Peter Baumann, Stefan Hircher, Alexander Rosswaag and Bernd Kurtzke founded Beatsteaks in 1995. Shortly afterwards, Arnim Teutoburg-Weiß joined the band as singer and additional guitarist. In 1996, the band won a local music competition in SO36 and played as opening act for the Sex Pistols at a concert in Berlin. This was also the band’s tenth live performance.
In 1997, the band recorded their first album 48/49, named after the number of their rehearsal space. It contains several songs in German, while the more recent albums are in English. In 1999 they released their second album, Launched, on the American punk label Epitaph Records. Thomas Götz had joined the band on drums, while on bass, Torsten Scholz replaced Alexander in 2000. This was followed by tours with Bad Religion, Die Ärzte and Die Toten Hosen, bringing the band to a wider audience.
In 2002, they released their third album Living Targets. From this album, Beatsteaks released their first two singles “Let Me In” and “Summer”. At the end of 2002, the band played a concert at the Columbiahalle in Berlin and recorded an EP Wohnzimmer. Ticket holders for the Berlin concert each received a ‘free’ copy of the EP.
Die Ärzte mentioned the Beatsteaks in their 2003 song “Unrockbar“, which brought increased attention to the Beatsteaks: “Wie kannst du bei den Beatsteaks ruhig sitzen bleiben, wenn dir doch Schlagersänger Tränen in die Augen treiben?” (“How can you remain unmoved by the Beatsteaks, while Schlager singers bring tears to your eyes?” )
Their breakthrough was achieved in Berlin in 2004 with the album Smack Smash, and particularly with the second single “I Don’t Care As Long As You Sing” with which they won the MTV European Music Awards 2004 in the category Best German Act. At the end of 2005, they released the double-DVD B-Seite, which included a self-produced documentary on the band’s history, a compilation of several concerts and music videos of the band up to this time. In 2006 they played a short summer tour, consisting of 3 concerts and two festival performances. Following the release of the preliminary single “Jane Became Insane” on 9 March 2007, their fifth album, .limbo messiah appeared on 30 March 2007.
On the 7 June 2007, the band played a concert for a charity foundation, as part of the Deine Stimme gegen Armut (Make Poverty History – literally “Your voice against poverty”) campaign in Rostock in front of a 70,000 strong audience. One month later, on 7 July 2007, they played in the sold-out Wuhlheide in Berlin, their then-largest headlining concert, in front of approx. 17,000 fans.
In 2007, Beatsteaks were again nominated in the category Best German Act at the EMAs and won the audience prize 1Live Krone for the best live act.
On 2 May 2008, the live album Kanonen auf Spatzen was released, which includes two CDs and one DVD in the deluxe package, or the first CD in an economy version.
Torsten Scholz said in an interview that the Beatsteaks would start writing new songs after the end of their Limbo Messiah tour in August 2008.
The Beatsteaks completed work on their most recent album Boombox and it was released on 28 January 2011. The first single from the album was “Milk & Honey”, released on 2 December. On 17 December, the music video was released for the single. On 8 April 2011, the second single, “Cheap Comments” was released. The third single off Boombox will be “Automatic”,which was co-written by Peter Fox.
In June 2011, the band announced their song “House On Fire” was to be featured on the European Soundtrack of Transformers: Dark of the Moon.
In 2013 the band released the Live-CD/DVD Muffensausen. On 15 May 2014 the Beatsteaks released the song “DNA” as the first single of their record Beatsteaks, which was released on 1 August 2014. “Gentleman Of the Year” and “Make a Wish” are also two singles that have been released from the self-titled record.
In 2015 the Beatsteaks will celebrate their 20th Anniversary with two concerts at the Wuhlheide in Berlin. (Wikipedia)
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