Jason Bittner
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Jason Bittner (born January 11, 1970) is the drummer for the metal band Shadows Fall.
[edit] Biography
Jason Bittner started taking formal drum lessons at the age of ten years old; however, he had been banging on pots, pans, and garbage cans since he was five. A native of Albany, New York, he continued to take lessons and perform in his middle school and high school jazz and orchestra ensembles before heading off to the prestigious Berklee College of Music in 1988.
After studying theory, arranging, and latin and jazz drumming styles, he left Berklee to pursue his musical career outside the educational environment. This led to playing in various metal and hard rock bands throughout the late eighties and early nineties. During this period, he was also attending a local community college (for an unrelated degree) and performing with their jazz and percussion ensembles.
In 1994 he joined Stigmata, who were, at the time, one of the biggest hardcore bands on the New York scene. Over the course of the next 7 years, he recorded 3 albums, released a home video, and toured the U.S. and Europe with this outfit. He also signed endorsement deals with Meinl Cymbals and Pro-Mark Drumsticks at this time. After being together for over a decade, the band decided to "call it a day" in 2001.
As luck would have it, it would be the fall of 2001 when Bittner joined Century Media recording artists Shadows Fall. Initially, he signed on just to do one tour of Europe with the band, but considering the fact that the band had so much going for them, and the chemistry between the five members was so great, he decided to quit his job and stay a permanent member.
In September of 2002, the band released "The Art of Balance" and went on to tour relentlessly all over the U.S., Japan and Europe in venues ranging from small clubs to the stage of OZZFEST 2003. It was also during this time period when Bittner won his first Modern Drummer Reader's poll for #1 Up and Coming Drummer of 2004.
September of 2004 brought the release of the album "The War Within", which debuted at #38 on the Billboard charts. Over the next year, the band once again toured all over the world, including arena tours with Slipknot, and a main stage spot on OZZFEST 2005. At this time, TWW has scanned over a quarter million copies, and has also received a Grammy nomination for Best Metal Performance. This record was also powerful enough to help Bittner win again in the 2005 MD readers'poll, this time for #1 Best Recorded Performance, and #1 Metal Drummer.
Over the course of 2005, Bittner started establishing himself as a clinician as well. He performed at the Modern Drummer Festival in May of 2005 to a standing ovation. In September, he peformed at the DRUMMER live festival in the UK, followed by a clinic tour of Germany, and he also performed at PASIC in November of 2005. November of 2005 also brought the release of Shadows Fall's first ever DVD, "The Art of Touring" which Bittner helped film and produce.
As 2006 begins, Bittner is once again a very busy man. In the last three months he's done fill in gigs for Anthrax. Hudson Music has released a joint DVD with Bittner and Chris Adler. Pro-Mark has introduced the Jason Bittner Signature model 5BX drumstick. Meinl has introduced the Bell Blast ride, designed in conjunction with Bittner. He has been the cover feature of the UK drum publications, DRUMMER and Rhythm, and will be the cover feature of DRUM! in July. He is also one of the handful of lucky drummers who gets to participate on Magna Carta's "Drum Nation 3" record. Lastly, he also won the Modern Drummer Reader's Poll for the second year in a row for 2006 "#1 Metal Drummer."
As for Shadows Fall, 2006 will be a very productive year. The band has recently finished working on a record called "Fallout From the War", which will be released in June on Century Media Records. This record contains some new material, re-recorded b-sides, and some cover songs. The band hits the road in July to support "Fallout". This will be the band's only tour this year, as they are hard at work on writing material for their major label debut which will hit the stores in February of 2007.
