Trio was formed in 1980 by Stephan Remmler, Gert "Kralle" Krawinkel and Peter Behrens.

However, Trio preferred the name Neue Deutsche Fröhlichkeit, which means "New German Cheerfulness", to describe their music.

At that time, popular songs were based on extremely simple structures that were ornately produced.

Bass was used very infrequently until their later songs, and live shows often saw Remmler playing some simple pre-programmed rhythms and melodies on his small Casio VL-1 keyboard while Behrens played his drums with one hand and ate an apple with the other.

Remmler used a contact microphone on his throat to achieve a different timbre to his voice on lyrics where he stepped away from the regular mic.