As juniors in high school, Ava Schrobilgen, Kate Halter and Ellie Livingston sought an excuse to hang out and pass time during the COVID-19 lockdown. The trio decided to start playing music in Livingston’s garage, forming the grunge rock band Die Spitz.

“We had nothing to do, and we needed a reason that our parents would let us hang out with each other,” Schrobilgen, the band’s vocalist and rhythm guitarist, said. “We weren’t good at our instruments, writing music, playing in time or being in key, but we kept on playing, and we enjoyed it. Then, we got booked.” 

Just a year and a half later — after Die Spitz played their first two house shows — they picked up another band member, psychology junior Chloe Andrews, who would become their main drummer.

“We booked our first real show at Hole in the Wall in January of 2022, and it all just went really quickly from there,” Schrobilgen said. “We’ve had a very, very lucky year, and (we’ve) been having a lot of fun just playing around Austin.”

On Feb. 26, Die Spitz played at the Austin Music Awards and took home the awards for Best Punk, Best New Act and Best Residency for their July residency at Hotel Vegas.

“It’s just nice to know that the community supports us, and we were honestly more honored to be able to play at the awards,” Halter said. “It was a very gratifying experience, it was a really fun set. We’ve never played a 15-minute set before, so (we were) able to go full energy, full time.”

While Die Spitz continues to perform at venues all over Austin, the group is beginning to expand their reach beyond Texas. The band went on a 10-day mini tour in New York as an opener for Lord Friday the 13th last August, and on Feb. 6, they played in Los Angeles for the first time.

“LA was definitely the biggest show we’ve ever played, ” Halter said. “We also got to win over a whole new crowd of people.”

While the band released their EP The Revenge of Evangeline last year, they said they felt dissatisfied with its rushed release. So, with Die Spitz’s newest album Teeth, they spent 10 days in the studio and included more production elements, further developing their sound and style. Since their debut album’s release on Jan. 15, the band said their career has skyrocketed. 

“We’re label shopping right now, we’re recording demos and we’re going to be sending those around to try and find what label would work best with our style, beliefs and what we need,” Schrobilgen said. “We want to be on a label for the next album that we release, and we want it to be up before October.”

With a goal of performing at Emo’s,  the last Austin venue on their checklist, the quartet said they look forward to planning many more tours in the future. In the meantime, they have two shows lined up at South By Southwest.

As the members juggle their rockstar personas with their everyday responsibilities, they said they can’t wait to be able to rock full time.

“I think the consensus is that it’ll feel more real once we don’t have our regular life going on,” Andrews said. “You get to be with your friends doing the stuff that you love so yeah, it’s pretty awesome. It’s exhausting, but it is rewarding. It’s surprisingly hard work.”