The name of the U-M student band My Girlfriend Beru “comes from a really unnecessary scene” in a Star Wars movie, says Daniel Rothenberg, a senior majoring in earth science. It’s so obscure that if you Google the phrase, the first couple of pages are about the band, not the movie–links to the group’s social media, concert listings, and opportunities to listen to their songs via everything from iTunes to Spotify to YouTube.

Rothenberg, Michael Zimmer, Kevin Allen, and Theo Czajkowski met at New Beat Happening, a U-M student-run concert booking organization. Allen, a senior at Ross School of Business, says they make music with “punk influence and a lot of pop sensibility.” Most of their songs are about relationships, with touches of Dylanesque storytelling put to punk and indie band rhythms.

Allen works part time at the Blind Pig, and they got a good turnout there when they released their first EP last March. “For bands starting out in a college town, you really just have to do everything you can–to play in front of as many people as you can, from house parties to big venues,” he explains. “It starts with personal connections, telling your friends, joining student organizations.”

The four seniors hope to stay together after graduation but recognize that their careers may pull them in different directions. So before they graduate in April, they plan to put out a second EP and their first full album.

As always, they’ll do the marketing themselves. “We are the sole promoters of our band,” says Rothenberg, “along with the support of our loved ones.”