New Band of the Week: BITTER KISSES

We’re sticking with Bristol for this week’s New Band of the Week for a quartet with an addiction to riffs and hair dye. BITTER KISSES offer up an infectious sound that fuses rock with elements of electro and pop, which they describe as “heavy, infectious and pazazzful?”

The quartet of Gemma, Thomas, Josh and Scarlett formed in mid-2022 after leaving their previous projects. And on what to expect from the band’s underground party vibes, they tell us: “We like to describe ourselves as ‘pop music you can beat your friends up to.'”

“(We were) desperate to work with literally anyone. It only took one practice-room jam to decide that we could tolerate one another and so far we’ve just about stayed friends.”

Our first taste of BITTER KISSES is their delicious debut single Pr*y, which was released on Friday (3 February). It opens up with a funky synth sound that’s joined by a chunky bass and engaging opening vocals. The vocals intensify with dual vocals coming in to accentuate the words “cry, lie, prey and stay.”

That builds up to a chorus with heavier guitars supporting engaging vocals “I see right through your white lies, ‘Cause you can’t hide in the limelight, But it’s no use trying to shake you free, If I won’t let you release me.” A cool little post-chorus follows with a funky synth sound supporting dual vocals “Pr*y for me tonight, My shining white knight, Tell me that you’re mine, Feed me your white lies.”

Second time around, the chorus drops into a building section that begins with vocals over a laid-back drumbeat and ends with a funky little guitar solo. That feeds into a big final blast of the chorus with heavier drums and fun layered vocals in the background.

On their debut track, the band tell us: “We’re really excited to be sending our first music into the big wide world, we’re just hoping that people will be kind about our baby and enjoy listening to it!

“Anyone listening to Pr*y should go into it expecting to hear the result of a fever dream in which Lady Gaga collaborates with Queens of the Stone Age to produce a new Earth Wind And Fire song.” Check out Pr*y in the

The BITTER KISSES sound is shaped by a wide range of bands and influences, which they couldn’t agree on so listed member by member. Gemma is big into Tool, The Pretty Reckless, Wolf Alice and Thomas is more a fan of Queens Of The Stone Age, David Bowie, Radiohead. Josh is into My Chemical Romance, mewithoutYou, God Is An Astronaut and Scarlett lists Bring Me The Horizon, Sleep Token, Boston Manor as her biggest influences.

And on what inspires them to write music, they tell us: “There’s never particular themes or topics that we cover, it’s usually whatever comes from our heads after too little sleep. We try to keep it real though, making sure that songs are always coming from places close to our hearts.”

There’s plenty more to come from BITTER KISSES, who’ll waste no time following up their impressive debut single. The band have been busy recording new tracks and they’ll be going on mini-tours with their friends from the UK music scene through 2023. And your first chance to see them is at The Facebar in Reading on 10 March with the excellent InAir and All Ears Avow, and tickets are here.

And they add: “You won’t have had the full BITTER KISSES experience until you’ve seen us being sweaty and hyper, live on-stage. Catch us at a show as soon as you’re able and come say hi!”

You can follow BITTER KISSES on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, and check out their music on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube.