SOMETHING BITTER - Get Better Not Bitter ! (Punk-Rock - Interview with Jim).

- Hello ! Can you introduce yourself and tell us how it all began for you - your encounter with this musical universe, what appealed to you, what fascinated you and what made you want to get into music?
We’re Something Bitter, from New York City. We play fast, technical punk rock with a soul. I’m Jim, I play bass and do some vocals, Russ plays guitar and takes lead vox, and Andrew plays drums.
I think we all listened to music from a young age, mostly what our parents listened to. But all of us had our real awakening when we heard our first punk rock records. Something about the sound spoke to us on a deep level – whether it was a Dead Kennedys CD that we stole (Russ), Rancid being played in the kitchen we worked in (Jim) or mislabeled Nirvana tracks downloaded from Limewire (Andrew). We didn’t know music could have that kind of fury, that energy, the emotional resonance of anger and rage and defiance mixed in with guitars and drums that made you feel something raw and powerful. Once we heard it, that was it. Game over.
The great thing about punk, as well, is that it’s accessible. Way more so than for the kids who listened to Pantera, Slayer, and all these metal bands with wild solos that you needed years of practice to emulate. With punk, you could just pick up a guitar, learn some chords, and start a band. You’d suck, but that was kind of the point. There’s something pure and beautiful about that, and it’s probably why we started playing music.

- Tell me about the band... How you met - the current line-up - past experiences - and above all - WHY the need to form THIS band?
Russ and Jim started this band back in 2020. Both had been in bands all their lives – Jim was a founding member of The Mistakes in his native UK, Russ had been in Upinatem, Skittish Itz, Shrug Dealer and many, many others, including a Russian ska band that wore tracksuits on stage. Russ had posted a couple of demo tracks on Bandcamp, and then put them on Craigslist in an ad. Jim responded, and they met up – only this was during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, so the band sort of immediately went into hiatus because there was nowhere we could practice.
Still, the idea remained. We wanted to do something musically tight, where we hit the ones, but also we didn’t want to do what everyone else was doing. Even today, we call ourselves a band that mostly plays with punk bands, rather than calling ourselves a punk rock band per se. We don’t like to be predictable or stuck in one genre, though most of our music trends fast, technical, and increasingly heavy.
Fast forward to 2021 and things went pretty quick from there. We got lucky with a few early shows supporting bands like Direct Hit and Moving Targets, and we had our first tour about half a year later in the Northeastern US. There were a few lineup changes and we toured a bit more – including twice in the UK, and played some pretty rad shows, such as supporting Gatsbys American Dream and MakeWar at the Gramercy Theatre last April. We’ve been a three-piece for about a year now, and we pretty much consider it the final form of the lineup.

- Describe your sound and explain why I should listen to YOUR band at all cost ?
A sound guy once described us as a cross between Red City Radio, Rise Against and Jawbreaker, and I think that’s pretty fair. Our sound is hard to pin down; it’s rooted in punk rock, but we have strong influences from rock generally, and from heavier genres like post-hardcore and metal, with occasional flashes of Midwest emo.
You should listen to us because we don’t sound like every other band. We’re not even a band, really, just a musical argument between each other that generally clocks in at around two-and-a-half minutes per round.

- Lyrical and musical inspirations/influences ? How important are the lyrics for you ? Are there any specific messages or thoughts you try to develop and share through your lyrics ?
Musically, we have a wide range of influences. As a band in our loose, orgcore-ish subgenre, the usual suspects – The Replacements, Hot Water Music, The Flatliners, Leatherface, Samiam are all huge influences on us. Individually, we’re a lot more diverse.
We’re fairly unanimous on Chris Hannah from Propagandhi being one of the greatest lyricists of our time. Jesse Barnett from Ways Away is a close second, that dude writes the kind of lyrics that infuriate you because they’re so fucking good, and you wish you’d thought of it first. Speaking of Barnetts, Greg from The Menzingers is an incredible songwriter and lyricist. ‘After The Party’ is an album of pure poetry.
Lyrics are super important to us, and we spend a lot of time on them. Jim says his crowning musical achievement is fitting about half a dozen classic literature references into ‘No Stranger,’ because he’s a jerk like that.
But in all seriousness, we operate from a principle of writing what we know. Whether that’s experience with broken homes, broken marriages, or broken people, it’s all stuff we’ve experienced. A lot of our songs are about divorce for that reason. We try not to preach, but we hope people can listen to one of our songs and hear it apply to them or whatever they’re going through. Some of our lyrics are subtly political or veer on social commentary, but we’re not an overtly political band.

- About your latest release ?
We put out a split EP with a rad band from Long Island called Gone Stereo in late December, ‘Bridges and Tunnels,’ which features two unreleased songs from both of us. I think we see those as bridging songs, moving from our previously raw and scattered sound into something a little more cohesive. It reflects who we are and where we’re going.
We recorded it ourselves. Russ mixed it, and the master was done by Frank Mitaritonna at VuDu Studios here in New York. Joel Menter, a tattoo artist in Buffalo, NY, who runs Stay Weird Tattoo, did the art for it, as with all of our releases. He’s amazing, check him out.
You can get it on 7-inch vinyl, CD and cassette directly from us, through our website, or from Gone Stereo.

- Future plans ?
We’re planning to put out our first full-length record later this year. We’ve finished most of the writing and we’ll probably start recording in late June/early July. This will be a full LP, featuring all-new songs, and we’re pretty stoked on it.
Beyond that, we have plans for a few more releases and doing a few things we haven’t really tackled before, like music videos. And more touring, as much as we can get away with from our day jobs.

- Your most insane dream with the band would be ?
We’d love to go to South America and investigate an ancient temple. We’d work with the locals to fight black marketers hell-bent on stealing cultural treasures to sell to resurgent Nazis. Things would blow up, we’d escape in a helicopter. It would be pretty cool. (Well, yes, that's pretty insane, GOOD answer - Ed)
That, or playing a show with Samiam while on tour in Japan.

- Your BEST & WORST concert - as a band - and why ?
The first NBQ Fest in Poole, in the UK, in 2023. We had a tour planned with The Mistakes and our last show was going to be in Brighton, but the venue pulled it a week before we were about to fly out. The legends in The Mistakes put together an entire day-long festival within 24 hours, in the wine cellar of a pub by the seaside. So many people turned up that there were worries about the fire brigade being called, and we drank the entire pub out of beer. It was amazing.
Worst shows… there are always bad moments in any show. We’ve had amps explode, guitars break, kick pedals fall apart – that actually happened in just one show in London. We’ve had bands trash our stuff, had literally nobody show up, and venues rob us blind, but even the bad ones have good sides, too. We just like playing, good or bad.

- Next live-appearance(s) ?
We’re ripping a Long Island show with Gone Stereo for the vinyl release of our split on May 3, then we’re going on a short run down to Philadelphia and back with Tired Radio and a band from Glasgow, UK called Goodbye Blue Monday later in May. Assuming we survive being on the road with those lunatics, we’re playing a festival called Music Fests Here, in Brooklyn, on Memorial Day weekend. We have a few things in the pipeline for the summer, but we’re mostly focusing on recording and writing.

- Some words on your local scene - bands you're friends with and you'd like to name ?
New York has such an embarrassment of riches when it comes to bands. The local established acts like Neckscars, The Jukebox Romantics, Tired Radio, American Thrills, Original Sharks and Warn The Duke helped us out hugely when we were starting out. We owe all of them big time, especially Will Romeo from Neckscars, who did guest vox on our first record. And there are other seriously rad acts around the greater NY/NJ/CT/MA area – our brothers in Gone Stereo, of course, Half Dizzy, Last Minet, Oh The Humanity, and One Fall, Honey I’m Homeless and Cult Tides in south Jersey, the cats in Bitters & Distractions, the legends in Playing Dead.
Any one of these bands would make it huge in a less populated area with better turnouts at shows, they’re all complete pros and amazing artists, not to mention wonderful people. Big love to Shrug Dealer, as well, with whom we share a practice space (and band members). Those guys are amazing.
We’ve missed a ton, we’re sorry.

- Last word is yours..
Thanks for this, guys, it’s people like you who keep the scene alive. If we could leave everyone with one thought, it’s this: go to the show. Please. Local scenes are full of amazing talent, but too many people would rather spend hundreds of dollars seeing aging pop-punk bands from the late 90s than try something new for 10 bucks. Venues are dying, bands don’t want to play no more, it’s like the Specials song, but even more shit. Go to a damn show, it could change your life. It did for us.

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