Calling in to chop it up with Audacy Richmond’s 106.5 The Beat’s Mike Street, Teddy Swims talked with the host about his new album I've Tried Everything But Therapy (Part Two), fatherhood, finding his soulful sound, and more.
LISTEN NOW: Teddy Swims talks with Mike Street
Praising is super successful track “Lose Control,” for being played over a billion times in the world, Mike asked Teddy to address those outliers who might be experiencing his music for the first time. Asking him, how he would introduce himself and his music.
“I would say this… if you want to make love or cry, I'm your guy,” Teddy said simply. Continuing on to jest, “Every day is a good day to cry, you know, we're getting some pain out. We can make love with pride. Some people like to do both at the same time. I ain't experienced it yet, but I think that'd be sweeter too, buddy, you know what I mean?”
Also getting into Teddy’s impeding fatherhood, Mike congratulated the daddy to be, who could barely contain his excitement about taking on the title for himself, “I can't wait, man,” Swims said, “I got the best in the world, bro… I can't wait to be that.”
Back to talking about Teddy’s music, his soulful sound in particular, Street went on to tell the singer, that “when people from the Black community hear his voice and say stuff like — ‘Wait a minute,’ ‘Who is that?,’ ‘Where did that come from?’ — That's a compliment because you have that soul, you have that connection.” Curious, Street asked Swims, “where does that come from?”
“Well, you know, I wasn't originally with the voice… I sucked for a really long time in this,” Teddy said humbly. “I was very lucky to grow up in a time where YouTube was invented, and I was able to watch some of the best that ever did it, like live videos of singers, and YouTube cover artists.” Recalling that he’d watch videos of “Marvin Gaye live, on the couch with his feet all set up… And so I think when I started learning how to sing and loving singing… I was able to watch my favorite singers sing and dissect how their jaw was moving and how their voice was… I remember watching Michael Jackson getting the 7th GRAMMY for ‘Thriller’ …. Watching Craig David sing ‘Walking Away’ or ‘7 Days.’”
Teddy also talked about his short-lived rapping career. "My first actual tour as Teddy Swims was as a rapper,” he noted. “I’m not dope at it, I'm not that great at it… but it kicked off this… made me Teddy Swims… and then we just turned Teddy Swims into what it is now.”
Speaking of the Teddy Swims he is today, Mike wanted to know, now that he’s reached this certain level of success, is it how he always envisioned it would be.
“Well, I still see so much further. I think it's everything I wanted it to be, but there's a lot of things that came with it that I didn't know,” Teddy expressed. “I expected that when I got to do this for a living, that all the problems I had in my life were going to be solved by being able to do this for a living. I thought when people bought into me, and told me my feelings were OK, and they care about my feelings, and that they thought I was good and that I was great, then I would feel that way too.”
He continued, “The thing I learned about this, is that I had to do a lot of self-healing to love myself. It didn't matter how many people in the world cared or loved about me and told me that I was OK and my feelings were OK. I still hated me at the end of the day. And I had to do so much learning and loving myself. It's only me that can give myself credibility to myself, you know? I'm so grateful for all the people I come across, and all the people that care. But I expected them to heal me and turns out you gotta heal yourself."
"So after learning that and unlearning the issues I had with myself, I'm now in a place where I could say that I love me and they love me, and I can receive that love and I'm worthy and deserving of love, and so are they.”
For all that and more, listen to Teddy’s interview above.