Teddy Geiger
June 23, 2023
By Dan Locke
Grammy-nominated songwriter Teddy Geiger — under the moniker teddydy<3 (pronounced “teddy”) — is kicking off a new era with a brand new single entitled “True Love” out now via STEM. This track is the first single from her forthcoming record, Teresa, due later this year
What is your upbringing?
Oh my word… a roman catholic half Spanish/italian mother from buffalo ny, obsessed with the virgin Mary, but she will swear etc. less religious, more of a mystic spiritualist., paired with a super weird smart, atheist, electric engineer father who worships Tony Robbins.
How did you discover music?
My grandfather sal (Da) first introduced me to the piano when I was still very young, and I loved it immediately. i remember listening to lots of my moms greatest hits cd’s. She had the pretty woman sound track in the car for a while when I was young. And i remember my dad just had super tramp breakfast in America, and jewel pieces of you in the car maybe my entire life haha. I listened to a lot of the 90’s alt rock radio station when I was growing up too. That’s really where I formed a lot of my personal taste initially.
Describe your music.
Always changing, I really enjoy playing with sounds and I kind of let the sounds and the music guide me. The lyrics also kind of come that way, usually I let the sound guide me and eventually words will intuitively come up.
Do you remember how you got your first guitar? And do you still have it?
Oh dear.. My grandfather gave me one that was in his basement, and I used it to hit a baseball on the last day of summer camp 3 years later and that was that.
What is your favorite guitar now. Year and Make and does it have a name?
I don’t have a favorite guitar. I do have a favorite frog and his name is chi cho and he lives in New York. i digress,,, I really enjoy playing nylon string guitars lately. i bought a cheap small nylon string in Spain that’s all over Teresa.
What was your first performance like?
My first performance was at the school talent show in 2004 I think. I played “nothing” that was the name of the song lol. It was like a half written idea I did the day before that kind of meandered in to ‘say my name’ by destiny’s child.
What was the title of your first original song? Did you record it?
My very first ‘song’ I wrote was called little Tommy black bird. Verrrrry simple melody, I was like 4 or 5 lol. the first song I wrote that was actually recorded and released was called “try too hard”. It was about… u guessed it… trying too hard.
Your first hit was “For You I Will” How did your life change after that song came a hit?
That was almost 20 years ago now wow, just thinking about that time feels like a different incarnation. I just remember being very busy. Oh and people treating me really differently. Wow yeah, I was a very shy nerdy solitary strange child and I never had more than one or two nice creative friends who could get weird. after the song became a hit people were literally putting my photo up in their bedrooms haha. It’s all very strange.
You have written songs from everyone from Pink, Leon Bridges, Empire of the Sun, Sylvan Essos, Sir Chloe, Shawn Mendes, On Direction, Lizzo, and Caroline Polachek. How is it to write music for other artist?
It’s been really wonderful to have had so many opportunities to make music, and to have been welcomed in to people creative space. It’s really delicate.
How was it working with Shawn Mendes?
He’s so talented and has so much energy, working with him feels like riding an enormous wave.. that was a really special time for me.
How was it to hear that you were nominated for song of the year for your song “In My Blood”?
It was nice 🙂 I have a hard time processing and/or acknowledging things that r so abstract, but it felt good to be a part of something that connected with so many people. Honestly that year got to be ALOT for me which kind of precipitated me GTFO to Spain for 3 months. I was being asked to show up a lot in a lot of different ways and was maybe a year or so in to a gender transition. oh hi, Im trans girl btw. Any who this leads us to the fresh baby trans girl in Spain experience that is so very dear to my heart…
Tell me about your new single “True Love”?
True Love is about the desire to be truly loved for what you truly are, and having to leave a situation where that is absolutely not happening. shes a very simple girl.
How was it working with Sabrina Nichols to do the animation on the video?
It was wonderful. Her work is so cool. We only met like two weeks before the single was coming out but she made it happen!
I think we r going to do another one 🙂
Do you have a date for the release of your album “Teresa”?
we r going to do the limited vinyl with a lil book I made b4 we go to streaming, I think that will be beginning of September.
Why that title?
Teresa came During my lil Spanish rebirth of sorts. there was a lil party vibe happening in the street like late and a girl kept calling me teresa and I just really liked it. i kind of used the act of writing the name on the glass in the shower in the morning as a reminder to listen to my self.
Paul McCarty just announced that he has been working with AI. In a new interview with Radio 4 in the U.K., Sir Paul says, “We just finished it up and it’ll be released this year,” adding that he and the production team utilized new technology to “extricate” John Lennon‘s vocal tracks from an old, discarded demo recording and used it to complete a song that had otherwise been discarded for decades.
Its amazing what ai can do. i’ve done that sort of thing with voice notes to separate the vocals from the guitar or songs I’ve lost the session for to split out stems. It’s really cool.
How do you think AI will effect the music business in the years to come.
I think there is a lot to explore there. It’s certainly changing the way we r exposed to music. It’s kind of hurting my head to think about
The symbol # is known as the number sign, hash, pound sign and a sharp sign in music. The symbol has historically been used for a wide range of purposes Since 2007, widespread usage of the symbol to introduce metadata tags on social media platforms has led to such tags being known as “hashtags”, and from that, the symbol itself is sometimes called a hashtag.
Are people forgetting that the # is a part of music?
Hahaha ur sharp. Don’t ask me, Im an illiterate musician. If you wrote out a very simple quarter note melody I would probably do okay, but I’ve always played by ear.
In (2022) vinyl is outselling digital media. Metallica is selling so much vinyl that they bought their own pressing plant- They pressed 900,000 plus pieces of vinyl I 2022 alone. The plant they purchase is the Furnace Record Pressing in Alexandria, VA. So is it Digital vs. vinyl?
I did not know that! I love vinyl, because it’s like basically an instrument being played. my elementary school music teacher told us that if u play vinyl for sick people it heals them in the same was live music will and that cds and tapes aren’t as healing. It seems maybe kinda sketchy, but I’ve just always choose to believe him.
What song from the past is in your mind right now? Moreover, what is the meaning that song means to you?
Gayatri mantra is going in the back of my head rn. using a mantra like that can serve as a really nice way of quieting the thinking planning mind and turning inward.
In the past if a musician stopped doing music, they found a new career. For example David Lee Roth from Van Halen became a licensed EMT in NY for 6 years, San Spitz (guitarist for Anthrax) became a master watchmaker, Dee Snider (Twister Sister) voice over work for SpongeBob SquarePants.. If you can’t do music what would you like to be doing?
David lee Roth was an EMT!? That’s beautiful. I might like to be sort of a nun, idk I will play with the idea. Im wouldn’t be surprised if this time next year im doing devotional music 😉
What is your happy place?
I love me some quiet time, ah but I also love noisy time
Over half a billion active users around the world share their favorite music on TikTok either with something like a dance challenge and lip-sync videos or creating a funny skit or candid camera moment.
TikTok has become a great platform for music promotion, sharing songs, and finding new listeners. In which it has become a place for music artists to earn revenue when people use their music. In many cases the daily promotion on TikTok has led to huge boosts on other platforms like Spotify, Facebook and YouTube.
TikTok does this with the algorithm that generates a feed of content for each user, which you see as the displaying of #. The more a user engages with content, the smarter TikTok gets at guessing what kind of videos the viewer wants to watch.
Because a song can go viral because of this.
Sony Music and Warner Music Group- , The ByteDance-owned video app revealed that it has struck an “expanded” global licensing agreement with Universal Music Group. Now that TikTok is now fully licensed by all three major record companies, will you start using TikTok more?
Breaking news: TikTok is launching TikTok Radio, a full-time SiriusXM music channel went live last summer. The station a streaming channel on the SiriusXM App, desktop, and all connected devices.
Some of the on TikTok include Cassyette, YukoEXE, Ashinikko, Palaye Royale, Josh Dun (Twenty One Pilots), Yungblud, Morrissey, Ozzy Osbourne, Joan Jett, Gene Simmons, and Mick Jagger.
The station will be part of a new TikTok collaboration with SiriusXM and its subsidiary,Pandora, to jointly promote emerging talent. Do you think this platform could become a force in the future of streaming music?
Im still not on tik Tok 🙂
