Gustav Bertha

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Gustav Bertha (b. 24 July 1969) is a Scottish singer songwriter based in Zürich, Switzerland. He is a prolific songwriter having released six albums in as many years (his first album, 2001's "Songs for Gigi", is now available as free download along with his 2006 compilation "Z:06"). His breakthrough fifth album 'My Life as a Dog' was critically acclaimed: Swiss national paper Der Bund called it 'Wunderbar'. The Swiss press has also dubbed him with the slightly more ambiguous title, "The World's least-known Scot". Gustav's music has been compared to a strange cross between fellow Glaswegians Ivor Cutler and Alex Harvey. He has a penchant for storytelling in his songs following in the traditions of French chanson.

Biography Born in Glasgow, Bertha moved to Stirling and later rural Dunblane where he spent most of his childhood. Bertha took piano lessons from an early age and was educated in local schools later attending the now closed private boys school Fort Augustus Abbey School. It was at this school in the mid 1980s that Bertha formed a tongue-in-cheek rock band with fellow students. The band played at parties with a repertoire of original material. Bertha also took extra-curricular lessons from pianist and organist Gregory Brusey OSB, Mus Bac (Edin). Bertha went on to complete a formal education graduating in 1992.

It was around 1992 that Bertha embarked on a number of solo recording projects of an electro pop nature under the pseudonym 'Plastic Smiley Guys', which led him into playing keyboards for a Fife-based band called 'Rain', later to become 'Psycho Annie' where he formed a writing partnership with singer Gordon 'Gizzard' Hillis. Psycho Annie played many shows on the east coast of Scotland including support for 'The Filthy Tongues' (a later incarnation of Goodbye Mr Mackenzie notably including a pre-Garbage Shirley Manson), playing benefit concerts organised by Nazareth's Pete Agnew, touring with contemporaries the 'Liquid Pub Dugs' and 'the Columbians of Kazoo' and sharing practice rooms with Big Country. The band slowly broke up for good in 1995 with guitarist and Bertha's close friend Grant Jamieson pursuing a musical career in England with 'The Enid' and Bertha himself relocating to Glasgow and ultimately London. Between 1996 and 1998 Bertha spent almost no time on music. He had a brief stint playing keyboards for singer songwriter Bernadette Ruddy and a number of fruitless musical liaisons in London.

Bertha moved to Basel, Switzerland in 1998 and began recording intensely under the pseudonym 'plasticpsychobabble' (some of this material eventually resurfaced in the 2003 Gustav Bertha album 'Babble'). He recorded three full length demo CDs over the space of two years, finishing the first 'StranGe enchantment' in 1999 while still in Basel, and completing the second 'submergingmeadowsgreenboundaries' in London in 2000 and a further third album 'blurred visions for fuzzy strangers' recorded entirely in London during 2000. While in Basel he co-formed a band with guitarist Oreste Fasolin, bassist Olivier Schmidt and drummer Stefan Plattner called 'The Secret Life of Andrew Aston' as lead vocalist and keyboards. The band played no shows but did record an EP entitled 'Caffeine Injunction' in 2000 and briefly reformed in 2003 to record a version of the Gustav Bertha track 'Erotomanic' which reached the Swiss Made For Music Democlinic final. During his short 2000 stay in London Bertha briefly played bass for singer songwriter Stavia Blunt reunited with his old friend, Grant Jamieson, on guitar. But it wasn't long before he returned to Switzerland, this time to Zürich, at the end of 2000.

Gustav Bertha's first album writing as Gustav Bertha, "Songs for Gigi" was released in 2001 and is entirely recorded in Zürich. A specially re-mastered version of this album is available free in mp3 format from www.gustavbertha.com. Gustav set about establishing a live band as a vehicle for his own music. He teamed up with another singer/songwriter Martin Würfl. Together they formed 'Tea with Venus' and started performing as an acoustic duo with Bertha on accordion and Würfl on guitar, both singing lead vocals on their own songs respectively. During this time they looked to bring a drummer and a bassist into the band. Dani Bollhalder joined on drums in 2002. It took longer to find a steady bass player with Bruno Bisagno joining in 2003. Around this time Tea with Venus became sLow.

Meanwhile Gustav recorded three full length albums. The follow up to 'Songs for Gigi', 'Café Créme' was released in the first months of 2002 and caught the attention of Shuteye Records in Atlanta who chose the atmospheric, 'My Mind's a Tyrant' as the lead in track for their fourth edition of the Buzzlighter series along with tracks from Midnight Oil, Matt Pond PA, The D4 and others. This CD brought Gustav his first airplay on US College Radio. Later in 2002 Gustav Bertha released 'The Hose Room'. The trip pop number 'I am' featuring Arabic rapping from Hadar Laifa reached the final of the 2003 Made for Music Democlinic. In 2003 'babble' was released. Shuteye Records included the track 'Strange Day' on the seventh Buzzlighter compilation alongside tracks from Brian Jamestown Massacre and Dios. In the Summer Gustav made contact with guitarist Hanspeter Straub, looking to form a tribute to 1970s Scottish rock band, 'The Sensational Alex Harvey Band', with Bertha fronting on vocals. This was to become a frustrating on off on hunt for band members until finally completing the line up in 2006. 2003 closed with Gustav Bertha playing his first ever solo gig In Aberdeen, Scotland organised by sometime collaborator and friend of Bertha's, singer songwriter Ian Simpson, as part of a showcase of new Scottish talent.

2004 saw the release of the fifth Gustav Bertha CD, a moody offering called 'My Life as a Dog' which went on general release nationally in Switzerland through distributors RecRec. The record received favourable press reviews with Swiss national paper Der Bund calling it 'A Wonderful Album'. Several Swiss radio stations added the record to their playlist. 'Jackboot' a track from 'My Life as a Dog' made its way into the 2005 Swiss Made for Music Democlinic final. sLow began to play considerably more gigs in 2004 through 2005. 2005 closed with the somewhat muted release of Gustav Bertha's 6th album, Defective.

Gustav Bertha's releases in 2006 were limited to "Z:06", a compilation of six tracks picked from the 6 previous albums. This is available free in mp3 format from www.gustavbertha.com. Bertha became more focussed on playing solo and by mid 2006 Bertha decided to quit sLow feeling the band had stagnated and needing to do something new. It was a friendly split with Würfl, Bisagno and Bollhalder opting to play on as a trio playing German rock. Meanwhile Bertha began to play shows singing for 'Not The Sensational Alex Harvey Band' along with guitarist Hanspeter Straub, bassist/cellist Andreas Fischlin and drummer Peter Baldinger.

Gustav Bertha is currently recording his seventh album, playing solo and singing with 'Not The Sensational Alex Harvey Band'.

[edit] Discography

with One in Five

• Five Flew Over the Hatchery (1991)

with Psychoannie

• Amoeba (1993)

as plasticpsychobabble

• StranGe enchantment (1999)
• submerging meadows green boundaries (2000)
• blurred visions for fuzzy strangers (2000)

with The Secret Life of Andrew Aston

• Caffeine Injunction (2000)

as Gustav Bertha

• Songs for Gigi (2001)
• The Hose Room (2002)
• Café Crème (2002)
• babble (2003)
• My Life as a Dog (2004)
• Defective (2005)
• z:06 (2006 - compilation)

[edit] External link

• Gustav Bertha's Official Site