Addison Grace at The Foundry

Rising singer-songwriter Addison Grace (he/they) has released his debut album, Diving Lessons via AWAL. The album was co-produced and recorded by Cavetown’s Robin Skinner in London. 

As the follow-up to Addison’s first two EPs—Immaturing and Things That Are Bad for Me, both released in 2022—and as their first full-length album, 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. Opener “FISH” is a poignant prelude about feeling underwater, literally and figuratively, and an introduction to the airy and melodic sound of the record. Along with other standout tracks like “Pessimistic” “SLIME!” and “White Lie,” this opening song vaults into huge crescendos and gigantic, building choruses, establishing the emotional height Addison’s writing reaches between more subdued verses. “I’m not Taylor, I’m not Phoebe / I’ll write this song, it’ll have no meaning / But I’ll still find a way to cry to it,” he writes on “Pessimistic” battling symptoms of anxiety and depression while dreaming of a brighter mindset against the backdrop of an upbeat pop framework. 

On an album that traces a familiar narrative of naive innocence, traumatic disruption, anger, sadness, acceptance, and finally healing, “SLIME!” erupts as a mid-anger and sadness moment, with the twin adages “thank God that therapy is working,” and “I’ve been feeling like slime,” and both ring true in this fuzzed-out, heavier tune that ends with a near-screaming vocal. Working within that same emotional tenor, “White Lie” is a kiss-off to chameleons who morph into whatever is necessary to connect in the moment, but render that connection useless with their endless facades. Other, devastating reflections like  “Strawberry” and “bath” come early in the record, before it rounds out with the tongue-in-cheek “I Miss You(r Dog),” an all too relatable anthem about pining for an ex’s pet without missing them in the least.

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.”

On October 21 Addison kicked of thier  headline tour of North America with the first show in Portland, OR. The tour will end with a hometown show in Salt Lake City on November 21. 

Listen to Driving Lessons Here

Here are some images from Addison’s performance at The Foundry in Philadelphia by Elyse Franco