‘Every day I try to cry a little’

When Teddy Swims was nominated for the MTV Awards last September, he was nominated for four awards, including Best New Artist.

At the event, the combined forces of Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter denied the Moon Man a single trophy, but the singer walked away with something much more valuable.

“I didn’t realize it until a couple of weeks later, but my partner and I got pregnant that night,” she said.

“We will arrive in June and things are great. I think we will crush it.”

Domestic bliss is not a quality fans might associate with Teddy Swims.

Her breakthrough single Lose Control and hit album I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy were rooted in dysfunction, addiction and the heart.

They were inspired by a toxic and mutually destructive relationship that ran away. In the past, he described it as a “really co-dependent lifestyle” that “collapsed” because both sides “took advantage of each other’s shame”.

As he sings in a recent single, “I saved my life when I showed you the door.”

But that was just one chapter in the story of 32-year-old Georgia native Jaten Dimsdale.

This Friday, he released his second album, I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy Part 2, which explains what happened next.

“I’ve learned that love doesn’t have to be about highs and lows, fighting and pulling teeth to be together,” she says.

“The first record was a big whirlwind, and not too much closure. So I wanted to come back and say, ‘Here I am on the other side of this, and I’m better.’

“I feel that, as a listener, I wanted to hear that there is a way out.”

His new partner is also a singer, Raiche Wright, who he met “a couple of Thanksgivings ago” when she came to one of his shows, and the new album lives in blissful bliss.

“Are you something from a dream or something I made up?,” he asks over the slick R&B groove of Are You Real .

Later, on the acoustic guitar ballad If You Ever Change Your Mind, he crooned: “i love you i love you“with a quiet honesty rarely found on a pop record.

Musically, the album paints from the same palette as before: a brand of 1960s soul where dusty piano grooves and ragged guitar lines are punctured with modern pop sheen and a dash of rock and roll swagger.

But it’s not all hearts and flowers. Black And White’s elegant soul pleads for tolerance, inspired by the prejudice that Dimsdale and his partner – who has mixed black and heritage – have endured.

“I see people getting sick of us being different colors, especially in the South,” he says.

“But it’s okay to be in love with someone who’s a different color, or a different size or shape, or the same sex, or whatever.

“Why would you hate that? It’s so backwards.”

Dimsdale learned about acceptance the hard way. Born in Conyers, a suburb east of Atlanta, his grandfather was a Pentecostal preacher with specific worldviews, and family life was difficult to navigate.

His parents divorced when he was three and, although both remarried, the new relationship was troubled. His mother, who lived with him, married an alcoholic who left him suddenly when Dinsdale was 18 and never spoke to the family again.

His father, whom he saw on weekends, was married to a woman with serious mental health problems, including schizophrenia, and spent long periods in hospital. His father raised the Dimsdale half-brothers almost single-handedly.

“He was working 18 hours a day, and he was still doing homework and practicing, all by himself,” she says.

“There’s not enough I can say about how amazing that man really is.”

Dimsdale was a late bloomer when it came to music. As a youth, he was a dedicated football player until a friend convinced him to audition for a school production of Damn Yankees.

The musical ignited a love affair with singing. He researched vocal techniques on YouTube, soaking in performances by Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson and Aretha Franklin.

After graduation, he began playing with local metal bands, taking the stage name “Swims” on the Internet forum Someone Who Isn’t Me Sometimes. Teddy, on the other hand, is a childhood nickname based on his kind and cuddly nature.

But it was a cover of Shania Twain’s country ballad You’re Still The One that got her big break.

On YouTube, it has been viewed 197 million times. One of those viewers was a talent scout for Warner Bros records, who signed Dimsdale to a record deal on Christmas Eve 2019.

The musician was linked with professional writers such as Julian Bunetta (Sabrina Carpenter, One Direction) and Mikky Ekko (Rihanna, Drake), but he also kept his high school band Freak Feely, with whom he plays to this day.

After three EPs and hundreds of sessions, they wrote Lose Control, which Dinsdale immediately “knew was going to change my life”.

He was right. With 2.2 billion streams worldwide, it’s one of the most successful songs in recent chart history, but it took time to find an audience.

There were no viral moments or TikTok trends related to losing control. Instead, Dimsdale “did it the old fashioned way.”

“We showed up and did every damn interview we could,” he says. “We went to all the offices and radio stations and shook hands one by one. We stopped everyone in the street, on the bus.”

He believes the personal touch trumps everything, hands down.

“People love to see their friend win, so if you go out and make time for them, it goes a lot further than a playlist that pops up on your desk, or a little file that arrives in your email that says, ‘Hey, eh? can you push this song?

“And that’s the old way of working on an album, before streaming.”

He sheepishly admits that the song made him a millionaire (“so I can’t be mad at that girl anymore, can I?”), but he’s learning that making money means spending money.

“A million dollars goes so fast,” he says. “Once you put 66 people on a tour, with all the gear and lights, it just goes right out the door.

“Twenty dollars still means what $20 used to mean to me, but the amount that goes in and out is scary sometimes.”

As we speak, he’s rehearsing in Pennsylvania ahead of his first European venue tour, which includes two nights at Wembley this March.

They’ve just built the stage for the first time, and he’s eager to explore all the ramps and video walls. Music…not so much.

“I wouldn’t say that I’m sick of the songs, but we’ve been playing non-stop for two weeks,” he says. “I can’t wait for people to sing it so I can fall in love again.”

If you’ve been to a Teddy Swims show, you know he puts his heart into the game.

There are eleven videos crying like him He does things I will never knowa song about abandonment and grief. For his upcoming tour, he’s at it again with a new tearjerker, Northern Lights, which delves even deeper into heartbreak.

It will be a mess, but Dimsdale insists it’s a good thing.

“I try to cry a little every day,” he says. “Leaving the body is just pain.

“And it’s a constant reminder that no matter what you’re going through, there’s happiness on the other side.”

With his bearded and tattooed face, you might not expect such emotional intelligence, but Dimsdale’s model of masculinity wasn’t afraid to share his feelings.

“I am my father’s son,” he says. “He’s just a sensitive man. He’ll tell you he loves you, he’ll tell you he’s proud of you. Man, I’ll still be sitting there, laying in his arms on the couch watching TV.”

“He is the most beautiful and humble man I have ever met. Second only to Jesus Christ.”

So the obvious question: is dad excited to be a grandpa?

“It’s going backwards,” the singer laughs.

“Being a grandfather almost scares me because I want my kids to think I’m cool too.”