For years now, music, thanks to streaming & co., has known close to no borders. Riding this wave, a fresh generation of artists from Germany and Austria has slowly but surely been taking over the international music scene – and they’re doing it in English. Leading the charge are Zimmer90, Leoniden, and Sharktank – bands who have become prime examples of how breaking free from traditional moulds and refusing to be boxed into specific genres or cultural expectations can help you grow into directions which seemed almost impossible to reach before. From small-town beginnings to global spotlights, their journeys are as compelling as their music and offer insight into what it takes to capture hearts across the globe one overseas gig at a time.
Zimmer90: The Indie Pop Delights
With the rise of TikTok and its importance for the music industry, there have been more and more bands over the last couple of years who have truly gained momentum thanks to millions of 20-second-long clips that featured their song. Zimmer90 is one of those bands. While their name might not ring too many bells outside of their home country Germany, once you start playing the first beats of their ultra-hit ‘What Love Is’, ears will be perked and soundwaves recognised almost everywhere. The duo made up of friends Finn Gronemeyer (keys, bass, guitar, backing vocals) and Joscha Becker (lead vocals, keys), originally met when their piano teacher brought them together, and since then, they have been creating and releasing music as the emotional powerhouse Zimmer90 – without labels or boundaries: “We are not fans of defining our music with genre terms or instruments. What distinguishes special songs is not their genre, but rather what emotional quality, story or feeling they have. Our music could be hip hop, it could be metal. Our goal in what we do is that we both as individuals should have this feeling of it being right for us.”
As their name already hints at, rooms, different types of spaces and the emotions they transpire carry a special weight for the two-piece – including the former art studio which once belonged to Becker’s grandaunt and has now been transformed into the band’s safe haven: “It’s an art space, where people used to paint for a long time. You can really tell it wasn’t put up at short notice or set up quickly but has become what it is over the years. There are plants in there, some of which are thirty years old, a small rubber tree that has grown huge in this room and there are lots of books and art.”
From the start, Zimmer90’s decision to sing in English was rooted in both practicality and ambition. German, they quickly realised, just didn’t capture the depth they were aiming for, as they explain: “German can be a bit stubborn sometimes. It’s very easy to slip into a kitschy direction, even though you want to communicate something deeper. We personally don’t really listen to German music, so it was obvious that we wanted to celebrate ourselves and what surrounds us every day.”
The two friends, who, according to themselves “spend more time together than any married couple could ever claim to be”, recently announced their debut album ‘Interior’, set to be released September 19th, and further dates of their extensive international tour. A direct result of their vision for the band which had always extended far beyond the German-speaking world: “We said right from the start that we wanted to travel and get around with our music and not spend years playing the same shows in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.” And with not one but two viral (well-deserved) triumphs, it’s clear that their hard work is paying off, even if it might not feel all that real at times: “It was all so absurd. The phones went off, it was like having two thousand missed calls every day. On the one hand, it was a really cool moment. On the other hand, it was also hard to comprehend… It only feels real to us when we’re playing concerts and we realise that people come to see us and the show. That is the best part.”
Leoniden: Existential Anthems To Dance To
Originally hailing from Kiel in Germany, Leoniden is a band like no other in the music scene today. Their Instagram profile could easily be mistaken for a meme account. They keep fries in their bass amp or turn it into a dishwasher. They’re known for stealing other bands’ props at festivals and selling them in their online store. And their concerts might as well count as workout sessions, featuring endless jumping, raving moshpits everywhere and happy, sweaty faces once the final chord has been strung.
While the five-piece has technically been around for quite some time, it’s only over the last couple of years that people have started to realise that they may have struck gold when they spotted a group of friends going absolutely crazy on stage with their multiple cowbells. Consisting of Jakob Amr (vocals, synthesiser), Lennart Eicke (guitar), Djamin Izadi (synthesiser), Marike Winkelmann (bass) and Felix Eicke (drums), Leoniden has their roots in the DIY hardcore punk scene, while their sound has evolved into something much bigger and beyond the German margins. “We couldn’t imagine singing in German, it just doesn’t fit for us. I never know whether it looks like a crazy stunt for native speakers or whether you might just listen to it with a different ear,”, shares lead singer Amr. “In any case, there were no borders for us, neither politically nor in terms of musical ideology. When we sing in English, we’re addressing the whole world. Of course, we’re not going to conquer the planet and say we want to grow up in America and be filthy rich. We could definitely say, let’s make more money, let’s make some simple music and sing in German, but that doesn’t make sense. A crucial thing with us is that you have to see us live to find out who we actually are.”
While it might seem like a classic statement for a band to make, Leoniden truly are different and their magic truly does lie in their staggeringly energetic live performances. A part of their captivating charm that they have started to grow very confident in – and rightfully so. “I think part of growing up is also getting a healthy self-confidence and not always being so artificially tough on yourself. There are people who already know us and like us. There are people who know us and hate us. There are people who don’t know us at all. And I swear to you, all three of them would go home from a concert and say that it was better than they thought. I think what is often forgotten about in this fast-moving and somewhat over-produced music world, is what people can express and share on stage. That’s something we’re pretty good at.”
However, while their live shows demand more from their audience than some spin classes do, Leoniden’s lyrics dive deep into life’s big questions, as Amr exclaims: “How do I cope in this world? When am I enough for myself? When is self-optimisation a positive thing? When is it something toxic? How do I come to terms with the fact that we will all die at some point? What is real love? The big existential questions that people have already sought answers to in thousands of other ways in other words and philosophical writings – we just trumpet them out into the world once more.”
Above all, the five-piece’s ethos is about more than just making music and having fun doing so – it’s about connection, with themselves and their fans. “With our last album ‘Sophisticated Sad Songs’, we reset ourselves to zero and reorientated and rebuilt ourselves, to see where we would be if we didn’t have all this history breathing down our necks. And then, in the end, we realised that we were in the right spot all along. We want to take people by the hand because that’s the best thing that musical art can do. Being accessible and still giving them something they may not have seen before.”
Sharktank: Turning Chaos Into Vivid Art
It all started with a chance collaboration for the Austrian trio Sharktank – comprised of Katrin Paucz (vocals, guitar), Marco Kleebauer (production, drums) and Michael “Mile” Lechner (vocals, rap) – before their casual meet-ups evolved into full-fledged band hangouts and the group as we know it now was born: “We got to know each other shortly before the pandemic through various projects we were involved in. It actually all started as a solo endeavour by Mile, which Marco was supposed to produce. Katrin was brought in one time to sing a hook. That turned into two hooks, then three, and so on. The rest is history.”
Flawlessly mixing indie waves with hip-hop grit, Sharktank has been taking over the industry by storm, way past Vienna’s outskirts. In 2024, they released their ‘Blindsided’ EP, which embodies their spirit of playful experimentation and sees Paucz’s and Lechner’s voices bounce off each other like a game of ping-pong.
Their music, like their origin story, thrives on a sense of organised chaos, as they discuss the cover of the record: “On the EP, you can see Katrin falling out of a car. Her bag contents are neatly arranged around her. It’s a kind of “orderly chaos”, which you can hear very well in the music as well. The first time you listen to it, everything sounds rather wild and chaotic. But if you listen more closely, every beep and crackling synth is exactly where it should be.”
Even their name has a touch of whimsy and neatly links to the very beginnings of the three-piece’s musical endeavours, as they reveal: “There is no real explanation for the name. When the first EP came out, without Katrin back then, there was a song on it called ‘Sharktank.’ We liked the name, so we stuck with it.”
In May last year, the trio had their UK debut at the famous Great Escape Festival in Brighton, and after a successful run of additional shows in Europe, they are currently gearing up for an even more exciting 2025, which will see them start a new chapter of Sharktank’s ravishing journey with new music and tour this autumn. In a world driven by money, time, and stress, their lightness and playful approach to the complex creation of music seems like the last missing piece of the puzzle of today’s industry, making their music feel fresh yet familiar, chaotic yet intentional.
Just like Zimmer 90 and Leoniden, the Viennese group represents a new era of German and Austrian music, one that goes beyond language and geography. What truly sets these bands apart from the rest, however, is not just their sound – it’s their stories, their unwillingness to compromise, and their refusal to be anything but unapologetically themselves. And as they continue to rise and push boundaries, one thing is clear: the international music scene is all the better for it.
Written by Laura Weingrill // Photography by Derek Perlman, Nicole Osrin, Oskar Ott & Clemens Niel
GEM Magazine 