to gain traction, especially since I was stubborn about writing in English, hoping to be able to play in other countries.
There are many new artists from Romania who are making the same mistake. It’s a vicious circle — you dream of playing for the foreign scene, but in the meantime you ignore your own community, which, ignores you in turn, while the foreign scene is oversaturated with international and local artists, among whom, surprisingly, you are not part.
Romania doesn’t really have an export office for artists, well, that’s all there is to it. When we changed course and addressed our own community, singing about and in their language, our career also made a 180-degree turn. And we were able to be deeper because we started to speak in our language about our own world, which we understand more or less.
– What does it mean to be a musician with a lasting career in Romania in 2026? What things have improved in the music industry and what do you think still needs to be changed?
– There are still major problems with the infrastructure, there aren’t enough performance venues with diverse capacities, so even large bands still rely on the club circuit. Well, 20 years ago there wasn’t even this circuit. There are a lot of open-air festivals in the summer, more than when we started, and some are organized better and better from year to year.
– “Brave New World” was byron’s most ambitious show to date. Are there plans to reprise it in Bucharest or are you preparing other special formats in connection with the new album?
– We will certainly not do “Brave New World” again in Bucharest, given how complicated and expensive it was to organize, but there will be performances in the country, at more Philharmonic halls. For example, in March we have two performances at the Brasov Philharmonic — the first sold out in four days, and there are still a few places left for the second. We are planning a celebratory tour this fall, as the band is turning 20!
– The end of the song “Why Should It Be Simple If It Can Be Complicated?” includes the voices of the audience. What did this gesture mean to you?
– The voices were recorded at the end of the “Brave New World” show at the Palace Hall, a show that began with me walking onto the stage from the middle of the audience and ended with the whole hall taking over the final song and carrying it in their thoughts home, gestures that were more than symbolic.
“How can you give them to read ‘Old and New Rogues’ in tenth grade?”
– You have had a book club over the years and have often spoken about the importance of reading. Does this project still exist today? What are you reading at the moment and what kind of readings are you interested in now?
– The club still exists, we just finished reading “Ulysses” by James Joyce. Usually I’m interested in fiction and non-fiction literature, but I don’t shy away from a fine comic book and from time to time I also read history or psychology books. Reading has always been important because language and rational thinking craft us truly human. Without them we would be much wilder and much poorer.
– How do you see the relationship of Romanians with reading today and what could be done, at the family and state level, to bring young people closer to books? Do you see a realistic solution?
– The only solution I see is to stop teaching them literature that is completely inappropriate for their age. How can you give them to read “Old and New Rogues” in tenth grade? How can they like it at that age? The book is not to blame, I reread it a few years ago and it broke my heart, but in tenth grade I would have thrown it out the window. I think the interest is to give them something they can understand, to absorb them, to start reading for pleasure, not forced by a curriculum from another century. If they read for pleasure, they will find the books that are worth reading on their own.
– You said at one point that one of the biggest misfortunes would be for “this country to go down the drain and we not succeed in doing anything,” and that you want to stay here. What gives you hope today and how do you see the future in Romania in 2026? Do you still believe in change?
– Of course I still believe, it seems to me that Romania is progressing, even if still quite slowly. As I said before, we are far from the situation we were in in 1990 and, if nothing serious happens to us, in ten years we will be even further. And leaving no longer seems like a solution, if it ever was. There are problems everywhere in the world, not just here.
