For Teddy Swims, everything changed in 2023.
Born Jaten Dimsdale, the genre-bending artist had enjoyed a few brushes with success since he began uploading covers to YouTube four years earlier. He’d signed with Warner Music, embarked on a headline tour and released his debut EP, Unlearning. But nothing could have prepared him for what would come after the release of his first feature-length project, I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy (Part 1).
On the record, Teddy wrestled with inner turmoil and a failing relationship, laying his soul bare across ten introspective tracks, armed with a candour that would nab him a Grammy nomination and win the hearts of fans (new and old) around the world. Now, on his follow-up project I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy (Part 2), he’s assuring fans—and living proof—that there’s hope on the other side of heartache.
“I was in such a bad place mentally, and I guess spiritually too, and had a bad relationship and all this stuff happening,” the artist tells Cosmopolitan Australia, of making the first album. “I was hoping that Part Two would give some sort of closure and look on the good side of life—with me being on the other side of it.”
Ahead of the album’s release, Cosmopolitan Australia caught up with Teddy to chat about his personal and artistic evolution, as well as his hopes for fatherhood and how, finally, he “couldn’t be more happy with this beautiful life.”
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cosmo in convo with... teddy swims
How has life changed for you since the release of Part One? Has it changed in ways you envisioned or is there nothing just you could have comprehended about where you are now?
I think it’s a lot of both. [During the making of] the first one, I was in such a bad place mentally, and I guess spiritually too, and had a bad relationship and all this stuff happening. I was hoping that Part Two would give some sort of closure and look on the good side of life—with me being on the other side of it.
Did I know I was going to be in love and having a baby? You know, I’d hoped! But I’m really grateful for it and, of course, what we’re doing now: getting ready to play arenas and being Grammy nominated.
I couldn’t be more happy with this beautiful life.
I’m so happy to hear that you are happy, and I know that your fans would all feel the same. When you released part one, you obviously named it Part One and we gathered that there would be more chapters to this story. Did you know from the outset that it would be a two-parter, that you would have all this material ready to be written? Or was there a lot you’d written in the beginning that didn’t quite fit into Part One, that you knew would make up Part Two?
I think there was only one song that we had, ‘Northern Lights,’ we rewrote the verses to, but everything else was written later.
I thought, ‘Yeah, maybe we would use some of this stuff and make a part two of it,’ but after Part One, I felt like there needed to be some sort of resolve and I was just at a different place spiritually and mentally.
And again, I was in love, so it was just like, let’s write about how good things are now that I’m so supported and loved. I’m supported by people who love me and fans who love me and so I guess I wanted to write from that perspective instead of just keep writing the heartbreak.
Has the way that you approach songwriting shifted at all now that you’re in this different place mentally and spiritually?
Yeah, also in the fact that now, we don’t quite shy away from things. I think when we were first kind of laying the base, sometimes we would write songs and maybe the song would feel too this or feel too that. And now if it feels too country or too RNB or too rock and roll, it’s okay. If it’s good, it’s good. Let’s just slam it together and people can expect different sounds now. I feel like before we were kind of in the way of creativity (just a bit) by just trying to make a through line—although I think it made sense at the time to try to make a cohesive sound. Now I think it is cohesive because I’m a lot more authentically me and more open and vulnerable now, because I know there’s a safe place for me to land.
I find sometimes when you speak to musicians, they do feel this innate sense of pressure trying to follow up the success of a first album, but it sounds like you just found, or tapped into, this confidence—you just felt like you were being true to yourself. And there’s safety in that, as you said.
Yeah, I think it’s a safety for me. I do understand the fear of follow up, but I think I’m just so lucky and safe and I know that the core of the people that care are the ones that I’m worried about.
And there’s always going to be new people walking in the door that care, hopefully, but I know I’ve got such an amount of people that care and love and are just looking forward to hearing me sing and talk, so I’m here to serve those people. I’m here to serve those people that are like, we love Teddy Swims. I love you too, girl. You know what I mean?
Back to your baby news—Congratulations! This is so exciting. This must just be such an incredible time in your life. How does it change your perspective on family and how are you preparing for this new chapter?
It’s been such a wonderful thing watching [girlfriend Raiche Wright] and her body changing and growing, and just the way that we’re thinking about everything is such a different thing now. It’s so beautiful.
I think in the past in my life, there’d always been this need and desire to work, work, work, work, work, work, and I feel like sometimes if I’m not doing anything, even when I’m sitting on the couch watching Netflix, I’m like, I should be getting it. I should be going and getting it.
Now, this has already made me more present because even the time I’m spending laying with her, or when I do have the child, sitting around with a child and just watching a movie, is the best way and best use of my time. Who cares about who’s out there getting it—I’m getting everything I need right here.
I think it’s making me a whole lot more present and value my downtime a whole lot more than just being so go, go, go, go, go all the time. I think it’s really calming me down.
"It's a long battle and it still is always learning and unlearning, but I hope that they feel this sense of like, ‘yes, man, it gets better. I hope [the album] feels like that""
Now you’re stepping into fatherhood, do you find yourself thinking more about the concept of legacy? Like the legacy you want to create for both your child, but maybe also as an artist?
Legacy is such a strong thing. Definitely. My dad is the best daddy in the whole wide world and still is. And I just hope my son or my daughter or whatever it is, they think I’m cooler than my dad. That’s what I want. I just want to be cooler than my dad, or at least be cool to them. But most importantly, I want to do just like my dad did and give them the permission to follow and do whatever their dreams are and inspire them.
I think my legacy is—I think to some extent I ask myself this all the time because legacy is such a hard concept. It is about being remembered because if you’re about being remembered, I think oblivion is ultimately inevitable. Even the Beatles are going to be forgotten. So I think I’m really just trying to leave behind I guess something better than when I got here and I hope my kid thinks I’m cool.
I feel like you are not at any risk of not being perceived as cool. I think your kid’s going to think you’re really, really cool. Their dad’s Teddy Swims—there’s no other option! This is kind of a big broad question…I’m curious to know, you spoke about that you’re in love and you seem so genuinely happy. What does love feel like?
Oh man, it changes every day. There’s ups and downs to it and there’s grey areas, but I’m truly so happy to have a partner like Raiche. She’s really wonderful.
I think love is changing every day for us—and having a kid, I don’t know what that’s going to look like either, and I’m so excited. I think we’re going to knock it out of the park though.
It feels good is the answer. It feels good. It feels really good. And I think at the core it’s such a fantastic thing.
Back to the album really quickly. Obviously you’re such a collaborative artist, you’ve worked with some amazing creatives. Do you kind of walk around with this black book wishlist of creatives that you’d love to work with and you kind of pick them off one by one? Or did the opportunities come to you? How do you manage to find these people that you end up working with?
I think a little bit of it is both. Of course, there are always people I’m dying to work with one day—and all of these that are on this album, I was dying to work with—but they kind of all came quite strange.
It was, weirdly, my lawyer, Josh Cayman, who had I guess A&R’d the Givon thing, because we had met briefly right after the VMAs, and then my lawyer had heard the album was like, ‘man, I’m going to send this to him’ because he also represents him. Givon hit me up and was like, ‘bro, I cannot stop listening to this song dog.’ And I was like, ‘well, here’s the second verse. I’ll take it off. Do whatever you want to do, man. Write me something. Second verse.’ And so he sent it back and I was like, God. I called him crying like, ‘bro, you are so cool, bro.’
He’s been one of the greatest friends, too. We’ve been talking about it together and mentioning it, so I’m going to just throw this out there in the ether, I want to hold him to it: He was like, ‘maybe we should just do a little EP together or something, bro.’ And I was like, ‘yeah, let’s do seven or eight songs, dude.’ So if you ever talk to him, tell him that he’s got to do it now.
What do you hope your fans and newcomers to your music take away from this album? What do you hope they feel when they listen to it?
There’s so much about me learning how to even accept love and unlearning a bunch of things and what I viewed love as. So I hope that someone can hear this, and see me on the other side of the heartbreak and turmoil, and see that it does get better and there’s a way out. And when you make the right decision, you just get out, there’s just so much love and support waiting for you on the other side.
It’s a long battle and it still is always learning and unlearning, but I hope that they feel this sense of like, ‘yes, man, it gets better.’ I hope it feels like that.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
‘I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy (Part 2)’ by Teddy Swims is out now.
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