Querbeat

Querbeat: A collective that developed during school days from the talents of a school big band. Prince, Buena Vista Social Club, and lots of jazz serve as inspiration. During overtime, they cover everything they can. Flexibility seems to be in this crew's DNA, and quickly, the sounds of rehearsal cellars and school auditorium sweat become the New Kids in the Bonn Block. Street music on every corner—you have to celebrate when you stand out. 

They grow together, experience firsts, challenges, and opportunities. And above all, there is the unmistakable gut feeling: we're going to do this! They want to get out and experience life in the metropolis of Cologne. A village and a cosmopolitan city at the same time, but above all one thing: similar in attitude towards life. It's a match! The band falls in love with the city and the city falls in love with the optimistic music of the banda. Carnival explodes with the fresh songs of the new alternative. The music sounds so different from anything you've heard before. Always starting over, always new. 

Querbeat somehow flips a switch, invests even more time and vibe, and one of these intense sessions turns into an idea: after “Rhythms del Mundo,” to pay tribute to Buena Vista Social Club in their own style. A compilation of Cologne songs is created in the Querbeat network, which, together with a few Latin Grammy musician friends, is once again enveloped in Cuban cigar smoke. The work is called Cuba Colonia.

What no one knew at the time was that in 2019, the band would be rewarded for this record with the German Jazz Award, the GfK's gold record in jazz. What is consistent, and remains so to this day, is that everything is done in-house. From recording the first note to production to designing the blurb on the sustainable merchandise T-shirt collar. Self-made is a word that is firmly ingrained in the minds of the band members.

But the collective is challenged. A hello from real life, fears about the future—all topics that put a young band to the test. But you grow. Now more than ever. No more just covering hits, imitation becomes forward thinking, and the first album of their own is created. Fettes Q is the name of the album. It has now racked up 150 million streams and washed Querbeat from the school band tides onto the wave of “brass pop.” Street music + city festivals + party gigs = first club tour. That's the equation now. The family is growing. Best friends become tour managers, and the gang that used to just hang out with the band to party suddenly finds itself in the road crew. And they're all still there today. Q is also kind of destiny. After the Fettes Q album, things are happening. In their adopted home of Cologne, they get to play the Palladium for the first time (sold out three times), and hundreds of fans become thousands. An insider band for brass 

After the Fettes Q album, things start to happen. In their adopted home of Cologne, they get to play at the Palladium for the first time (sold out three times), and hundreds of fans turn into thousands. From an insider band for brass nerds, they become a small phenomenon that whirls unstoppably across the stage. Two years later, in 2018, the next album is released: Randale & Hurra. Randale & Hurra gives the band a top 10 experience. The album enters the German album charts at number 7. The consequences of this release are easy to live with: festival bookings! (Lollapalooza, Hurricane, and many more) 

One thing is clear: there are few to minus 10 bands that can clean up so massively and sustainably in a crazy crossover world at the indie-esque Dockville Festival, the Leverkusen Jazz Days, Rock am Ring, and the 80,000-person Elektro-Parookaville with the same live set. The greenhorns from the school band would certainly have considered this scenario utopian. But maybe the Q also has the ability to somehow work toward utopia. One of the band's “most important festivals,” according to their own statement: Jamel rocks the Förster. The well-known festival against the right wing and Querbeat: handshakes and activism. The band is committed, political, and environmentally conscious.

Back to the story: The Q must first reclaim the letter Q from the dark side of power. Because, as with so many artists, there is a Corona gap in their CV. 

This crisis poses the toughest challenge in the band's history. Give it your all or give it your all? Querbeat provides the answer in the middle of the pandemic vacuum on the square. Square 2, to be precise. They succeeded with the album “Radikal Positiv,” which was created in the band's new home, their “Werft” in Cologne's Südstadt. The release concert in Cologne's sold-out Lanxess Arena, during the brief lull before the pandemic peak, felt magical until the last trumpet note. And: this record brought new songs like “Renate,” “Ja,” and “Früher wird alles besser” to the dusty summer concert meadows and into the open hearts of festival addicts. Provoked coincidences, creativity, and hard lessons. To fulfill dreams, for example, that of having their own festival. Said and done. In June 2025, the fourth edition of “Randale & Freunde” took place in their hometown on the Rhine meadows in Bonn. Artists such as Milky Chance, Clueso, and Roy Bianco & die Abbrunzzati Boys accepted Querbeat's invitation to their own party in front of 25,000(!) people. We are also grateful for moments of friendship with Ok Kid and Bukahara: joint singles and sessions feel like musical engagements. The international friendship with the Catalan band “La Pegatina” has led to shows in Barcelona, Madrid, and Malaga.

More than just a school trip, alongside Austria, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, Spain is developing into a wild place for Querbeat's energetic music. With authentic consistency, the “Barcelona Tapes EP” was created in southern European inspiration between the sound of cicadas and finca deep talk, about songwriting without world reception, wanderlust, and the ‘circles’ you have to turn until you find happiness when routines kick in. “So far, so good.”

And now? After a turbulent main stage festival summer (Hurricane, Southside, Pinkpop, Opren Flair, Rocco del Schlack, and co), the next celebrations are already clear! Tour 2025 calling, everything from Aachen to Zurich in the navigation system. Humble as the letter A, even when sold out. Tickets are still available for only a few cities. But good news: starting in March, the tour bus with the 11er Freundeskreis will be hitting the road again. All tour info at www.querbeat.info