San Francisco Voice

Addison is a San Francisco band that sums up their sound better than I could as “heavy guitars propping up a heavy message”.  This message is spread in the form of a foursome with alternative rock tendencies that have that quality of being distinctly familiar and yet strikingly distinct.  They play live again here in July but check them out before that; they’ve got a 2007 EP release, If It Hurts, It’s Good, selections of which can be heard on their MySpace page and the whole of which can be purchased through iTunes.  Here’s our interview with Joshua Arce.

What’s the story on how the band formed?  Our bassist, Luis Baptista, and I met in 1998 at a birthday party where we realized we were both Beatles fanatics.  By the end of the year, we were meeting once a week to drink beer and play songs from The White Album with a friend of ours, Paolo Asuncion, who would later drum for Addison.  We drifted in and out of playing; in 2001 Luis and I started meeting up to write original tunes together.  In 2002, we played our first show, as a power trio named Penn State, featuring Frank Pascual (currently of Cousin Dale) on drums.  We soon thereafter changed our name to Addison and since that time we’ve had several different lineups, with Luis and I, as the two constants.  Many talented musicians have played with us over the years, including Ville Vilpponen (from Dora Flood and the False Positives), Gavin Haag formerly of (Elephone), and Joseph Ledbetter (a singer-songwriter in his own right).  Our current lineup has been static for just over a year now, and we’re lucky enough to have Yoshi Takebuchi playing lead guitar to my rhythm and Nicolas Priario, who moved here from Argentina by way of Switzerland, on drums.

If you had to sum up your sound, what would you say?  Our sound is heavy guitars propping up a heavy message.

Describe the average fan of Addison . The average fan of Addison is someone who gets it.  Someone who knows what’s going on and understands what the whole point is.  Actually, that might not be the average fan, but someone approximately one standard deviation from average.  It’s someone who knows who’s doing the pinning in our song “Boutonniere.”

Do you have a favorite SF venue?  Of places we’ve played, Hotel Utah is tops, although 12 Galaxies has nice sound for monitoring your set.  Cafe du Nord is best for watching a show in my opinion.

Which spots in the city can you be found in when you’re just out and about?  Most weekend mornings I (and whichever bandmates I can wake up at 7:00 a.m.) are at Mad Dog in the Fog watching English football games, especially my club Liverpool F.C.  I’ll be at Kezar Pub all day Wednesday, May 23 watching Liverpool win the European Cup for the sixth time.  We frequent bars in the vicinity of our studio at Polk and Sutter.  You can find Nicolas in the horror section of Blockbuster; he favors a good slasher flick over a pint of Stella.

Where do you guys want to be (as a band) a year from now? We aspire to play really good shows to really big crowds.

If there was anything that you could make sure your fans knew, what would it be? Between our four members we speak nine languages, not including Pig Latin or Logo.

If the band was a San Francisco landmark, which one would it be and why?  The band would be Sam Wo’s because whether you know where to find us or not, we’re still going to be hoisting our dumbwaiter of sound and barking out instructions to those who show up.  Either that or we’d be the crooked street.

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