Just a few years before his lovesick anthem “Lose Control” shot to Number One all across the planet, Teddy Swims was an unknown singer in Atlanta, posting covers of Amy Winehouse and Michael Jackson songs on YouTube that showed off his incredible vocal range, and moonlighting as the singer of a hair-metal cover band. But after his stunning rendition of Shania Twain’s “You’re Still the One” racked up tens of millions of views, Swims signed a deal with Warner Records and started work on his debut LP, I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy (Part 1).
Leadoff single “What More Can I Say” was a complete stiff, which left him stunned when “Lose Control” debuted at Number 99 on the Billboard Hot 100 and slowly climbed to the top spot, unseating Ariana Grande in March and lingering in the Top 10 through the rest of 2024. During the latest episode of The Breakdown, Swims digs into all the pain and collaboration he poured into the single to make it such a chart-topping smash.
“Julian [Bunetta] wanted to make a catchy chorus, but not one that everybody could sing,” Swims tells Rolling Stone for an episode of “The Breakdown” of how the song began. They worked on the track at a songwriting camp in Palm Springs, and it was a beat by DJ Infamous that inspired Bunetta to blurt out the line “I lose control,” which became the hook.
“It’s catchy in a way that’s not catchy, very similar to [the Chris Stapleton song] ‘Tennessee Whiskey.’ If you’re in a karaoke bar and you know that vocal run is coming up, you’re like, ‘If you can’t hit that run, don’t even bother,’” he says.
Swims and Bunetta fleshed out the rest of the song in an Airbnb together, taking inspiration from a relationship Swims was struggling with at the time. “We sat outside on the lawn there at that house, and I kind of was just breaking down to him about it,” the singer says. “He was like, ‘All right, I’m going to try to put that into words,’ and he wrote the first verse. It was a really emotional day, and it saved my life in so many ways.”
The song gradually morphed into a self-help manifesto about processing pain and not letting it consume you. “I’ve been doing a lot of self-healing to tell myself that all of my emotions don’t have to have every piece of me all the time,” Swims says. “They rule myself, if I let them. Mr. Rogers, man, is one of the greatest. He was like, ‘What do I do with this mad that I feel? Just know you can stop.’ For me, they just eat me up. And as a singer, I’ve been a vehicle for people to express a lot of emotions they can’t fully express. So there’s a gift in feeling things too deeply.”
Swims was in Barcelona preparing to go onstage at the Los 40 Music Awards when he heard he’d been nominated for a Best New Artist Grammy at this year’s awards. The first person he called was his father, who had encouraged him to drop out of cosmetology school at 19 and pursue his musical dreams. “I didn’t cry until he started crying,” says Swims. “It was such a beautiful moment to have shared that with him. The biggest win at the end of the day for me is my dad being like, ‘Son, look what you did, bud.’ I could cry talking about it now. I’m so proud and grateful.”
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