Up-and-coming “Emo Wonder Kid” TEDDYYBEARR shares his thoughts on landmark shows, politics in the scene, and the hottest new bands you need to get into before they blow up.

Based in the South of England, TEDDYYBEARR’s music resonates with fellow 2000’s kids in a new exploration of modern rock music, guaranteed to get you cutting some shapes in your local venue.

Find out how small musicians are navigating the scene and releasing top tier bangers while doing so. TEDDYYBEARR is a force to be reckoned with, and Disloyal Order strongly advises you get into his music now before it’s too late to brag that you ‘saw that guy live in a 200 person venue’.

When did you know you wanted to become a musician?

I was always into music and music-related things. You know, I did theatre and acting as well as doing music all throughout secondary school. It wasn’t until I had to decide what I was going to study at college where I had to make the decision whether I was going to go down the acting route or whether I wanted to pursue music more. That’s when I made the actual decision that this is what I want to do career-wise.

Who are your musical influences?

At the moment I’m listening to a lot of Bring Me The Horizon and I think my new songs are going to be reflecting that. But overall, a lot of 2000’s emo, pop-punk era music, especially My Chemical Romance.

Honestly, if we’re talking about early influences, probably McFly! They were played a lot in my household growing up and I feel like Tom Fletcher’s writing had a big influence on how I first started approaching music.

A lot of your music is political, do you think it’s important to make a statement in your work?

I’m not sure whether it’s important for other people but it’s important for me. Other people may just want to write a story in a musical format or tell a story from their life, but to me it’s important to have at least a few songs which explain my thoughts and feelings on a current social event. Hopefully the fanbase I accumulate from those songs are people who align with those views and I’ll be able to foster a community of people that I feel safe within and they can feel safe with each other.

What is your favourite song off of your most recent EP ‘RED’?

I think LOCKED N’ LOADED, the opening track, is my favourite. It’s so fun to perform live and we’ve made that the opening song of the set now – it just blasts in with energy straight away.

When LOCKED N’ LOADED came out I felt as though it was the most experimental I’ve gone in terms of mashing genres together; it was rock-y but it was also rap-y but it also had this synth thing going on. I really like that it was like a controlled chaos collision of genres.

Do you have any funny stories from any of your shows?

There’s a very old photo of me painted as the Genie from Aladdin, and it’s just captioned ‘January’. My videographer, Poff, and my drummer, MAXX, would get candid photos of me with MAXX in the background posing like I did in that photo and it’s one of my favourite ongoing jokes. They really hammered down on it at our Manchester gig but it’s been going on since the EP release.

You supported LOU in Manchester and WARGASM (UK) at their intimate show in the Tunbridge Wells Forum, what was playing the same stage as your role models like?

F*cking sick! It’s awesome because I’ve been listening to Wargasm since they started and I love their music, so it was a great opportunity to be able to share a stage with them, especially so close to my hometown in my local venue. We’ve played The [Tunbridge Wells] Forum quite a few times before but this show had a very different energy. It was really nice to be able to meet Milkie and Sam and talk to them and get their advice out back on our music.

With LOU it was really cool. I like LOU’s music and I’ve been following him on TikTok for a long long time and when we met we gelled really well. He selected me to do the support slot and I was really excited about it, really hyped. But that kind of… for lack of a better term, ‘fanboy hype’ died down really quickly after I met him because we just got on so well. We just became mates! It’s nice to meet someone who was a role model who has become a friend in your life.

Is there a song by another artist that you wish you had written first?

So many! LoST by Bring Me The Horizon. I love that song and it’s just so me-coded. I’m Not Okay by My Chemical Romance… Welcome to the Black Parade by My Chemical Romance… pretty much any song by My Chemical Romance.

A lot of my favourite songs by my favourite artists I listen to and I just go ‘oooh I wish that was me that did that, that was really cool’.

A rogue one is REAL SUPER DARK by Waterparks. It’s just so good and abstract and weird but in the best way.

If you could support any artist, who would it be?

My Chemical Romance would be the end-goal. I could do that and die happy.

Again, it would be great to support any of my favourite artists and musical influences but My Chemical Romance would be the top-dog.

Who do you credit your career to?

Me, Myself, and I. Haha, I’m just joking. I do give myself a lot of credit because it’s been a lot of hard work and facing a lot of failure and hate comments online.

But I wouldn’t be able to do any of it without the great support system I have around me. I have MISFIT and MAXX in the band, my videographer Poff, any photographer we get in, my mum has always been really supportive of what I want to do for a career, my friend Kai who became a member of TEDDYYBEARR for a day and helped us play a gig with one member down, other friends who will happily hop on the merch table for us. I’ve got a great support network and, realistically, any progress I’ve made I could not do without the people around me.

What up-and-coming bands are you really into at the moment?

Most of the small bands I got into a few years ago are getting big already – Hot Milk were tiny when I found them!

I’ve been listening to a lot of this artist called BRAYTON, he’s got some great music out and every song he’s putting out at the moment is better than the last. He’s just constantly improving and he’s really good.

I’ve been listening to a lot of WALWIN, he just makes great 2000’s MySpace-era pop punk music. He knows what he’s doing and it’s going really well for him.

And recently I’ve been getting into this band called High Regards. They had a song blow up on TikTok recently that I just really enjoy and I’ve been trying to listen to more of their music.

Is there anything you’re working on right now?

This year my goal is to try my best to release a song every single month. So I have a song coming out on February 23rd called ‘Blisters’ and then I have six more songs in the bank ready to go for the next six months. I’m working on a lot and I’m really excited.