‘Every day I try to cry a little’

When Teddy Swims attended the MTV Awards last September, he was nominated for four awards, including best new artist.

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

“I didn’t realize until a couple of weeks later, but my partner and I conceived that night,” she smiles.

“We’re scheduled for June and things are great. I think we’re going to crush it.”

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

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

They were inspired by a toxic and mutually destructive relationship she had escaped. In the past, he described it as a “really codependent lifestyle” that went from “bender to bender” as both parties “played on each other’s shame against each other.”

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 releases a 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 an up-and-down thing: fighting and pulling teeth just to stay together,” she says.

“The first album was very hectic and not too closed. So I wanted to go back and say, ‘Here I am on the other side of this and I’m doing better.’

“I feel like, as a listener, I’d like to hear that there’s a way out.”

His new partner is also singer-songwriter Raiche Wright, whom he met “a couple Thanksgivings ago” when she went to one of his shows, and the new album inhabits a kind of bewildered happiness.

“Are you something from a dream or something I made up?” he wonders over Are You Real’s sleek R&B beat.

Later, on the acoustic guitar ballad If You Ever Change Your Mind, he sings: “I love you, I love you,” with a quiet sincerity rarely found on a pop record.

Musically, the album paints with the same palette as before: a brand of ’60s soul where dusty piano rhythms and ringing guitar lines are enhanced with a modern pop sheen and a dash of rock and roll swagger.

But it’s not all hearts and flowers. The sumptuous soul of Black And White calls for tolerance, inspired by the prejudice that Dimsdale and his partner, who has a mix of black and white heritage, have faced.

“I see people who seem upset because we are different colors, especially in the south,” he says.

“But it’s okay to be happy in love with someone of 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 a fixed worldview and family life was difficult to manage.

His parents divorced when he was three years old, and although they both remarried, their new relationships were troubled. His mother, with whom he lived, married an alcoholic who left suddenly when Dinsdale was 18 and never spoke to the family again.

His father, whom he saw on weekends, married a woman who developed serious mental health problems, including schizophrenia, and spent long periods in hospital. His father ended up raising Dimsdale’s half-siblings almost single-handedly.

“I worked 18 hours a day and still did my homework and showed up to practice, alone,” he says.

“I just can’t say enough about how wonderful that man really is.”

Dimsdale was slow to blossom when it came to music. As a young man, he was a dedicated football player, until a friend convinced him to audition for a school production of Damn Yankees.

The musical unleashed a love story with singing. She researched vocal techniques on YouTube and immersed herself in performances by Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson and Aretha Franklin.

After graduating, he began playing with local metal bands, adopting the stage name “Swims” from Internet forum parlance for someone who sometimes isn’t me. Meanwhile, Teddy is a childhood nickname, based on his gentle and cuddly personality.

But it was a cover of Shania Twain’s country ballad, You’re Still The One, that earned her 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 associated with professional writers such as Julian Bunetta (Sabrina Carpenter, One Direction) and Mikky Ekko (Rihanna, Drake), but he also retained his high school band, Freak Feely, which plays with him to this day.

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

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

There were no viral moments or TikTok trends associated with Lose Control. Instead, Dimsdale “did it the old fashioned way.”

“We showed up and did every damn interview possible,” he says. “We went to every office and radio station and shook everyone’s hand individually. We stopped everyone on the street, busking.”

He believes that the personal touch trumps all, hands down.

“People love to see their friends win, so if you go out and spend time with them, it goes far beyond a playlist that arrives on your desktop or a little file that arrives in your email that says: ‘Hey, can you?’ Boost this song?

“And that’s the old way of working on a record, before you broadcast it.”

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

“A million dollars goes very quickly,” he says. “Once you put 66 people on a tour, with all the equipment and all the lights, it’s out the door as fast as you get it.

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

As we speak, he is rehearsing in Pennsylvania, ahead of his first European stadium tour, which includes two nights at Wembley in March.

The stage has just been built for the first time and he is eager to get familiar with all the ramps and video walls. The music… not so much.

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

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

There is countless videos of him sobbing while do some things I’ll never knowa song about abandonment and grief. For the next tour, he will play it followed by a new tearjerker, Northern Lights, which delves even deeper into heartbreak.

It’s going to be a disaster, but Dimsdale insists it’s a good thing.

“Every day I try to cry a little,” he says. “It’s just pain that leaves the body.

“And it’s a constant reminder that whatever you’re going through, there is happiness on the other side.”

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

“I’m my dad’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 sit there, leaning into his arms while we watch TV on the couch.”

“He is the most beautiful and humble human being I have ever met. Only surpassed by Jesus Christ.”

So, the obvious question: Is Dad excited to become a grandfather?

“He’s doing backflips,” the singer laughs.

“I’m almost afraid to have him as a grandfather, because I want my kids to think I’m cool too.”