Biography

Jennifer Rostock are a Berlin-based alternative rock band whose punky, poppy style harks back to the Neue Deutsche Welle (NDW) movement of the early '80s. The core of the band consists of vocalist Jennifer Weist and keyboardist Johannes "Joe" Walter-Müller, both from the German island Usedom in the Baltic Sea, near the border with Poland. Having known each other since childhood, Weist and Walter-Müller moved to Berlin in 2006 after finishing school and in hopes of furthering their musical career prospects, they ultimately formed the band with Alex Voigt (guitar), Christoph Deckert (bass), and Christopher "Baku" Kohl (drums). During the busy year of 2007, Jennifer Rostock began gigging around Berlin, signed a recording contract with Warner Music Group, and made their recording debut late in the year with the Ich Will Hier Raus EP. In 2008, they released their debut album, Ins Offene Messer. The album's lead single, "Kopf Oder Zahl," became a minor sensation, winning fifth place in the Bundesvision Song Contest and getting plenty of airplay on MTV's German branch. Der Film followed in 2009 and cracked the country's Top 20 chart, while their third studio effort, 2011's Mit Haut und Haar, rose to number four on the German album charts. The group became a popular live attraction in Europe, and they documented their stage show with the 2012 release Live in Berlin. 2014 saw the release of the group's fourth studio album, Schlaflos, another commercial success that hit number two on the German sales survey, while 2016's Genau in Diesem Ton enjoyed the same level of success. In September 2017, the band dropped a collection of their most popular songs with the tongue-in-cheek title The Worst of Jennifer Rostock. Two months later, the group revealed plans for a concert tour in 2018, after which Jennifer Rostock would go on hiatus. ~ Jason Birchmeier, Rovi