Atlantic Records UK and Teddy Swims’ management company have opened up on their battle plan to take the genre-defying singer to new heights in 2025.
Music Week‘s latest cover star is one of the industry’s biggest breakthrough successes of recent times, scoring a gold-selling album in the UK with his 2023 debut LP I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy (Part 1), which has current sales of 167,459 according to the Official Charts Company.
Swims has also recorded three Top 10 hits: The Door (736,275 sales), Bad Dreams (306,773 sales) and the massive Lose Control (1,913,780 sales), amassing billions of streams in the process. But the team around the American singer-songwriter have even loftier goals in mind for his sophomore album I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy (Part 2), which is at No.1 in the Midweek chart (12,089 units – Official Charts Company).
“The UK has connected with Teddy in such a massive way,” Atlantic’s co-president Briony Turner told Music Week. “To have three Top 10 songs which have hung around for so long on a debut album is an amazing achievement. His team at Atlantic UK were really excited about this project and, alongside his management, we worked really hard to introduce him to new audiences.
“The new record continues to build on the momentum of Part 1 and makes complete sense for such a prolific artist. I think Teddy can build on last year’s success and become a huge global star. He has the talent, focus and determination and is showing potential for meaningful career longevity. I’m really looking forward to us getting stuck into the new campaign.”
Atlantic UK co-president Ed Howard stressed that the 32-year-old’s personality has been central to his rise.
“Teddy is completely authentic and authenticity is so important to fans; they can sense when something is forced or fake,” said Howard. “Teddy is an ex-metal singer who is still wearing metal band T-shirts, he is completely true to himself. His music and style have evolved into more of a pop space, but there is something very organic and real about his journey and fans and critics can see that.”
A complete edition uniting both album releases will follow Part 2 in the future. But if the artist’s first record was overshadowed by its smash singles, Swims’ manager Luke Conway suggested the follow-up is a more rounded beast.
“Part 2 is one of those projects that you listen to from top to bottom where every song has its purpose; there’s no filler,” said Conway. “I think to most people in the world, Teddy right now is probably a singles-based artist, and I think it’s going to take him to somebody who’s an album-driven artist. That’s our goal.”
Matt Morgan, creative marketing director at Trade Secrets Mgmt, elaborated on the strategy.
“Part 1 has been about dominating attention – big, bold, viral moments that introduce Teddy to the world on an unprecedented scale,” he said. “Part 2 continues that, but also shifts focus to locking in further superfandom, leveraging his personality and authenticity to build deeper connections. This is about building a superstar, and every move we make reflects that ambition.”
Moreover, Conway pointed out that Swims’ first viral moments were in New Zealand, highlighting his international appeal.
“Teddy is way bigger outside of the United States in most territories than he is in the United States,” added Conway. “He’s way bigger in the UK than he is in the US. We’ve had way more success there, and that’s in part by design. But we knew that the only people who had the boots on the ground and resources globally were the majors.
“One of the things that really attracted us to the Warner system was, in the US at least, what Aaron [Bay-Schuck, Warner Records CEO] and Tom [Corson, COO] brought to the table. We never wanted to approach it as the people who thought we knew everything. Early on, Teddy and I recognised that we had a lot to learn.”
The UK emerged as a key market for Swims in 2024.
“We went to the UK nine times last year,” said Conway. “The entire Atlantic UK team has absolutely delivered for Teddy. Out of any country in the world, we’ve invested the most there and they’ve helped us along the ride.”
Atlantic UK MD and director of promotions Damian Christian backed up that account.
“Teddy and his manager love the UK and were 100% committed to making it happen here,” he added. “His performances at all his radio shows were massive moments as the connection with the audience was incredible.
“We have a lot of exciting plans lined up, which will once again showcase his personality and the new music. We’ll be looking to replicate the success of Lose Control and The Door, which we know is a big task, but we’ve heard the new music and we believe in it.”
And despite his incredible progress so far, Conway maintained it was crucial that Swims doesn’t skip any steps on his way to the top.
“He could be an arena act in 2025, but he hasn’t played the Greek Theatres and the Radio Citys, the 6,000 to 9,000-capacity venues,” he said. “He has to go and play every single level. You don’t build a stadium act by skipping steps.”
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