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ON THE COUCH WITH: Teddy Geiger

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ARTIST INTERVIEW

Access All Areas.net.au: Hey Teddy. How are you going?
Teddy Geiger: Just fine thanks. I'm at home in New York at the moment.

Access All Areas.net.au: Now are you excited about coming back to Australia next month?
Teddy Geiger: Definitely. It's gonna be fantastic. As I said, I'm in New York at the moment and there’s an ice storm. It's freezing here. I'm glad it's summer over there. I'm quite excited about it. Last time was really cool. It's a really cool place down there.

Access All Areas.net.au: Will you go and so some sight seeing while you're here?
Teddy Geiger: I'd like to. Last time it was impossible to do any. We actually couldn't see anything because the timetable was so jammed, but hopefully that changes this time.

Access All Areas.net.au: Last time was just a promotional tour. What one do you prefer, promotional tours or proper tours and playing shows?
Teddy Geiger: Definitely proper tours. There is something about playing a show every single night that makes everything worth it.

Access All Areas.net.au: What's currently playing on your iPod?
Teddy Geiger: Right now, there is a lot of different stuff. I'm listening to some Sufjan Stevens, some Bjork. I'm also listening to A Tribe Called Quest. That’s really the bulk of it at the moment.

Access All Areas.net.au: If there was one artist you could work with, who would it be?
Teddy Geiger: Ben Folds. Easy. He was the person who initially inspired me to do something with music and get into this business.

Access All Areas.net.au: What was the first album that you ever bought?
Teddy Geiger: I think the first one that I actually bought was Ben Folds Five with "Whatever And Ever Amen". That was the first one I ever spent my own money on. My aunty gave the first album that I actually owned though. It was that blue Beatles album; you know the one that has all the best songs on it? So when I was young, it was a mixture of Ben Folds Five, The Beatles and Weezer.

Access All Areas.net.au: Now what can we expect at your live shows next month?
Teddy Geiger: Most of it will be tracks from the "Underage Thinking" album, but there will also be 1 or 2 new songs and some covers. It’s just gonna be a lot of fun for everyone involved. Hopefully everyone gets into it.

Access All Areas.net.au: Next time you tour Australia; will you do a full scale national tour?
Teddy Geiger: I'd like to. Hopefully that's a possibility next time. I loved Australia the first time around, so hopefully everything we do some more touring down here after this coming tour.

Access All Areas.net.au: If Teddy Geiger was deserted on a desert island and could only take 5 records with him, what would they be?
Teddy Geiger: Oh gosh. All right, the first one would be "OK Computer" by Radiohead. The second would be any album by Bjork. Oh, I have to have “Abbey Road" in there. That's a classic. The fourth would be A Tribe Called Quest and their "Midnight Marauders" album. The last would be Ben Folds Five with "Whatever And Ever Amen".

Access All Areas.net.au: Finally, what do the next few months hold for you?
Teddy Geiger: Around March or April, when all the touring is done, I'm going to head back into the studio and work on a follow up. That's it for the moment.

Access All Areas.net.au: Thanks for your time today Teddy.
Teddy Geiger: Thanks heaps. You too.

Interview by Simon Finck

January 7 2005:

Access All Areas.net.au: You've already acomplished so much musically at seventeen, tell us whats your secret?
Teddy Geiger: Umm you know I don't really know, I've just been doing it and I've been playing for a long time now. I do a lot of writing, I write all the time, I never stop. And I was lucky enough to have been given the chance to go on the Partridge Family and from that I met a producer and hooked up with him and then from that was signed to Columbia but there were a lot of certain things on the way and a lot of luck!

Access All Areas.net.au: You're already becoming one of America's next biggest stars, and in Australia word is starting to spread about Teddy Geiger... can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Teddy Geiger: I pretty much only play music. I get the question a lot of "what are your hobbies" and its all music really… I have picked up skate board recently to be more three dimensional but that kind of all fell apart... I used to snow board but I havn't pulled the board out in a while.

Access All Areas.net.au: How would you best describe your style of music?
Teddy Geiger: I don't know... I guess piano, acoustic guitar based songs.

Access All Areas.net.au: You've been experimenting with music since the age of eight, where did your drive for music come from?
Teddy Geiger: I don't know... my Grandfather gave me a guitar and I just learnt how to play the piano, Ive always been drawn towards music.

Access All Areas.net.au: You're first single is For You I Will (Confidence), can you tell us about that song?
Teddy Geiger: Yeah... it's actually a song I wrote bout girt that I really liked and I didn't think I'd be able to get which in the end I couldn't [laughs]. A friend of mine went and talked to her and he came back to me and is like yeah the vibe is good so I went for it and she said no... so he set me up a little bit!

Access All Areas.net.au: So tell us Teddy, how have you found to be the best way to get the confidence for a boy to tell a girl how they feel?
Teddy Geiger: I don't know if there is any way really except to pull it together and go for it. The more you do it the more confidence you'll get.

Access All Areas.net.au: Your debut album is 'Underage Thinking', going by the title of the album, would it be safe to say that the tracks featured are from teenage experiences and tracks that most teenagers will relate to?
Teddy Geiger: I mean I suppose so... I'm seventeen and so most of the situations on the album have been teenage experiences and I think they'll relate to others.

Access All Areas.net.au: Now you're quite a musician, You can sing! You can drum! You can play piano and bass, is there anything you can't do?
Teddy Geiger: I can't really play obo too well. Though I am working on it!

Access All Areas.net.au: Are there any instruments you want to learn?
Teddy Geiger: Clarinet! Look, all these wood winds are coming out! [laughs]

Access All Areas.net.au: So whats it like to know that most teenage girls in America and, no doubt soon in Australia, have your name plastered all over their school books!?
Teddy Geiger: I don't know... it's very weird, I mean I can never think about writing my own name on books, well except to say that the book was mine but yeah it's very weird but very cool!!

Access All Areas.net.au: Now Im told that you're a single guy…
That I am yes!

Access All Areas.net.au: That in itself is going to set girls' hearts racing here in Oz, so to prepare the gals for you're Australian promo tour next month what do you look for in a girl?
Teddy Geiger: A girl that is willing to be herself and not about what she should be!

Access All Areas.net.au: In the US, you've already toured with the likes of Hilary Duff, Simple Plan, Fall Out Boy, Jesse McCartney and Kelly Clarkson... tell us who did you have the most fun touring with?
Teddy Geiger: Umm actually Brandi Carlisle, she was very cool and such a great person!

Access All Areas.net.au: Speaking of touring, can we expect to see you in Australia any time soon for some shows?
Teddy Geiger: I know I am coming in June, I don't know if I am doing any shows then.

Access All Areas.net.au: Is there something about yourself you can tell us that not many people would know?
Teddy Geiger: I used to be a HUGE Dean Martin fan!

Access All Areas.net.au: So whats next for Teddy?
Teddy Geiger: A lot of touring up to the fall and just keep going... lots of touring then hopefully have a break and then more touring!

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Over the past year, there's been a grassroots buzz building in the Rochester, New York area surrounding rising singer songwriter Teddy Geiger, a rapidly developing artist still in his teens.

Teddy's soft spoken charm, melodic gifts, way with words, and natural style have connected him to a steadily growing fanbase, which originated in local venues in his upstate New York and has since spread as far and wide as Florida and Hawaii. His independent regional EP release, "Stepladder" (on Cred Records) ranked at #1 in Rochester and made the Top 10 in Billboard's regional "Heatseekers" chart.

At 17, Teddy is already writing sophisticated songs weathered with insights beyond his years. A fan of many musical genres, Teddy combines cutting edge new school pop with a love and an understanding of the soul of rock's glory days. His warm intimate vocals, candid and conversational, create a sound and sensibility uniquely his own. Teddy wrote, or co wrote 11 of the 12 songs on his debut album, Underage Thinking. He plays guitar, piano, bass and drums on his new album.

Teddy is a self taught musician who, by the age of 8, was writing and arranging finished multi part compositions on guitar and piano. By the time he got to high school, Teddy, too young to perform in local bars, was building an alternative following at the area's teen venues, performing the songs that seem to flow from his pen as instinctively as his fans, who'd begun calling themselves "Tedheads", began pouring into all-ages gigs all over the upstate New York region to watch him perform. Teddy's fanbase demographic runs a wide gamut, from wide eyed teenage girls to serious music fans hungry for something real.

Teddy wound up as a finalist on VH1's "In Search of the New Partridge Family," where he caught the ear of producer Billy Mann (Sting, Pink, Kelly Rowland, Jessica Simpson), who quickly became a champion of Teddy and his music, going on to collaborate with Teddy on several songs and act as producer for Underage Thinking, Teddy's debut album. "Teddy is a waterfall of talent," said Billy. "At 17, he is an amazing and prolific songwriter with a signature-sound, an incredible voice and a point of view that's informed and mature. I can't wait to see how his career unfolds."

Teddy's social conscience happily dovetails with his music. In a Battle of the Bands concert held in Rochester, New York, Teddy emerged as the $1000 grand prize winner and donated his winnings to Tsunami relief. This fall, he headlined a Gulf Coast Hurricane Relief concert, also held in Rochester, with all ticket proceeds going to the Red Cross. Blankets, canned food and other aid items were donated by fans and collected at the venue.

Teddy is about to emerge in the forefront of today's musical scene and has been selected as an AOL "Breaker" artist and as an artist for the new ClearChannel online emerging artist initiative. The opening act on the summer's #1 pop tour with Hilary Duff, Teddy has also shared bills with Pete Yorn, Brandi Carlisle, Simple Plan, Fall Out Boy, Frankie J, Gavin DeGraw, Jesse McCartney, Kelly Clarkson, and The Click 5, Aslyn, and Tyler Hilton.
Teddy recently finished shooting a video for "For You I Will (Confidence)," the first single from Underage Thinking, with actress Kristin Cavallari.

Teddy Geiger's grassroots buzz is becoming a roar.

www.teddygeigermusic.com

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