The following fill in the blanks come from NJ-based rock duo, 18th & Addison. The project was started in 2013 by Tom Kunzman of A Criminal Risk and Kait DiBenedetto of Just Kait. Their debut EP, Little Parasites, was released this past January and consists of 7 tracks. Learn more about 18th & Addison from their responses and be sure to check out Little Parasites below.
Three words we’d use to describe us are….
Tom: Fun, aggressive, and energetic.
Kait: I’d have to say the same. Fun, energetic, and relatable.
The story/meaning behind our name 18th & Addison is….
Tom: It came to us one day hanging out at Kait’s house. Her street name is Addison ave, just spelled a little differently. We didn’t want the name to just be one word though, so we thought if we added my house number, it would fill it out nicely and it stuck. 18th & Addison sounds more like a destination or something to me. Plus, that name really represents us as a duo which was and is a big deal to us.
Kait: Yeah surprisingly it didn’t take very long either haha, we were surprised.
The pickiest eater is….
Tom: Kait. Definitely Kait. I have my moments, but she’s pickier than me.
Kait: Guilty……haha
The most OCD member is….
Tom: I have some serious OCD moments. I hate it for some reasons, but I’m thankful for it when it comes to certain things also. Especially when it comes to writing. I kinda become obsessed and a bit of a workaholic when I’m really into something.
Kait: That’s definitely Tom, in every sense of the word haha. He’s got the OCD, and I’ve got the anxiety. Such a great team hahaha.
For fun we like to….
Tom: Anything 18th & Addison related is our fun. That’s why we do it, but sometimes you gotta break away from writing or practicing and even thinking so you can be more efficient later on, so we’ll go to a lot of local shows if there’s anything good happening in our town and sometimes we’ll drive pretty far to see a good show if our friends are playing or if we just really like what a certain band does. We watch a lot of movies and play video games too but that’s usually when my OCD kicks in..
Kait: Like Tom said we love supporting other bands for fun whenever we can. It’s a cool way to be on the other end of this and stay humble, have fun, and meet new people. Besides that we love to eat Doritos and play NHL 2015.
Tom: Kait’s 8 year old brother also just got this Wipe Out game on Xbox for his birthday that I really like right now. I suck at it though.
We’re currently listening to….
Tom: Our new EP is pretty damn good… Kidding. I’ve been listening to The Clash a lot recently. They’re one of my favorite bands, ever. I’m also really into a band from around here called Hounds. They’re some old friends of mine and they’re fucking awesome.
Kait: Lately for me Ive actually been listening to a lot of Elvis. Just a lot of 50’s and 60’s stuff in general.
Tom: You can never go wrong with that era of music.
Our favorite songs of all time include….
Tom: Hardest question ever. We both love so many different styles of music for different reasons that I have way too many, but right now ‘Tommy Gun’ by The Clash is the first one that comes to mind. I love the tones and structure of that song. ‘Sadie’ by Alkaline Trio is a phenomenal song too. It’s so well written and melodic.
Kait: I can never answer this question, it’s too hard haha.
We find inspiration from….
Tom: People and things around us. Certain things within ourselves for sure. That’s where most of the material on Little Parasites comes from. Just a lot of self reflection, some regret, a little resentment, but also a lot of looking at the world we live in and all the good and bad it has to offer. Each song is different in it’s own right and we both write a little differently than the other..
Kait: For me, it’s a lot of personal struggle or trying to overcome things I’ve gone through or what I’m going through at that moment. But like Tom said, what’s great is we each have our own style of writing lyrics and ways we cope with situations we’re in or surrounded by but we are able to pull different inspiration out of each other when writing and I think that’s something we both love about writing together.
One thing we want you to remember while listening to our music is….
Tom: I’d like people to keep in mind that it’s important to address the demons we have to wrestle with as human beings day in and day out. It feels good to get certain things off your chest, especially the negative things that might be weighing you down. For some of us, it’s writing music and playing shows for people who want an escape for a while. That’s what it’s always been for me and it’s something I’ve loved ever since I was a little kid. Hopefully people hear our music and remember there’s a place to go. That would be awesome.
Kait: Exactly. Music is a muse for most people. It signifies good and bad situations and one of my favorite things about some of my favorite albums are how when I listen to it I can relate to it. Songs are supposed to pull you in so you can escape from whatever you’re going through or put you in a good mood and I want our music to do that for people like it’s done for us when we wrote the song. So I’d just say when you listen, know we poured a lot of heart into the lyrics and obviously the music so that it was fun and relatable and we hope that shows.
The first song we wrote together was….
Tom: For 18th & Addison, I think it was “Running”
Kait: Old school 18th & Addison. So old that it was a song before we even thought to take this band serious.
Tom: Still a blast to play live too, so you can’t ignore that. I love playing that song.
Something we learned from creating Little Parasites was….
Tom: I learned a lot about myself and about who I am at this point in time. Some things I don’t necessarily like to admit to, but it’s important to be honest in your writing and that’s what I love about it. I compare it to being a cheaper therapy. Aside from the personal shit, I learned a lot more about how to approach production, a new approach to singing and playing guitar. I also think we’ve learned a lot about songwriting too ever since our last bands ended. This EP is definitely a major mile stone in my eyes.
Kait: For me I also learned a lot more about myself. I’ve always wrote about really personal subjects and have always tried to be more subliminal so I didn’t give away too much about myself but on this EP I really let my guard down and I feel really good about it. This was also the first time in while I was actually more involved in the production of music I was releasing and it was nice to be on that end of things for a change, knowing that what people heard genuinely came from us in every aspect of the EP. Being more hands on was cool for me.
Something odd we want our fans to know about us is….
Tom: It depends what you consider odd I guess. I like to find the ugliest faces possible to scare (or annoy) my sister and Kait with. I tend to focus harder when I do things while drinking coffee. We’re both fairly obsessed with Doritos too.
Kait: Everything is odd about us haha. Something really odd is we once wrote almost an entire songs worth of lyrics through text messages. We weren’t sure how to feel about it haha.
Tom: NO! I got it now.. Sometimes, we’ll be sitting there on the couch watching a movie, and we’ll both start singing the most random song ever. Either at the same time, or one person will start and the other person will freak out because that song was just stuck in their head. So crazy. Definitely odd for us haha.
Our last meals would be….
Tom: There’s a S’barro in the mall by our house that I always get this broccoli, spinach and white cheese pizza shaped panini type thing from and I think I’m borderline obsessed with it. I’ve been talking about it for a week now.
Kait: I’m gross, I love 5 Guys Burger & Fries. I would probably die satisfied and full.
In the next six months you should expect….
Tom: Expect A LOT of shows. We’re working really hard on playing as much as we can in support of the EP. NJ, Philly, NY etc. We’re also working on a new music video in the next few months which is going to be AWESOME.
Kait: What he said!!
Tom: Yeah, what I said!
– Victoria
Kryptonite Music Magazine 