“You can never be too honest,” says Teddy Swims, wisely. Since releasing a folksy cover of Lewis Capaldi’s ‘Someone You Loved’ as his debut single in 2019, rugged soul-master Swims’ music has gotten increasingly more revealing.
A trio of EPs recounted experiences of love, loss and heartbreak while 2023 debut album ‘I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy (Part 1)’ was as beautifully blunt as you’d expect. The more specific a song, the more people have liked it. When we meet, it’s a few days after Swims, real name Jaten Dimsdale, wrapped his lengthy European tour with a euphoric gig at London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire. His best tunes are a warm mix of urgent country, folk and pop, delivered with the vocal-cord-shredding intensity of heavy metal – and his voice is still hurting from the show. “You have to give it your all,” he rasps.
After growing up on Otis Redding, James Brown, Ray Charles and other greats of Motown and R&B, a teenage Swims found himself drawn to something a little angstier. When he was 14, he went to the 2007 Warped Tour –a traveling extreme sports and skate-punk festival that became a rite of passage for noughties rock fans – and saw Paramore, Motion City Soundtrack and Coheed And Cambria. “There was pain in the music, but so much camaraderie in the crowd. It made you feel like you weren’t alone,” Swims explains, knowing he wanted to do something similar.
For years, he used his powerful voice in a number of local metal bands before putting out a YouTube cover of Michael Jackson’s ‘Rock With You’ to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the pop titan’s death. “It was meant to be a one-off thing, but it was so successful, I’d have been stupid not to do more.” Swims went on to put his unique twist on everything from Shania Twain to Billie Eilish and learned that genre didn’t have to constrain his art. “People didn’t care what type of music I was putting out, they just wanted to hear stories they could relate to.”
He took that same energy into his own music with ‘I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy (Part 1)’, a glorious blend of R&B, soul and swagger. Swims spent four years crafting it, penning close to 500 songs in the process. A bulk of the tracks that ended up on the finished record – including breakout tunes ‘Lose Control’ and ‘The Door’ – were written in the same five-day period, though.
“I was in a bad situation with someone. It was rough, we were living harder than we should have been, and I think my heart was trying to tell me I needed to get out of that,” remembers Swims. “I’m grateful I got to take something so traumatic and turn it into something positive.”
And that positivity has spread far and wide. The gorgeous ‘Lose Control’, a song about getting swept up in love and being afraid to let go, went on to top the Billboard Hot 100, introducing Swims to millions of new fans. “Writing ‘Lose Control’ was the first time I immediately knew a song was going to change my life. That track is me wearing my absolute heart on my sleeve,” he says.
Earlier this year, Swims offered an update on his healing journey with an extended edition of ‘I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy (Part 1)’, featuring four new tracks written since the album was released. He also sought solace during a chaotic Grammys week by holing up in the studio. It’s where ‘Funeral’, the stunning new song released as part of the ‘Bose x NME: C24’ mixtape, comes from.
“We’re finally at the point where we’re honing a certain sound,” he says, after a lifetime of experimentation. “It’s all about this old soul, Motown feel but modernising that in a way that feels authentic. Songs like ‘Funeral’ just feel right.” You’ll no doubt agree.
“‘Funeral’ is fun, upbeat and it’ll make people want to dance, but there’s a layer of sadness underneath that,” he continues. “I love being able to make music that has joy but is heartbreaking at the same time.” That hard fought optimism is the perfect energy for 2024.
Stay tuned to NME.com/C24 for the latest on the return of the iconic mixtape
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