Bitterside

Infobox musical artist
Name = Bitterside


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Origin = Malta
Genre = Alternative, Indie, Pop
Years_active = 2001-
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URL = [http://www.bitterside.com www.bitterside.com]
Current_members = Daniel Genius "Vocals, Guitars" J.J. Galea "Guitars" Kenneth Vella "Drums" Cliff Smith "Bass"
Past_members = Alan Fava "Bass"

Bitterside, (founded in the year 2001), is an alternative, indie, pop band composed of four members, all coming from Malta. Daniel Genius is the vocalist and also a guitarist, J.J. Galea plays the guitar, Kenneth Vella plays the drums, while the newly recruited member, Cliff Smith, is the bassist.

Career

Bitterside, have always been described by many as a band, which writes catchy songs, that anyone can sing-a-long and relate to easily. In fact a year after the band’s birth, 2001, the band focused only in writing hit songs. Bitterside churned out hits such as ‘Fire in my pockets’, ‘Drop of wine’ and ‘Fear (the fast song)’ to name a few. The boys gigged a lot, particularly in 2004 where ‘Somehow Different’, Bitterside’s debut album, was released. An album with pop rock tilted guitars, sweet harmonies and packed with sing-a-long melodies. It sold relatively well and even won the band a Best Band award at the BMA awards in 2004.

Bitterside created a high profile for themselves and their music. By October 2005, the band completed their heavy gigging schedule and concentrated only in writing new material, which had to be fresh and innovative. Daniel had a lot of material up his sleeve and the rest of the band, listened to the new ideas for a whole month before dedicating themselves on particular songs. This was quite a rough time for the band because nobody was actually sure what the new material had to sound like. There was quite some tension and collision of opinions in the band’s studio. Then came ‘Shutters’. When Daniel played the song to the rest of the band, the boys realised that it was something special and immediately started working on the song’s production and ended up recording a mighty song, which demonstrates Daniel’s emotional song writing capabilities and the rest of the band’s skill of adapting their sound to it.

The new sound marked a new era for the band and gave them a sign that all they wanted to do is to write heart-felt, personal tunes that soothe the soul. ‘Shutters’ was released in June 2006 and presented the band with a whole new image and musical direction. The fans realised that Bitterside’s sound and song-writing had matured and the band was showered with extremely positive emails on their website and myspace portal. ‘Shutters’ managed to climb up to number 6 on the XFM top 40. The song was described as anthemic since during the band’s live appearances they sometimes ended up playing it three times!

After the successful run of ‘Shutters’ the band released ‘Vs Life’, a song which is more of a lament to God about an undeserved life. It received a lot of radio airplay and also landed another best band award for the band. Thus one can easily say that the boys ended up 2006 in style! Once 2007 started, the band took on seasoned bassist Cliff Smith and decided to dedicate all their energy on writing new songs for the forthcoming album. Bitterside still managed to participate in major events like the P1 Power Boat Grand Prix, the XFM Music festival, the Fete de la Musique Festival and the Farsons Great Beer Festival.

During the summer, Bitterside produced three songs to be included in the next album. One of the songs recorded was ‘Start Again’ which was an immediate hit for the band, making it to the number 1 spot on the XFM top 40 and number 3 in Bay Radio’ s Top 40. Like the larger part of Bitterside's music, ‘Start Again’ is fundamentally British in musical inclination, Maltese in composition and international in appeal. Unlike the anthemic ‘Shutters’, however, the new single is more flowing, upbeat and in a sense, even "poppier" on some level. As in the song ‘Vs life’, ‘Start Again’ is inspired by the idea of someone living a life they want out of and the frustration of dealing with it. The song possesses an energy that reflects a band freshly motivated and certain of how they should sound like.

Bitterside also landed some gigs in Vienna, Austria between the 7th and the 11th November, playing at 3 venues: Shelter, Replugged and most importantly Planet. The latter is the third largest venue in Vienna and popular bands such as The Rasmus, Star Sailor, Ash, Paradise Lost, Sugababes and a lot more have performed there. On this occasion Bitterside supported a popular Austrian band "Herbstrock".

29th May 2008 saw the release of Bitterside second opus, "Underrated".

The album was preceded by the single "A Selfish Cry", an acoustic track which has quite a fresh feel to it; ideal for the torrid summer months! The song went down very well with the Maltese public, reaching top spot on Malta's Top Ten for 2 consecutive weeks.

Apart from the new single, the album also includes top-hits, “Shutters” and “Start Again”! All the songs have a different attitude but keep the BITTERSIDE edge throughout!

Discography

Underrated

"May 2008"
# A Selfish Cry
# False Alarm
# Start Again
# Sleep the day
# The Past
# Underrated
# Vs Life
# Shutters
# Edge of Reason
# Getting Older

omehow Different

"July 2004 Debut Album"
# Fear (The Fast Song)
# Regrets
# Drop Of Wine
# Soul-Mate
# Fire In My Pockets
# So Lovely
# All My Chances
# In Me
# Changes In The Way
# Somehow Alive
# Down Upon Me
# Something We Call Life
# 97'
# Inside Out
# If You

"Other Singles"

* Shutters
* Start Again
* Vs Life

Awards

* Bay Music Awards : Best Band Award 2004, 2006

References

*2007-08-27: Malta Media News; [http://www.maltamedia.com/artman2/publish/music/article_3222.shtml "Bitterside release new single Start Again"] (www.maltamedia.com) Retrieved 2007-09-15
*2007-08-07: Pulis, Eman; [http://www.portal.ksu.org.mt/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=173&Itemid=43 "Bitterside to Headline Campus Fest Rock Night"] ; (www.portal.ksu.org) Retrieved 2007-09-15
*2003-07-06: Malta Today; [http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/2003/07/06/tw/index.html "On the spot...with Kenneth Vella"] ; (www.maltatoday.com) Retrieved 2007-09-15

External links

* [http://bittersidemusic.hi5.com Bitterside] [http://www.hi5.com @ hi5]
* [http://www.myspace.com/bittersidemusic Bitterside] [http://www.myspace.com @ My Space]