Dad
(aka Tom Bittel) has been singing and playing guitar in various bands
since he was 19 years old. He won't say how long ago that was, though.
In his songwriting, Dad shares his peculiar outlook on the world, on relationships, and on himself. Still, he likes to wrap all his ideas around catchy melodies that stick in peoples' heads (his, too).
The first band Dad played with performed rock and roll songs of the 50's and 60's. He started as rhythm guitar and gradually progressed to be the lead guitarist, playing in a style combining elements of Chuck Berry, Carl Wilson, the Ventures, and early-Beatles George Harrison. The influence of this music has been evident in Dad's work ever since. That oldies band turned out to be Dad's main $$ job through college and grad school.
In
1984, Dad got into a really cool original band called The
Broken Hearts. This was in Hartford, Connecticut, which actually
had a decent original music scene at that time. The other members of this
band were Jamie Beckett, Michael Mazzarella, and Pat Yourell. Little did
Dad know how important this combination would be to his development as
a lead guitar, singer, and as a songwriter. The Broken Hearts released
a 9-song LP in 1985, with three songs each by songwriters Beckett, Bittel,
and Mazzarella. The album received college radio ariplay around the U.S.
and also got noticed in France, Belgium, and the U.K. The Broken Hearts
soon moved to New York City, where they made a valiant effort to take
the band to the next level. However, this was not to be, and the band
broke up in the fall of 1986. Over the next few years, Dad moved back
to Connecticut and Jamie moved to Florida. Michael stayed in NYC and formed
The Rooks, an internationally-known
power pop band with several excellent CD releases. Pat was the drummer
in the Rooks for several years.
Dad's
next notable band involvement came in 1992, when he joined John Kaukas'
and Mark Gaulke's group called "Lost Weekend." The name was
soon changed to "See Jane
Run" with the release of their first 10-song CD in 1994.
Dad and Mark split the songwriting duties in this all-original band.
In 2001, See Jane Run was honored with the selection of a track to be included in a compilation CD released by The Wiz stores in NYC. This 20-song CD was the end result of a contest run by the Wiz and Little Steven called "Little Steven's Cavestomp Garage Rock Band Search." 20 songs were selected as finalists from over 640 entries! See Jane Run's winning track was "She Let Me Go," one of Dad's tunes. A solo version of that song is included on "Dad's Noisy Basement" (see the Music page). SJR released their second 10-original-song CD titled Weird Reality in 2004.
In 1997, Dad acquired a 4-track cassette machine as a birthday gift. He wasted no time in beginning to record a series of songs that later became the 13 tracks of the Dad's Noisy Basement CD, released in 2002. He has released an additional EP with 4 more tunes, in 2005. He continues writing and recording in the basement.
Then, in 2006, Dad was inspired to start the band he always wanted - an instrumental surf-music trio. He recorded two original songs and came up with the name, "the Aquatudes." In June of 2007, Dad met like-minded drummer Dick Bascom, and the Aquatudes became a duo. Later that summer, bassist Fred Magetteri joined to complete the trio. The Aquatudes have enjoyed a fairly full gig schedule, playing almost monthly since November of 2007. See more on the Aquatudes Web site.
Dad's recording gear currently consists of an 8-track digital machine, several microphones and effects units, and a Macintosh computer with various recording, editing, and mastering software. There's more about all this on the Music and Gear pages.