‘It’s like finding a home’

In addition to its latest self-titled album, new things are on the horizon for the band.

“We are about to get back in the studio to record a new single that we’ve performed live,” Chapman said. “We’ve also just added a very talented bass player, Haseena Peera, to our lineup. We’re super excited to play with her.”

The band is aware of the rarity of its mix of unique identities.

“As far as the queer music scene goes, ‘queer’ is such a multifaceted identifier,” Peera said. “It’s hard to know if there really is even a ‘scene’ to speak of. Anyone from any of the bands that we play with could be queer, but there really is no way of knowing unless we have personal encounters with them or they’ve identified themselves. What’s easier to speak on is the Latinx music scene. Latin punk music, in general, is not prevalent in Atlanta, and the queer Latinx punk scene is even smaller in numbers. We’re pretty much in uncharted territory, which has both ad- vantages and disadvantages.”

Nunez hopes that Bitter’s presence on the scene will inspire others.

“Latinx people aren’t celebrated enough in film, music and television,” the singer said. “And when they are, a lot of the time, they are forced into a stereotype. I want to recognize brown girls and people of color because I see people that look like me playing music. It’s important to me because representation leads to pushing boundaries and also being able to relate to something. It’s like finding a home. It also communicates to people that are being represented that they can do this, too.”

As they continue that mission, they’re finding like-minded fans in a number of places.

“One of our best moments was recently performing a fundraiser for one of our local heroes, [Atlanta City Council District 5 candidate] Liliana Bakhtiari,” Peera said. “Not only do we all relate to her in some way as a queer, a Muslim-raised woman and person of color, but we admire what she is trying to change for our city. It was our first time dipping our toes into politics with our music. When she asked us to play, we were more than honored. It was deliciously surreal!”