Meet The Fearless Emerging Artist… Teddi Gold

Backed by an avant-garde style and fiery sound, emerging talent Teddi Gold is an artist that needs to be on your radar. The songstress was first introduced to the industry through her family’s long line of entertainers. Growing up, she grew close to her great-grandmother Betty Burgess who appeared in numerous Paramount pictures as a contract actor. Prior to Burgess’ passing, she imparted invaluable advice upon her great-granddaughter.

Alongside her cherished moments with her great-grandmother, Gold also gravitated to the arts and excelled in singing and playing the piano. Over the years, she honed her craft and after a serendipitous series of events found her place in the industry. In 2019, Gold gave music listeners a taste of her new-age pop with her debut EP Vol. 1. Now in 2021, she is continuing her take over with her follow up project Vol. 2. Described as a collection of songs “that help shake out all the bad vibes”, the project is filled with uplifting messages, growth, and positivity. We were able to chat with Teddi Gold about everything from her new EP, her start in music, forthcoming live stream and more. Read the full interview below.

Thanks for sitting with us Teddi! How’s everything going? 

Thank you for having me! I am really happy to be chatting with you. I am doing well. Just eager and anxious to release my EP today. 

The past year has been a turbulent one for most. How have you navigated your way through all of the challenges of 2020/21 so far? 

It sure has been a wild time. I went through a lot of changes. Most notably, I went through a breakup, I moved, I signed an indie label deal, and had some cool sync placements. I would say the highs were high and the lows were low. There was no middle ground this past year. I would say the things that have helped me the most have been meditation, therapy, long walks in nature, micro-dosing on mushrooms (am I allowed to say that?), working on music, and trying to stay present in the moment each day. If I think too much about the future or the past that’s when I throw myself into a spiral and that is no fun for anyone. It’s been good practice of just taking it day by day. 

We definitely have to discuss your brand new EP Vol. 2. Absolutely fantastic! Can you take us through the creative process for the record? When did you start working on it? 

Thank you! I am really excited to have it out in the world. It was a very collaborative process. I finished recording the EP in Spring 2020, right when the pandemic started. In fact, my last day in the studio was also the same day that Los Angeles shut down. I remember we finished the last song on the EP and then we were like “shit, should we go to the grocery store and buy food and supplies?” It was that surreal moment of “is this really happening?” I released a few singles in 2020, but I realized pretty fast that it wasn’t the right time to put out the EP. It didn’t feel right to promote this project given everything that was happening. There were important conversations going on, they are still going on. So instead of releasing my EP in Summer of 2020,  I instead released a single, “BOOM BOOM,” for Pride month of 2020. The song is a percussive anthem for equality and the streaming proceeds go to the ACLU. I felt that I wanted to be a part of the conversation and wanted to contribute my voice. As the daughter of a gay man, it was important for me personally to be having the conversations about equality. That was my way of helping in the way that I knew how. Now here we are a year later.  I think it all worked out how it was supposed to. 

What type of theme or message did you want to portray with this project?  

I talk a lot about how your inner world affects your outer world. The main theme is self-love and self-awareness. I just want to be people’s biggest advocate for themselves. 

Vol. 2 follows up your 2019 project aptly named Vol.1. How does each project represent your growth as an artist?

I think with each project and with each song I learn more about myself. I am able to get closer to myself and what I want to say. Vol. 1 was an exploration of broader themes and of sonic sounds. I was figuring out my sound and my voice.  Vol. 2 is narrowed in on those topics and there is also more of a sonic identity and cohesiveness that was built off the first EP. I was also less hard on myself while creating Vol. 2 and didn’t take myself so seriously. So there was this freedom I had in creating it and in trying new things.

Taking it back a bit, how did you first get involved with music?

I took piano lessons as a kid, but I stopped after a couple of years. It was a classic situation where I didn’t like my teacher and I didn’t like practising. I didn’t get back into music until much later.  In fact, before I got into music, I was an actress. I had an acting teacher who told me I should take voice lessons so I started taking singing lessons with a family friend who also happened to teach songwriting classes. I love the vocal lessons, but I became more interested in her songwriting classes. I then started writing music in my bedroom. One day, I was cast to sing a Dusty Springfield song on the show Aquarius. The guy who was playing the drummer was a guy named Scott Seiver. He’s an incredible drummer, producer, overall lovely human. We were sitting in the green room waiting for our scene and we started talking music. I played him some of my voice memo songs and he told me that I should record them. I never even thought it. He invited me to his studio and we ended up recording an EP together. That’s when I fell in love with the process of writing and recording. I just got obsessed with the process and each experience led to something else. That’s the magic of life. You never know where one thing might lead you. 

What sort of music did you surround yourself with growing up? 

I moved around a lot as a kid. My parents divorced when I was 6. They both had very different tastes in music. That’s not what split them up (hah), but based on their musical tastes, I would say they weren’t totally compatible. My dad liked Cher, Abba, Mariah Carey. My mom liked Dido, The Beatles, The Cranberries. Up until the age of 9, I was living in Seattle in the 90s. That was an awesome time for music. I then moved to an Island called St. John. Completely different music scene. I would dance every year at Carnival. A lot of the music I heard was very percussive. It made you want to dance. It felt like a street party. When I was 12, I moved to LA. I went to high school in West Hollywood. The music scene in LA is also very different from St. John. We were listening to a lot of pop music. I then lived in Paris and was introduced to traditional and contemporary French music. I fell in love with dance music in Paris. And I also lived in Austin, I was introduced to country music, which I also love. I am very inspired by the places I’ve lived. I like to think you can hear elements of that in my music. 

Would you say your artistry is still influenced by your childhood idols and experiences? 

Well I am definitely influenced by the places I grew up in and the music that I heard coming out of those places. In terms of childhood idols, I was obsessed with Britney Spears. I am still obsessed. The first concert I ever went to was a Britney Spears concert. I don’t really create music that’s similar to her, but she did have a big impact on me. I would say I am most influenced musically by Gwen Stefani and Sia. I love their style of writing and their use of visual elements.

For any new fans that haven’t heard the empowering magic that you create yet, how would you describe Teddi Gold in 5 words? 

Colorful, uplifting, sometimes sassy, fun, loving.

Will we be getting any more visuals together for the record? 

I am planning a live stream of the EP. I don’t have an exact date yet, but it’s looking like November. I will keep you posted!

Looking ahead, what does the rest of 2021 have in store for you? Will we see any live shows? More music? An album? Tell us everything… 

I have a remix of Pineapple Piñata coming out on Oct. 28th. You will be hearing a lot from me in 2022, so don’t get sick of me yet 😉 

Make sure to check out Teddi Gold’s brand new EP Vol. 2 below or here.