Bitter Sober is a band that has really dominated the local lesbian and San Diego music scene for the last few years. The momentum that is driving them from much more than a local San Diego band is like a tidal wave that is carrying them on the fast track of touring, before they have even cut their second album.

They play at local venues all over San Diego and one of the bands favorite places is the Whistle Stop in South Park. They are truly musicians to the core, who have put on hold everything including their personal lives to ensure they get where they want to go. To say this is a driven band is an understatement. One of the more impressive things about Bitter Sober is that they have handled their sky-rocketing success on their own terms, dimes, talent and the help of a few close friends and their manager.

While Bitter Sober has always been too big to be contained by just the San Diego music scene, the band has never grown tired of playing for its San Diego audience, nor have they grown rock star egos. In fact, Bitter Sober has always been the type of band that would say hi to anyone, hug fans after their shows and hang out with everybody. Sherry Soto can always be seen running around before and after shows making sure she hasn’t left any fans behind. This is more than just some PR tactic, set up to ensure they fill up shows and venues, as they already play to packed houses. They are one of the most genuine and candid bands you could ever meet.

Bitter Sober is also a band that backs their product. If they are not fully committed to a song they will cut it and go back to the drawing board until they find the perfect chemistry of riffs, lyrics, drums, vocals, harmonica and keys. In the end, for them it is all about the band, music and fans and the connection between the three. Bitter Sober is a band on the brink of stardom and there is not another band that is more worthy of it. If you have not yet checked out Bitter Sober, you really should. They will be playing at this year’s Pride Festival on the Cox Communication Main Stage on Sunday from 4 to 4:40 p.m.

GLT: First things first. Names and instruments, please?

BS: My name is Sherry Soto and I play guitar, harmonica, vocals and beat box. I am Amanda McCurdy and I play drums. My name is Alia Jyawook and I play the keys, cello and bass guitar. I am Megan Carchman, I play the guitar and Beth Ladwig plays bass.

GLT: How long have you been a band?

BS: Almost two years, but we have all been playing and creating music for years. Beth has been playing in bands for nearly ten years and used to play in a really popular lesbian band called Ladwig.

GLT: Where are you all from originally?

BS: (Alia) I am originally from Chicago. (Sherry) I am from San Diego, born and raised. (Amanda) Same. (Megan) I am from the East Coast and Beth is from Wisconsin, but has lived in San Diego for a long time.

GLT: I know that you have been doing a lot of touring lately. What areas have you toured most recently?

BS: We did our Northwest tour and that was a lot of fun. We finally got a bus and we all worked on it. We really put a lot of hard work into making it awesome, except Sherry (laugh)! Then we did the Midwest tour and that was great. We really want to tour the eastern sea board next.

GLT: Am I right in thinking that you have had people filming the tour and your shows?

BS: Yeah, we have. They will probably be following us around for another year and a half. They are really cool girls. People will be able to see what we are doing and where we are at, so that should be really cool.

GLT: You started off as a local San Diego lesbian band; however you have expanded to a much larger band with fans all over. How do you think that happened so quickly?

BS: We don’t really notice that we have got bigger. I mean, we still get nervous before shows and wonder who will show up. We are not really aware of how other people, bands or fans perceive us. So to us, we are just us and our band. I think that touring and working with local bands on tour helped, because people who were outside of San Diego could hear us and go to our shows. That created a larger fan base.

GLT: What was your favorite place to play this last tour?

BS: (Alia) I would have to say Wichita, Kansas was my favorite. We were paid in fruit! The best shows to play are the ones that are local with local bands. They are like backyard parties and everyone is having a good time.

GLT: Where would you as a band like to go from here?

BS: We definitely want to quit our day jobs and be able to focus all of our time and energy into touring, our music and the band. We want to be able to make a living from doing this and sink all our time and energy into Bitter Sober. We are all on the same page with this.

GLT: Are you working on a new album or new projects at the moment?

BS: We are putting together a new record right now and we will be touring at least once a month. So yeah, that’s what we have in the works. It takes us longer because we don’t want any filler songs or anything that we don’t totally love. When we are playing a song, we know if it’s going to be a hit. We only want the best of the best. The bus has also been a new project. We have almost rebuilt the whole thing on our own, you know. Some of us are gear heads and some are not. Sherry didn’t know what to do, so she just moved paper towels around, and oh yeah, she helped with some memory foam. (Laugh).

GLT: Are you excited to play Pride?

B.S: Seriously, we are soooo excited about it. We are going to change up the set and bring in a couple of new songs. We want to make sure that the set is really polished so we have been playing a lot lately. I like the fact that the audience will be all ages, so people that normally don’t go to bars or haven’t seen us, will be able to. Even our families will see us, and that will be really cool. It’s Pride and it’s San Diego, and I want to see Eve and Devo. So yeah, it will be a lot of fun. We’re very excited.

GLT: How important is musical integrity and what does it mean to you?

B.S: To us, we will play a song over and over and over. If we don’t love it, we are done with it. We do not play songs that we know are only half of what they should be. As a band musical integrity is all you have. So to us, if it means that maybe we only have 12 tracks instead of 26 and it takes longer to get those tracks out, we take the time to do it right. Yeah, so for us, if we don’t love the song, we don’t play it or record it. It means everything to us.

GLT: Do you guys consider yourselves a lesbian band?

B.S: We are really trying to stay away from that. We are proud of whom we are and where we come from. We are musicians first, and that should have nothing to do with our sexuality. It has more to do with what we love to do, and that’s play music. We do want to address though, that we are all females in this very male-dominated industry. The girls who film us are trying to show how hard it is to be female or a girl band. Our audiences appreciate that we are a girl band, they listen to us and like our set and music. It happens like that every time we play to mostly straight audiences.

GLT: What influenced you as a band musically?

B.S: (Amanda) Amanda Palmer. Sherry influenced me a lot because she believed in me. Also Modest Mouse, Team Dresch, Mexican music all random, Even Easy-E, rap and the dirty south. Tori Amos for writing her songs, too. Really it is all types of music from every genre.

GLT: Who is the biggest hot shot in the band?

B.S: We don’t think we think that way, but I would have to say Beth just because she is Beth Ladwig, (Laugh). We all are on the same level, but Beth really has helped us out a lot even letting us play in her basement. She has been amazing.

GLT: Well guys, it has been a pleasure talking with you and I can’t wait to see you at Pride.

B.S.: Thanks, we are really excited about it, too!