Sportfreunde Stiller
MALE
How does one look back on thirty years of band history? From a distance, the view appears like the sight of a vast jungle of deep life. For us Sportfreunde, it is less inhabited by poisonous snakes and dangerous multi-legged creatures, but rather by friendly jungle beings. Devoted to life, searching for stories and discoveries. Behind almost every tour day are funny experiences, joyful hugs, best celebrations, and ever-growing stories that take deeper root over the years. Albums and tours become high plateaus of memory, parties sometimes decades later turn into colossal plants of “Do you remember back then?” stories. Brotherhoods, friendships, tender plants, or simply large-pored potatoes. In every corner, every fork in the road hangs the smell and beauty of festive life. Partially painful searches and often happy resolutions.
What is one person's hubris becomes by the band a normal state. Standing on stage and tens of thousands sing a song that tumbled out of our gritty rehearsal room: no problem, it's normal. One rides home on a scooter, we in a rolling house, no problem, it's normal. Music becomes the backstage pass into the hearts of strangers, who somehow also become friends, happens again and again. That remains beautiful and one can never get used to it. Being in a band I can recommend to everyone. Whether with or without music, it doesn’t matter; the main thing is to dive in together and not alone!
FLO
Everything started with the “Wonderful Years.” With the time when self-discovery broke out in rebellion, defiance, coolness, mod-shuffle, and wandering around. And with the idea of putting three not entirely similar musical preferences under a band context. Before the first count in the spartan rehearsal room in 1996, Jack Kerouac, Big Muff distortion, some kind of school form from Germering, and definitely the notion of enormous loudness floated through our heads. 27 minutes later, the “Wonderful Years” were born and the knowledge that whatever may come musically, this is a cheeky manifesto of our adolescent existence. That remains forever. It became the motto of our lives. And a lot more was still to come.
From performances in dark basements in front of three curious people to halls filled with ten thousand souls. From special quirks like World Cup hits, MTV Unpluggeds, horizon-expanding video shoots, records made of wood/gold/platinum, reading tours in opera houses to the “completely normal” madness of a band including unforgettable tours in the arms of the best crew of the Universe. From being the support act for Foo Fighters, Green Day, and Grönemeyer to supporting acts like Ash, Nada Surf, Franz Ferdinand, and Kaiser Chiefs. Everything in between. From the always supporting and driving management to the always integrable social engagement. Against the creativity void, against the envious, against the mood makers, but always with the knowledge that what we do can logically not please everyone. Who can achieve that, except Florian Wirtz?
With the tools and background of a radio play, two EPs, ten albums, millions of concerts (for example Eggenfelden, Neustrelitz, Hamburg, Tashkent, Madrid, London, New York etc.) and the privilege of being able to unite profession and vocation, we bow down to our listeners down to our toes. Mucho gracias grande for dancing along, singing along, and feeling along! We just want to tell you that you are the greatest for us. And that for 30 wonderful years! Let’s Go!
PETER
It’s 1996… a guy with a Britpop haircut asks a guy in a grunge raincoat, hey, you make music too, right? Let’s do something together! Up for it? So indie, alternative in German, I have a song… 1 year later, after the first bassist went missing… hey, there’s one, who studied jazz or politics or something, wears a cap backwards and under it a mop, should we try him out as the new bassist? That’s how or something similar starts the story of the 3 Sportfreunde.
In the following 29 years, everything that one can experience as a band has happened:
- comet-like non-rise
- slightly awkward failure
- pop-like chart entries
- magical encounters
- rock moments for eternity
- world-class million-voice choirs
- gigantic crisis overcoming
- gilded honors
And songs as friends and friends as eternal companions of our songs.
Again and again…
"It’s 2026… so now we are celebrating Sportfreunde's 30th anniversary. That’s something to let sink in on a drumhead! As a person, 30 means goodbye youth, real life oh dear! As a band, 30 means hooray, we’re still alive! (Freely after Milva) And that this band has been accompanying our lives for so long, yes, in significant and most positive ways shapes and inspires us, we want to celebrate with you!
Therefore, everything that comes on top of this will be celebrated so intensely that our hearts vibrate and the plump wobbles!
We want to write new stuff, then hit the road with a Best Of and go all out!
Will you also party with us through 30 wonderful years?"