trio's main principle was to remove almost all the ornamentation and polish from their songs, and to use the simplest practical structures (most of their songs were three-chord songs). for this reason, many of their songs are restricted to drums, guitar, vocals, and just one or maybe two other instruments, if any at all. 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.