High on Love

Ted: Yes. And 17- or 18-year-old me — my taste in music was interesting. I loved 80s rock. My hair was down way past my shoulders. I would just listen to music, and I remember cutting a piece of cardboard and mimicking playing guitar while watching KISS videos.

Alyssa: Wow, an air-band of one.

Ted: Yes. And after high school, I started college in the summer, and my momma gave me 500 bucks to last me from July to the end of the first semester in December. I blew all that money the first week on a Rolling Stones tattoo and a bass guitar. I was in my first band in college.

Alyssa: What was your band called?

Ted: Black and the Blues. All of my roommates were music-oriented, so we played together. That kind of got me started performing in front of people. After that, for about a decade, I went into career mode and started coming back around in 2019.

Alyssa: What happened in 2019 to bring you back to the music scene?

Ted: It was for Katie at our wedding. I learned some Joe Cocker—“You Are So Beautiful”—and played that at our reception for her. It got me being in front of people again. Still, I was nervous as heck.

Alyssa: Of course, that’s a big day for you.

Ted: After that, I started to pick it up more, and then Covid came around. I was able to finally begin working from home. It gave me the ability to take breaks and play in the garage for a half hour. After I got into the mix of writing again, I found songs that I wrote in college and realized I was so bad. It just sounded like everything else that I was listening to and didn’t have a creative mix. I don’t feel like I had a real voice back then and I didn’t throw feeling into what I was saying.

Alyssa: So, would you say your leaned earlier influences of rock and the Yupik single-beat, but added your own creative mix to it?

Ted: Yes, and I missed a few of those influences. I love, love, love 90s pop. I have an older sister, and I remember when CrazySexyCool by TLC came out. And Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston. And my dad, he grew up listening to Motown. I remember the first time I heard Tracy Chapman’s “Give Me a Reason,” and I was like, “Oh, I like that vibe.” I had every Temptations album there was. I watched their movie over and over again. Oh, and I can’t forget this—when I was 13 or 14, my mom would always buy me the parental advisory CDs. There were some years where all I listened to was Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and Tupac.

Alyssa: That’s a completely wide range, yet with a focus on powerful voices and great musical storytelling. With that in mind, let’s transition to this album. You’ve released singles before, but not a full album. What made you want to do that?

Ted: I did not plan it. I’ve just been writing the last couple of years and was starting to see some themes, and things started to tie together with song titles and stories. I was just like, “Man, there’s something there.” So earlier this year, I began putting together this album. I’m still a rookie, but I’m learning all of this stuff as I go. I’m typing in the search engine, “What constitutes an album versus an EP?” Finally, I made the decision to create the album cover and throw this thing on social media. I knew it was going to be hard, but this would make me actually do it.

Alyssa: How did you settle on the album title High on Love?
Ted: I wanted a positive theme that blankets the album. A lot of the songs go through ups and downs of love and relationships, and looking at it through the eyes of addiction. Relationships can be good and they can be bad. But when you’re really connected with a partner, you have this connection—it’s like a dependency. Everything I write is coming from my experiences and things that I’ve been through. I’ve been where I know something needs to change and what I’ve got to do to pivot. It doesn’t have to be a negative thing.
That’s how I structured the album, and you can see that with the song names. “You Can’t Have Anymore” is like, you want something, but is it good for you? And then it builds up to “Say What You Want to Say,” saying I don’t care what you think—I’m going to do what I want, and you’re going to do what you want. And then it builds up to “High on Love.” It can be good or bad, but you’re at that point. From there, the album ends on the final couple of songs—“Soul Medicine,” finding that something that you need to heal. It’s coming down from that high. It’s that feeling that anyone who’s been broken up with or had to stop hanging out with a certain group of friends because they were bad influences, has felt. And that’s where the album ends. It leaves it open for people to interpret what’s next or what’s right.

Alyssa: Almost in the same way a book may end. That makes it more human, more relatable.

Ted: In writing it, I wanted it to be something that people can listen to and relate to. It’s just one person’s insight—my insight.

Alyssa: It feels sort of like you’re turning this word “addiction” into the word “passion.” You can be passionate, or even obsessive, about things in a positive way, but also in a negative way. With that in mind, if there was one thing you wanted people to know before they pushed play on your album, what would it be?

Ted: This may sound weird and may not make sense, but if someone is really listening to the words, they should expect a little discomfort.

Alyssa: Interesting. Well, I will make sure to expect to feel a little uncomfortable at your album release here at Gather.

Ted: On October 17th.

Alyssa: October 17th!