The Baseballs: Sam, Basti and Digger
The Baseballs are a 50's and 60's styled band influenced by the likes of Elvis and Buddy Holly but with a completely different twist on making music.
The trio, Sam, Digger and Basti, from Germany have had a manic 12 months with the release of their new album 'Strings 'n' Stripes', aimed to introduce the younger audience to rock 'n' roll.
Female First spoke to Basti, one of the trio, about their upcoming tour, how they chose the covers on the new album and how they came up with the term 'voc 'n' roll'.
The new album includes versions of 50 Cent's 'Candy Shop', Britney Spears' 'Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman' and covers of Lady Gaga hits; 'Tik Tok' and 'Paparazzi'.
BBC Radio 1 DJ, Scott Mills called them "brilliant" and even features on the 'Intro' to the boys album, where he describes them as a "sweet taste of summer."
Basti told us: "We changed a little bit from the first album. We are still playing the rock and roll, we are still true to ourselves and it seems that the people really like it...
"It seems people like the new one as much as they liked the old one."
The Baseball's first album, 'Strike' reached number one in the iTunes album download chart and soared to number four in the official UK chart.
In the rest of Europe, the group broke records; in Finland, they received 4 x Platinum sales and in Switzerland they reached double-platinum.
Basti revealed that it takes plenty of deliberation about what songs they decide to cover for the album and it is not only the band whose input is needed.
The Baseballs have to go into talks with Warner, the label the band are signed to and discuss the best sounds and the most appealing songs.
Although the band do write some of their own songs, he said: "We came up with the idea to take the current songs everybody knows off the radio or from the chart and turn that into the rock and roll style we love and it really seems to work."
Besides recreating and putting a new twist on popular songs, the Baseballs have come up with a new term to describe their individual style.
"It was actually just a joke by us because we do these rock and roll songs then when we add the vocals from the 60's, the harmonies and it brings them together to make voc 'n' roll," the singer explained.
The band have always aimed for a younger audience: "When we started the Baseballs, we knew we had to aim to bring younger people to the rock and roll clubs again."
The Baseballs did a gig in a shopping centre in Europe and found that many members of the audience were the same age as they were when they first discovered rock and roll.
"There are so many good songs from then [the 50's] but we had to do something special. Now, there's so many young people in the audience when we play."
The trio have been doing a few gigs around Europe to get them ready for the tour which begins June 18.
Basti told us: "It will be cool. We are really looking forward to the European tour."
Female First - Siobhan Congreve