This past month Addison has been on the road supporting Summer Salt on their U.S. tour and today he also announces his own headline run and first in support of Driving Lessons. The dates kick off October 21 in Portland, OR and conclude in Salt Lake City on November 21. Along the way the tour stops in New York City for a show at Mercury Lounge on November 3 and in Los Angeles on November 18 for a show at Echoplex.
As the follow-up to Addison’s first two EPs - Immaturing and Things That Are Bad for Me, both released in 2022 - Diving Lessons showcases exponential growth for the songwriter. Both vocally and lyrically, Addison is one of the strongest members of a new generation of artists who blur the lines between bedroom pop, indie rock, emo, and folk, all without ever fitting into one of these categories. This post-internet, genre-bending space can be a chaotic shuffle when not handled correctly, but Addison brings structure and vibrancy to their sound, creating a record that unfolds like a multi-act play, complete with characters, spectacle, and plenty of drama. With a narrative arc that tells a story from start to finish, Diving Lessons is at turns intimate, funny and gut-wrenching, filled with universal feelings that Addison believes could be felt by the twin characters of “nobody” and “anybody” who appear as protagonist and antagonist across the record.
In high school, Addison was the only member of their all-girls choir with a pixie cut—an image that just about sums up their musical experience growing up in Salt Lake City, Utah. Addison remembers their short hair was always “really frowned upon,” but didn’t connect the dots between this small rebellion and a larger conversation about gender until much later. “It was through the difficulty of me not fitting in as a kid and not being able to make a lot of friends, that I was able to shift into music,” Addison said. “And that became my voice instead.” Now on the verge of releasing Driving Lessons as an openly queer, transmasc artist working with the same management as one of their biggest influences, Cavetown, it seems Addison’s 3.8 million followers on TikTok proved more prescient than teenage choir cliques.
But TikTok was never much of a musical outlet for Addison, it was more a place to showcase his personality and sense of humor, which were relatable enough that they earned him millions of followers. Instead, it was Instagram where Addison faithfully released cover songs, and even early originals recorded in a friend of a friend’s basement. Just by chance, Addison wore a Cavetown hoodie in one of these early clips, and was spotted by the artist’s manager, who was quickly moved by this young artist’s striking vocal presence and tender, wise lyrics. Signing Addison and bringing Skinner on board to help produce and record their full-length was a highlight for this project.
“I love being in the room whenever something is being produced, and I demand it now,” Addison said. “I want to be there for the majority of production, and it’s important to me. I want to sit and watch what they’re doing to my song, and give weird ideas. I spent two weeks in London with Cavetown to get most of the album recorded and produced. It was so fun working with him, because it was like working with a really good friend. It didn’t feel like working; it felt like having fun and drinking tea.” Previously, Skinner had only collaborated with Addison on the early single “Sugar Rush,” so establishing a larger collaboration between them was a big part of the sonic fabric of Diving Lessons.
Diving Lessons is a huge step forward for Addison, someone who has experienced the power music has to heal and empower firsthand, and they hope it will have the same effect for listeners. Instead of insisting that trauma makes you stronger, or that there’s beauty in brokenness, this record is about the strength it takes to swim to the edge, even if there’s no relief in the lesson. “This entire album is about healing, and going through something really hard as a teenager, and having to grow through it,” Addison said. “I named it Diving Lessons because when you hit the water, it hurts and it sucks, and you’re overstimulated and it’s hard, and you have to swim to the edge. That’s how this album feels to me.”
Addison Grace tour dates Oct 21 - Hawthorne - Portland, OR Oct 22 - Madame Lou's - Seattle, WA Oct 23 - The Shrine (Basement) - Boise, ID Oct 25 - Bluebird - Denver, CO Oct 27 - Amsterdam - Minneapolis, MN Oct 28 - Sub T - Chicago, IL Oct 29 - Loving Touch - Detroit, MI Oct 30 - Mahalls - Cleveland, OH Oct 31 - Velvet Underground - Toronto, ON Nov 2 - Brighton MH - Boston, MA Nov 3 - Mercury Lounge - New York, NY Nov 4 - Foundry - Philadelphia, PA Nov 5 - Union Stage - DC Nov 6 - Canal Club - Richmond, VA Nov 8 - The Social - Orlando, FL Nov 9 - Purgatory - Atlanta, GA Nov 11 - The End - Nashville, TN Nov 13 - HOB - Cambridge Room - Dallas, TX Nov 14 - Antones - Austin, TX Nov 16 - Rebel lounge - PHX, AZ Nov 17 - HOB Voodoo - San Diego, CA Nov 18 - Echoplex - LA, CA Nov 19 - Cafe du Nord - San Fran, CA
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