Teddy Geiger

A pop auteur who sounds like no one but herself

Before teddy geiger was one of pop’s most indemand songwriters and producers, she was a kid in western New York state who wore a pendant embossed with the Virgin Mary. In her twenties, during a time of personal upheaval, she started seeing Mary everywhere. “I’d really feel it — ‘She’s here for a reason!’ ” says Geiger, 30.

The Virgin Mary appears again on the cover of LillyAnna, Geiger’s first album as teddy<3, and her first since publicly coming out as a trans woman in 2017. Released last November, the same day her girlfriend proposed with a heartshaped ring, it’s full of irresistible alt-rock hooks and intense vulnerability, the same qualities that have made her a key collaborator for stars like Shawn Mendes.

Geiger signed to Columbia Records at age 15 as a pop singer with a rock edge. She scored a Top 40 hit in 2006, but quickly became disillusioned with the pop machine. “They had me go out on acting auditions, and I was doing a lot of sessions with people who were like, ‘We’re going to write you a song!’ ” she says. “It was very not about me as an artist.”

Her second act began around 2014, when Mendes got wind of a demo she’d written called “Stitches.” It became his breakthrough hit, and Geiger has gone on to co-write many of Mendes’ best songs, along with ultracatchy blasts of attitude like Lizzo’s “Fitness” and 5 Seconds of Summer’s “Woke Up in Japan.”

Most of the vocals on LillyAnna are from demos she recorded during her tumultuous twenties: echoes from the past, now given closure. “You can’t re-create it exactly,” Geiger says of her spontaneous, intuitive studio approach. “It’s personal.”

SASHA GEFFEN