Q&A with Teddy Swims
Teddy Swims
& Friends Celebrate Christoff Solomon.
These days, a casual tap on YouTube, Instagram or TikTok could be the channel to finding greatness, and much can be said about YouTube phenomenon Teddy Swims, or you might be speechless after only a few bars of his voice. The Atlanta-based powerhouse born Jaten Dimsdale has racked up a staggering 160M+ cumulative views with his own material and covers that range from Chris Stapleton's "Tennessee Whiskey" to Bonnie Raitt's "I Can't Make You Love Me," "What's Going On" by Marvin Gaye and "Sara Smile" by Hall & Oates. These four covers arguably embody Teddy's effortless tone, with the best elements of country, blues and soul. He's a one-in-a-million talent that can completely spin a classic by Stevie Wonder, Adele or George Strait and play in the big leagues covering Billie Eilish, Khalid and The Weeknd with his own flair, and he even has a fan in Shania Twain.
The singer-songwriter and occasional rapper concluded a winter tour prior to the pandemic, released a couple singles, the groovy "Picky" and most recently the swaggerific "Broke" in the midst of being a new label signee at Warner Records. Teddy Swims and his long-time bandmates suddenly lost their keyboardist and music director Christoff Solomon in late August to complications from Nephrotic syndrome. This distressing and tragic news has a bright spot with the musicians banding back together to honor their friend and bandmate for a special show, a livestream called Celebrate Christoff. 100% of the proceeds from this one-off show will benefit Christoff Solomon's wife and five children and can be viewed Saturday, September 12 at 4PM ET at CelebrateChristoff.com for a donation of $10.
Christoff and his beautiful family.
One thing is for sure, music heals and Teddy Swims' outstanding vocals and seasoned band are sure to do away with any sorrow as they "make it sexy," regular words of encouragement from their dear Christoff. Teddy so graciously spoke with IndieWavves.com leading up to the Celebrate Christoff show to talk about love, loss and some laughter in between.
IndieWavves: Teddy, sincerest condolences on the loss of your friend, family member and band member, Christoff, what a huge loss. Can you talk about the light and joy he brought to your daily life, to your music and live performances?
Teddy Swims: He was like the dad of our group. He was the keyboardist and musical director, he was everything, he did everything, guiding us, he was our mentor, he was a little bit older than us. Christoff was so much more than a pianist for sure. The best guy you'd ever meet, I promise.
IW: What must we remember about Christoff Solomon?
TS: That smile man, that laugh. That he always put the moves on everybody. He treated everyone like it was his baby. He treated everyone like that, it didn't matter how young or old you were, it didn't matter. He was always thinking of everyone. He was always making sure that we were loving on each other, checking on each other, making sure we were on the right path. We had daily meetings every day, there was never a wasted moment to make sure to check up on everybody. You just need to check on your friends and the people you love and he did that.
Christoff Solomon
IW: You are on the cusp of so much and already giving back. What's going through your mind about this upcoming livestream?
TS: Those are my babies. I remember the first time I met them, I had just lost a close friend of mine about one-and-a-half years ago. [Christoff] said to his family, you have to meet my friends, they will get you right. They are my babies, those are all my nephews and nieces and I want to make sure they hurt for nothing if I can.
IW: Do you have any words of advice or a moment that you would like to share about Christoff while in the studio, on tour, at one of your favorite spots?
TS: So many things. If I could just share how neurotic he was about setting up for practice. This man would just walk into a room and just be worried sick. So many memories if I could just take you through my whole Snapchat photo memories. This is the best friend anyone could have. I think we are all just starting to get to the place where it's all smiles and laughter and positivity and it's exactly what he would want, nothing but happiness, he would want absolutely nothing else. This man was the real deal.
IW: Beyond the livestream, have you thought about how you may honor Christoff in the future either at live shows, on a future recording?
TS: What's great is we've recorded so many songs that we're finally in the process where we are putting out original music that so many of the songs have Christoff on them, written, recorded and performed with us. As those songs come out, he's still going to be spread throughout my career. We do a little talkback when we play live, we try to find some little moments where we are recording it live where he would say "hey boys, make it sexy," "we need energy, boys". We still hear his voice. There will still be a flavor of Christoff as we are releasing songs. We have a different reason for doing it now. All he ever wanted was just to follow this dream forever and we only knew him for a couple years but his family tells me all the time it was Christoff's dream to be recording and touring and playing with his best buddies. His dream is coming true the more we do it. It didn't matter if the song was sad, he would still say "alright boys, let's make it sexy, boys, we're counting on ya'll, make it sexy." "I Can't Make You Love Me" would be on and it's not a sexy song and he still says it.
IW: Will it be entirely the Teddy Swims band Elefvnts or are you expecting any surprise guests or other artists to join in?
TS: It's completely us man. And what's really nice is Christoff's dad will be playing piano with us. We've been rehearsing all week and we start rehearsing with him today. We haven't played together since the tour in February. We have been recording all the time but not playing together as a band. Yesterday we were so bad, we are absolutely rusty but we are getting it back. It's been so good just to be back and to know that [Christoff] put us back like this to perform again and knowing it's going to be so much fun. We don't get to be like this all the time, to get to rehearse. We went to play at Topgolf, it was nice not to work for once. I think he'd be so excited to hear that.
Written by Michael Menachem