Teddy Swims on Breaking Barriers & Uniting Fans Through His Music
Today, Atlanta's up next, Teddy Swims comes through for the latest installment in our 2020 interview series. Growing up navigating different worlds, as a football player, a musical theater student and the grandson of a Pentecostal pastor, Teddy was exposed to a wider variety of music than most “country boys”. In high school and over the next few years he was in several bands, genres ranging from 80’s hair metal, funk, modern metalcore, soul, and country alternative bands. These experiences make Teddy who he is as an artist.
In March of 2019, Teddy went on his first US tour as a hip-hop artist with his best friend Addy Maxwell, which he describes as freeing experience, as he was able to continue to expand into uncharted territory. With this in mind, Teddy began to explore integrating the various genres he loved: metal, pop-punk, soul/funk, country, gospel, R&B, and show-tunes, into one genre that is Teddy Swims.
Teddy is the accumulation of past projects. Swims stands for: someone who isn’t me sometimes, a reference to Teddy’s struggle to integrate the different parts of himself. For Teddy, the goal is to break barriers and bring people together. About the project, Teddy says, “There are no categories, no stereotypes, no statistic is a definite number. Until we learn to see every person as an individual, we will never truly reach unity."
Considering his hella dope covers and overall dope spirit, it was only right that we catch up with Teddy Swims to learn more about his story. During the interview we got to chop it up about everything, from how he started doing covers to artists he's feeling now to the advantages and challenges that have come along with building his team with his closest friends and using his broad range of music to unite. So, don't sleep. Get to know Teddy Swims below, check out his new video "Broke" and be sure to follow up @teddyswims404, as we're sure he's next to blow!
Within the last year you’ve grown your fanbase exponentially, well into 100 Million views. What inspired you to put out your first cover?
We actually never thought that we were going to be getting into the covers, but we put out our first one on June 25th (2019) which was “Rock With You” by Michael Jackson. Last year was his 10 year death anniversary. Me and my dad are huge Michael Jackson fans, so when I had the opportunity to do a Michael Jackson cover just to pay homage, I didn't think that it was going to go as well as it did. From that point forward, we just kept on doing them, just to pay homage to Michael at first.
Your covers are a dope blend of different genres. How do you pick which song you want to cover next?
There’s a few different ways we go about it. The second thing that we did right after Michael was cover this artist, Six60, who is huge in Auckland, New Zealand. So, when we first started the Michael Jackson cover really started popping off first on Facebook, and people were sharing it around. We found ourselves being up all night on Facebook trying to comment back to those who liked our work and try to get us bigger, and get more people to like my page.
When we were engaging with Facebook people all night, we had no idea that there were a lot of New Zealand people commenting, because it was the middle of the day for them. It turned out that one of the first people that really caught on was this New Zealand wave, and all of a sudden the Michael Jackson cover had 150,000 more views than it already had before. It was just getting like five to 10 grand a day at that point, but when we woke up one day, we’re like, “Where 150,000 views come from?”, they came from New Zealand, and they were paying attention.
So many people were like, “Pick this artist from New Zealand, do Six 60”, so we ended up covering “Rivers” from him to cater to that crowd. It did really well, and from there, we did a few others. Our selections are based off of people requesting what they want to hear, sometimes it's just my favorite songs I grew up listening to, or we take on songs that are popular right now. So there's a few different ways we go about it.
Which albums from your youth did you keep on repeat?
My favorite album of all time, is “Songs In The Key Of Life” by Stevie Wonder. We actually did a cover of “Knocks Me Off My Feet”, that's the best record of all time. One of my favorite albums of all time is “Voyage To India” by India Arie, and I think she's just the most amazing artist on the planet. I love “Channel Orange” by Frank Ocean as well, “What’s Going On” by Marvin Gaye which I’ve covered two songs from. I prefer soul music. I love old soul music, that's where my heart is. I also love Hip Hop, I'm a huge 6lack fan as he’s from Atlanta, and I loved his “Free 6lack” and “East Atlanta Love Letter” projects. I think he's just incredible as well.
Which projects are you feeling now?
I’m in love with Kehlani’s latest record, I think she's just absolutely amazing. Frank Ocean put out some music recently, and I love Lucky Daye right now. He is phenomenal, that “Painted” album is amazing, and I had it on repeat for probably the last three months.
So, you’re putting out your own original songs now. How would you describe your sound?
It’s kind of hard for me to because I think I'm in this place right now where the covers and the way that we've done things come from very different backgrounds. I'm in a place that I'm happy about because it's a place of discovery, but I also think that I'm in this place where I’m just kind of clueless. So I don't know if I'm ever just supposed to know what my sound is, or if it's just a thing that's always ever changing and always growing because sometimes I'll write a song and I'll be like, “Man, everything needs to sound like that”, and then the next day I'd be like, “Man, actually that song sucks, everything needs to be like this song”.
So, if I could say anything, it's just soul music. I think that means it can come from anywhere, whether it's country, Hip Hop or whether, it's right there. When you just have that feeling in your gut that something feels nostalgic, but you may not have heard it before, that's the feeling that I'm looking for. That something that just feels in your gut, it feels like I grew up listening to the song, but I've never heard this song. There's just something about soul that does that, whatever genre that may be. So, I'm in this discovery phase that I'll probably spend the rest of my life in. But to me, I guess I would just call it soul music.
We have to really start seeing people as an individual, and accepting people as an individual
Teddy Swims
You also went on tour earlier this year, before COVID threw a wrench in everything. How was your experience traveling from city to city?
Touring is fun. Our first tour ever, we played like 300 to 700 cap sold out rooms, which was amazing. It was hard for us at first to know for sure that if our covers on YouTube and the growth that we had on there would really turn into ticket sales and people actually caring enough to come see us. I had a fear, but the tickets sold out so fast. People came out, they loved it, and so it made me really excited that people care so much more about my voice and my personality.
Whether it's cover songs or original songs, I think people really just care about the person these days. You may have an artist now, like let's say Drake for instance, is just as successful or way more successful than somebody like Michael Jackson and Marvin Gaye ever would have been. But at the same time, he's a person that you can see into his life and you can watch him on social media and you can see the relationship that he has. He's so much more human than the way we used to look at those kinds of artists.
I think nowadays people just love a personality and love feeling like, “That could be me”, and I'm a regular guy and he's a regular guy, you know, instead of just like, “Oh man, Stevie Wonder's a god”. It was awesome to be able to like meet people instead of seeing just the numbers that you see all the time on YouTube. We get so lost in this many views equals this much money. Instead of this many views, it’s actually somebody in their cars, somebody at their work, or somebody sharing with their friend. And they're real people you know, they're not just numbers.
So, it was awesome to be able to do meet and greets every day after the show. I sat there and met every single person that was willing to take the time to stand in line and meet me. And I think it was amazing because we get messages every day and I try to keep up, but it's so amazing when you can hear somebody that is just like, “Wow, you really touched me, you have no idea”, “Your voice touched me in this place in my life, and it really connected with me at this moment”.
They could be going through a divorce or going through chemo right now, and my music is the only thing they want to hear, stuff like that not only keeps you humble, but it also makes you keep mortality in your mind and understand that there's so much more to life than what you're doing. That this shit is way bigger than you, it's so much bigger than me and all my friends. It's so much bigger than that, and there's so much more responsibility to that power.
Which city had the most HYPE energy?
We played in Atlanta of course, cause that's where we’re from. We had all of our homies show up. We will have a 25 person guest list that we ended up turning into 75. So, of course Atlanta was hype, but San Francisco was really insane too. We played for I think 700 people out there, and it was the biggest amount of people that I've ever seen in my life that I had stood in front of.
There's just always something that's special about that. Like as soon as you enter a room and you see these spaces that are here for you, it's just about preserving that energy. I think no matter how many people are in a crowd, there's nothing like that energy, it’s a high. I mean, I've never played in front of thousands or anything, so I'm sure that's absolutely out of this world, but that energy I feel never changes as long as you can maintain that, that's what it's all about.
Speaking of COVID, how are you staying sane during the extended lockdown?
Well, it's been wonderful. I live with my whole team, back home we live about 30 minutes outside of Atlanta to the East in this little town called Snellville for now. There's five of them other than me and my band and my producer lives there, my videographer, my manager, we have our merchandise, my brother lives there so there's like really 10 of us that live together.
It's definitely been hard through Coronavirus because we've had to all stay quarantined together, but at the same time, we get a little crazy with each other. It's awesome to just have your best friends around you at all times every day, that's how I've tried to stay sane through this. Although we've had a lot more chance to focus on original music, we had plans this year to tour maybe nine or 10 months out of the year and just put out a single for every tour.
Now we're actually getting the chance to put out a song, and then put an EP together, then focus on writing enough sick material because we would have been gone on the road so much that we wouldn't have had the chance to write as much. We're sitting on maybe 60 songs that are in the bank, and we're trying to figure out what the best songs are for release. We have a set up real release plan instead of just like one little song per tour.
I've had a lot more time to focus on myself and original tunes, and be home with my family. There was a lot of stuff during tour that you get so caught up in like being on the road all the time that you don't realize, sometimes you're not taking care of your mental health or your physical stability. We were just eating bad food all the time and drinking every day.
So, I feel more sane now honestly through the COVID-19 pandemic. I think there's been a lot of good through it and I've been able to be a part of seeing a change with the Black Lives Matter movement, and being able to be a part of it. Being able to be part of some of these marches and using my platform that I've gained to stand for something.
If I had been on tour, it would have been about, “Hey, what's up, what’s the next city you're coming to you”. I’d not have had the chance to like really be a part of a movement, stand for what’s right, and use my platform to actually stand for something and pick a side. I think this whole Corona thing, there's been a lot more good for me than I thought there would be.
... this sh*t is way bigger than you, it's so much bigger than me and all my friends.
Teddy Swims
What’s the first thing you’re doing once lockdown is up?
We’re getting back on the road. I’m so excited to travel. I'm just ready to get back out there and tour and play live again. I mean we see each other all the time and we write all the time, but we haven't gotten the chance to play together as a band. We need that energy. We can’t wait to see the people and not the numbers. So I'm just excited to just be able to get back out and do everything.
I went back to LA last month and we were starting to do some in person sessions again, because during the quarantine, there's been a lot of Zoom or FaceTime writing sessions. And it's been great to kind of get back to some normality and writing in person, but we have to be taking weekly Coronavirus tests before we can get into the room with each other. Then we're making sure that we're Coronavirus free, and then we're staying locked down together and working for three or four days.
It's some normality at least, but I'm just excited to be able to get back out and travel, be in front of people again, and be so scared (of the pandemic). I think there's so much fear to it that every time that I get like a slightest headache, I'm like, “Oh my God, what if I have the Coronavirus?”. I’m terrified, I got to get another test, and I'm like freaking out all the time. So I just excited to get back out into the world.
How did you go about putting together your team?
I’ve known a lot of them since high school, and we have been in and out of bands together since. So, we all started kind of weirdly in the metal scene together. So, when I graduated high school out here in Atlanta in 2011, it was the post metalcore and metalcore scene which was super huge. I mean, we were listening to the bands like Atreyu, The Devil Wears Prada, and stuff like that. We all wanted to be a part of those kinds of bands.
My producer now, he was producing stuff for me when I was 18 or 19, and we were making heavy metal music. My buddies were all in my band, or we were in bands together, or back and forth doing different stuff. I've known a lot of them like my guitarist Jesse, he's kind of the one that got me into music, we got into musical theater together in high school. Our videographer, we've just known him forever. He's always been with us from the jump trying to film whatever he could film.
We always wanted to do things, and we kind of developed our paths as we crossed, but one day we were finally like, “Oh man, if we all just got together and stuck our heads together, instead of just doing little projects and trying to be in five different projects, what if we just stuck our heads together? I bet if we only focused on this for this period of time and just stuck all 15 of us in a room, we could make something amazing, and we could really build a business and build our own thing. If we can film ourselves, make and distribute our own merchandise, record, take pictures, and do everything ourselves, then I think in no time we could have something really incredible”.
Here we are now. So, in a short year just by having friends and family, and talent, and looking out for one another, we could all just put our heads together and make something that eventually worked in such a short time.
What advantages and challenges have you faced from working with people? Like friends and family?
It's definitely harder in some ways (working with friends and family), but at least you know that your family, or your closest friends have your best interests at heart. I’ve worked with a lot of people that maybe have not had my best interests at heart, or maybe we were using each other to get where we wanted to be. We weren't really as close as we should have been, and for me, I lead with my heart, and I always want to just give myself fully to somebody.
Working with my friends is definitely amazing. When our YouTube blew up and we signed the Warner, I was able to put all of them on salary. It is sometimes hard to take a step back from being someone's best friend, but I've never had to be a boss really to them. I've never had to be like “Johnny to do this”, so that's good. But, it definitely is hard sometimes to take a more professional approach with them at certain moments. Like, we gotta get this done or we gotta do this, but for the most part, the pros outweigh the cons all day long. They’ve always had my best interests at heart, and I always have theirs. With that being said, there's really no way I don't think we could lose.
Your main goal is to “break barriers and bring people together”. How do you use your music to accomplish that?
We started out trying to do as many genres as possible, to bring more people together. Let's say we started with a Summer Walker cover and then a Shania Twain cover, you’re gonna have this country audience, then this modern day Hip Hop audience, or an R&B audience, and maybe there's a 50-year-old southern man on Facebook right now who would have never had the chance to listen to an artist that is as amazing as H.E.R., or Summer Walker, or somebody like that. Right.
And now since they like my Shania Twain cover or my George Strait cover, now you have this middle-aged southern man who is now absolutely in love with H.E.R. or Summer Walker that he would have never given the chance to, or vice versa.
We wanted to try to capture audiences that way and really blend them together because I feel like we all live in such separate worlds. Music is really the way to bring those worlds together, and if we can find a way to bridge those gaps, then it's not so cut and dry or black and white with music anymore. People don't really care about the genre as much with streaming. It's not like you're going to your favorite radio station and they're playing nothing but country music, that’s what you love.
On Spotify, you have your mix or playlist that goes from country, to Hip Hop, to R&B to soul, to Motown, to whatever. So, we wanted to just have the ability to try to expose somebody to something that they’re not normally used to, and maybe bridge the gap.
I'm a firm believer that we're all so much more than products of our environment. I think everybody's an individual, and until we stop learning how to keep somebody held to a statistic or a stereotype, then we'll never really be able to reach anybody or we'll never be able to be united. We have to really start seeing people as an individual, and accepting people as an individual.
I think we're on a pretty good path to trying our best to do that. I definitely can't save world, but if I could spend my time here trying to at least point us in the right direction or whoever's listening to me in the right direction, then I’m doing that. There's just so many people now who are having such a platform to say something, and they're just not saying shit. They're not doing anything, they're just here for themselves. I think it's so much bigger than us.
Anything else we should know before you go?
We start filming for “Broke”, and it'll be out in August. I'm super excited to put it out, and see what people think in the world. I think it's going to be our first real major release that I'm really excited about. I hope that people care about it as much as they care about the covers, and I really hope people see what we're trying to do and really connect to it.
