Chad Williams of Western Addiction speaks out.
Q: Looking back five years ago, did you imagine yourself to be where you are now?
A: No way. I’ve always played music, but based on the type of music I like playing and my relative lack of skill at playing drums, I never thought I’d have the opportunity to make records and tour as much as I’ve gotten to do.
Q: Do you have any special skills or talents, things you can do that no one else can?
A: Actually, yes. I have the ability to remember the most mundane details about records and bands. However, I have no idea what your name is if I’ve met you more than 5 seconds ago.
Q: Do you think people look up to you?
A: No, not really. I think our band is still pretty unknown, and I’m notreally a good enough drummer to be looked up at for musical skill. I suppose maybe my younger brother does a little, so I try to not be a complete asshole when he’s around.
Q: How do you handle criticism from the public…either toward your music or yourself in general?
A: Pretty well. I am well aware of my shortcomings and can accept criticism for them. As far as our music, I don’t give a fuck if people like it or not, but it does irritate me when a reviewer obviously didn’t spend any time with the record and just wrote a paragraph about how it’s on Fat and it sounds like everything else. Because it most definitely does NOT.
Q: What irritates you the most (either affiliated with being in a band or just your personal life)?
A: How almost every single person on this planet is either amazingly stupid or a complete asshole.
Q: How old were you when you got your first tattoo?
A: 24. I’m glad I waited til then. There were some really dumb tattoos I thought I wanted when I was younger.
Q: Describe some of the meanings any of your tattoos have to you.
A: The Ramones are the most important band to me for many reasons, not least of which is their imagery. I couldn’t find a Ramones eagle big enough for a chestpiece, so I send an e-mail to the Ramones website, and Arturo Vego, designer of the Ramones logo and Ramones merch designer for their entire career, sent me one! It’s pretty big and it’s the tattoo I’m most proud of. Since music is my life, I have no problem getting “band” tattoos, though I know some people think they’re lame. I don’t give a fuck, so I also have a Motorhead tattoo. “Bastards” is a criminally underrated Motorhead record from 1993, and the logo on the cover is perfect.
Q: What is the most important aspect of the perfect tattoo that you feel many people overlook?
A: That it’s done for YOU and YOU ALONE. Not how “cool” it looks to other people, or how “punk” it is, or how many you have.
Q: As an artist yourself, how do you feel the commercialization and pop culture appeal has affected the tattoo industry?
Well getting tattooed is WAY less rebellious than it once was. My mother hates that I have tattoos, but I think she’s the only one.
Q: Can you describe a specific Western Addiction song in which the lyrics have special meaning to you personally?
A: Jason (singer) writes all the lyrics, but “The Church Of Black Flag” is a really important song to me. It represents quite well why we do what we do. “No profit, no success, just pride” is one of the lines. We don’t do this for anything other than our personal satisfaction. There’s absolutely no money in it, and by society’s definition of success, we don’t have it. But that doesn’t matter one bit.
Q: How did the name “Western Addiction” come about?
A: About 6 years ago I lived in an area of San Francisco called the Western Addition. So I came up with Western Addiction as a band name and hung on to the idea until I had a band.
Q: What’s next for you guys?
A: We’re on hiatus right now, while 3 of us are busy with our other bands: Dead To Me, Enemy You, and the Radio Reelers.
Q: Were you in any bands before Western Addiction?
A: I was in a couple bands that never made it past the practice stage. Western Addiction and the Radio Reelers happened simultaneously in 2003. Ken was in Enemy You for years before we asked him to join Western Addiction in 2004. Chicken, coincidentally, also played bass for Enemy You for a couple years. This is Jason’s first band, and dare I say, what a fucking debut!
Q: How has the general response from the public been at shows? Have you gotten any negative feedback toward your music?
Response at shows varies. At many of our S.F. shows, the crowd is pretty indifferent. They’re old punkers who just want to see live punk bands, it doesn’t really matter who you are. When we’ve been on tours, we’ve actually gotten pretty good responses from those who have never heard of us.
Q: What is the coolest thing that’s ever happened to you on stage?
A: In Japan, we’d end the set with a song that Jason doesn’t play guitar on, and he’d sing while going out in the crowd, and they’d carry him for the whole song!
Q: Who are your influences musically?
A: I can’t really speak for Jason as far as his songwriting goes, but our band in general is definitely influenced by old American hardcore, like Minor Threat, Black Flag, Adolescents, etc. I really love the drumming on the early D.I. records, with all the 8th notes being played on the hi-hat, so even midtempo songs sound really urgent and aggressive. I do that on a lot of our songs.
Q: What do you love the most about being in your band?
A: Getting to get my aggressions our playing music I love.
Q: What do you hate about it?
A: Figuring out the money side of it. Renting vans, buying merch. I’m sort of in charge of all that stuff and it’s a pain in the ass.
Q: What’s your outlook now?
A: Just that I’m really happy to have made the record we did. Most of this is due to the bosses over at Fat Wreck Chords. They gave us this opportunity, knowing that we wouldn’t make any money for the label, and I can’t thank them enough.
