German indie band Die Sterne was founded in the late 1980s by singer and guitarist Frank Spilker in his hometown of Bad Salzuflen, a small West German spa resort, which by a twist of fate became a nucleus for the German indie pop movement via its influential Fast Weltweit label. Like many protagonists of the Fast Weltweit scene (e.g. Jochen Distelmeyer of Blumfeld), Spilker eventually moved to Hamburg and regrouped Die Sterne together with Thomas Wenzel (bass), Frank Will (keys), and Christoph Leich (drums). For their first proper single release they joined the freshly founded L'Age D'Or label, which was to become one of the most important outlets of the 'Hamburg School' type indie punk/pop with bands like
Tocotronic. Signed to Virgin Records since 2000, Die Sterne have recently decided to take matters into their own hands once again, reviving their own imprint
Materie Records for their new album '
24/7, which was produced with Mathias Modica of
Munk and
Gomma Records fame.