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05-July-2006 :

I first purposely tracked down and met Bitterside at Zmerc pub. This must have been 2001 and they were probably still getting their act together. Dunno exactly. I don't think they even had an idea of their potential but what struck me was their sense of direction which was clearly that of creating ear-friendly catchy songs. Thank goodness for us their talent outshone their commercial ideals and now with a 'love me or hate me' vocals they send shivers down our spine with stuff like 'Shutters'.

Some useful trivia before we catch up with Daniel:

Following their success at the BMAs in 2004 (Best Band) Bitterside only regretted one thing; that they had gotten alienated from their original genre which was a tad darker.

By October 2005 the band stopped gigging and concentrated on writing new material to follow-up the album. 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 to specific 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 considerable tension and clash 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. It was the best out of forty songs, which the band demoed.

" Shutters gave us a clear sign that all we wanted to do was to write heart-felt, personal tunes that we really enjoyed playing "

The band wrote 4 versions for ‘Shutters’ and with Howard Keith’s help and production the band recorded a mighty song, which demonstrates Daniel’s emotional song writing and the rest of the band’s capability of adapting their sound to it. The sound is much more mature, the voice impressively unique and a vibe which will give you the chills!

What does 'shutters' feel like when played out live to a decent crowd?

" ‘Shutters’ gives us an amazing feel as this song started a new era for the band. With this song we finally got the sound and vibe we had always been looking for. The song pumps up our adrenaline to danger levels during a live show. Kenneth looks like he's about to smash his snare any time by hitting it so hard on the beat and if I'm not playing guitar in it believe me I’d go bonkers on stage jumping around and stuff!! "

Why is it called shutters??

" The word shutters formed part of a line, ‘Close the shutters of your brain, don’t think about me not today’, which was used in the first version of the song which ultimately has been edited out but it stuck so much in my mind that I could never imagine the song with another title! The meaning behind the line was to ultimately be emarginated from someone you know and love for love’s sake. The theme of the song though is about things which you would rather be doing in life but you know that most probably you’re stuck with your shit and that’s how it’s gonna be. "

In my opinion Maltese crowds needs extra vitamins! Ever got bored playing to a crowd of statues?

" Most of the crowds do need extra vitamins. Hell they do!! Sometimes the crowd is so static that you get actually bored playing your own stuff due to the lack of vibe. Luckily enough in all the gigs we played, only few of them had a difficult crowd, which we couldn’t handle. I think that is thanks to our energy during a live performance and the things we do that differ from other acts. "

Are you down to earth normal guys or are actually quite crazy and just waiting for the right timing to let it all out?

" We are all down to earth, very laid-back people. Some people in the local scene think we are some kind of snobs as we hardly speak but it’s actually because we are very, very laid-back. That’s the attitude we have, which sometimes works against us but hell everyone is made in someway or another. Obviously we do have our crazy moments, especially once on stage during the beer festival, where I nearly smashed my Fender and on another occasion I fell from a veru high platform on stage during a sound-check. That hurt a bit actually!! The other thing is that once I’m performing II switch to ‘tongue n cheek’ mode… It’s something which comes instinctively! Besides we all do crazy stuff but one needs to be 24X7 with us to get to see it!! We should start a reality show… "

Who started off Bitterside and how did you decide who should play what?

" Bitterside started as a joint effort more or less, after the previous band, which all of us were in, dismantled. Then I told Jesmond, Alan and Kenneth, the rest of the band, that I had songs up my sleeve, which I wanted to try out. The guys liked the songs, noticed that I had a particular voice and there you have it!! We actually played the instruments we knew how to play! The multi-instrumentalism thing came later.. "

Daniel for how long have you been bottling up songs within? How many unheard tunes are we missing?

" Well for a very long time. I wrote my first song, which was quite crap, in 1998. The quality has changed drastically though!! Well a relative number of songs have been there from day one, however to put you in the picture, we wrote about 40 songs before short-listing ‘Shutters’, ‘VS life’ and ‘Edge of reason’ and actually record them. We teamed up with Howard Keith and the final result is excellent. When it comes to unheard tunes there's quite a number and the list grows nearly everyday ... some of them certainly worth recording… Well we'll wait and see what the future brings!! "

Did you start singing with the band or did you have previous experience?

" Yep the band was my first singing experience. Never sang before. I think it's doing quite well even though there are people who can’t stand my voice. That’s normal though… Luckily enough there are others who love it. I learnt some of the singing and breathing techniques myself and that’s how it’s gonna be… my way or nothing!!! The only help I got was from the producers we worked with. "

Does the band share a common interest .. dunno .. a favourite artist, tune, team? Howcome?

" Well we share some common artists like Coldplay, Silverchair, John Lennon, which I’m really sure about. We listen to so much music so it’s hard to define a tune… When it comes to teams, even though the rest of the band don’t actually give two shits about football, they support Italy while I’m a die-hard England supporter. We have strongly different views when it comes to football. I’m still pissed-off with the elimination… cannot come to terms with it… such a robbed game and unfair refereeing.. I’d better stop on this as it might get out of hand!!! "

So what's in the pipeline. Where are you heading from here?

" Eventually we’ll be releasing some more stuff which we already recorded. No albums though at the moment. We’re taking our time. We have some gigs too but we don’t want to pack the diary neither. We're after a mellow rhythm this time. When we released our debut album 2 years ago we gigged heavily like 4/5 gigs per month, which for Malta is quite a lot. Finally we ended up feeling uncomfortably over-exposed. We want it to be different now. In the meantime we’re still writing and making demos of new songs. We’re focusing on that right now. "

Where can people download sample tracks of your great tunes?

" You only need to visit our website www.bitterside.net . One can sample songs from our debut album ‘Somehow different’ and ‘Shutters’ (our new single). Besides there’s a lot of info about the band… what are you waiting for!!! "

If I had to give you Lm100,000 to spend as a band what would you spend it on?

" Wow that’s quite a sum… Well we’d make one heck of an album and spend the rest on promotion & publicity stunts, which unfortunately are costly and not easy to get. We would also buy some more equipment so as to add to our existingt gear and improve our sound quality during gigs. Well the list is endless…erm do you have that for real? "

And now comes our ChEeKy qUeStIOn:

A day at the beach hanging around with your girlfriend when suddenly she decides to go topless. What is your reaction??

1. You disappear
2. You act as if nothing happened
3. You look around to see whether there are people you know
4. You take off your swimsuit
5. You cover her up with a towel and try and put her bikini top back on
6. Other reaction - please elaborate

" Hmmm .. I think I’ll go for number 5 however with an edit and an add-on. I would never dream of putting the bikini-top back on, at least for the time being. I would actually wrap us both in the towel you know to feel stuff and… I think I’ll stop the details on that!!! "

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You can visit Bitterside on the web at www.bitterside.net