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'Lose Control' was only the beginning for Teddy Swims

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Last year, a huge, new voice was everywhere when "Lose Control" topped the charts, both in the U.S. and overseas.

Teddy Swims' breakthrough hit, from his debut album, I've Tried Everything But Therapy (Part 1), amassed over a billion streams on Spotify. While it may seem like Swims came out of nowhere, his road to success has been a long time coming.

In this session, Swims joins us to talk about the road so far — one that involved Al Green, musical theatre and a lot of help from his friends. He also talks about what it's like to have a song explode like "Lose Control" did, how he takes care of his mental health, and about the direction he's taking on his brand new album, I've Tried Everything But Therapy (Part 2).

Set List

  • "Bad Dreams"
  • "Are You Even Real"
  • "Lose Control"
  • "Northern Lights"
  • "Guilty"

This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Miguel Perez. Our senior producer is Kimberly Junod and our engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.

Raina Douris, an award-winning radio personality from Toronto, Ontario, comes to World Cafe from the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), where she was host and writer for the daily live, national morning program Mornings on CBC Music. She is also involved with Canada's highest music honors: Since 2017, she has hosted the Polaris Music Prize Gala, for which she is also a jury member, and she has also been a jury member for the Juno Awards. Douris has also served as guest host and interviewer for various CBC Music and CBC Radio programs, and red carpet host and interviewer for the Juno Awards and Canadian Country Music Association Awards, as well as a panelist for such renowned CBC programs as Metro Morning, q and CBC News.
Miguel Perez is an assistant producer at KERA. He produces local content for Morning Edition and KERA News. He also produces The Friday Conversation, a weekly interview series with North Texas newsmakers.