Bouyant! The Rise of Teddy Swims
Atlanta powerhouse Teddy Swims started uploading Michael Jackson covers to YouTube in 2019. Two years later, he’s amassing tens of millions of streams and selling out global tours…
Image Lindsey Byrnes
Teddy! We’re stoked to see you’re back here for a national tour so soon. How’d you find Australia last time?
I absolutely loved it! This time around we’ll have more time to explore. Last time, it was more like you look to the left and the right outside of each venue, and that’s pretty much what you see of each city. Australians were the first people who caught on when I first started doing covers. They were the first people who ever loved me. I’m so excited to get out there again.
What was it like to connect with an Australian audience?
The type of crowd is just different than it is in the States. It feels like people really love, love, love live music in Australia – maybe more than anywhere else I’ve been. It was also just super great to see the numbers you see on analytics. You know, I think sometimes we get caught up in the analytics and forget that they’re real humans rather than numbers we’re making on a YouTube video. To be able to connect one-on-one with a lot of people and see what the community and culture are about is incredible.
What can we expect from your live show this time around?
Love. And [something] bigger and better. I like to think [my concerts] are a safe space for everyone to come in and just get loved on.
You just released ‘What More Can I Say’ and said you’ll be releasing more music towards the end of the year.
We’re hoping you’re building towards a debut album… We’re actually in the process of wrapping that up right now! I think that’s also why I’m excited to be [on tour] because we’ll be trying some of the new music before we put it out. We’re so lucky to be able to play live. I think that’s what we missed during the pandemic – [trying] something in front of an audience and getting their real-time reaction.
You’ve made music your whole life, but the Teddy Swims journey started after you toured with Tyler Carter and began uploading viral covers to YouTube. Why did you start posting on the platform?
It was [through] the support of Tyler Carter. We put a cover together of ‘Sucker’ by the Jonas Brothers. He brought me in as someone who was a nobody at the time. I’m grateful I went the cover route. [But] when you do sing some of the greatest songs in the world… it’s very easy to get bogged down in thinking that your music has to be of that calibre. I’m grateful to have filmed my influences and then started making my own music to let them know it’s always been a homage to the people that were incredible before me.
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In a few short years, you’ve developed a huge global fan base, toured the world and amassed millions of streams on your music. What’s been a career highlight?
We got a chance to open for Zac Brown [in 2021]. Zac and his band are just incredible people. We got to play some pretty big gigs with them, like Fenway Park, where we played for tens of thousands of people. It was a taste of what I’ve been wanting my entire life, it was an incredible feeling. You think you’d have nerves for something like that, but there was this calming reassurance that I was in the right place.
Tell me more about when you first fell in love with music. When did you realise you wanted to pursue this as a career?
I was in the fourth grade – around eight or nine – and I had a teacher who would always say if we could come back from recess and be quiet and do our bookwork, she would play Al Green’s Greatest Hits. I remember hearing Al Green’s album and just falling in love with that sound. I had never heard soul music until that point – that kind of singing and that kind of expression. When I got home to my dad, I asked everything about it, like, ‘What is soul music? Who is Al Green?’ I knew from that moment that that’s what I wanted to do with my life.
Before I let you go, I want to know how you’ve found these last few years. You’ve charted worldwide success…
There’s always a piece of you where you don’t feel like enough. You can either take that and let it block you or take that and know that you’re a student to life. If I felt like I was good enough, I would never be able to be the best in the world. I hope that I can be someone’s best, someone’s favourite ever. As long as I can always feel like I’m not good enough in the nicest way for myself, that’s all I ever want.
See Teddy Swims perform at Hindley Street Music Hall on August 24. Tickets on sale now.
