This interview between KALX DJ Berkestir & Teddy Thompson originally aired on July 23, 2026.
Berkestir: And without further ado, we are gonna have an interview with singer-songwriter extraordinaire Teddy Thompson. Hello, Teddy.
Teddy Thompson: Hello. I like the extraordinaire part. Thank you.
Berkestir: You’re welcome. I’m very happy to have Teddy Thompson with me today. Welcome to KALX, Teddy. My first question, you’re currently touring and have an excellent new album out entitled Never Be the Same. How’s your tour going?
Teddy Thompson: Oh, terribly. [laughter] No, it’s going great. Um, yeah, it’s, you know, it’s fun. It’s fun. I mean, it’s nice to get to play the songs every night. You know, you work on them, and then you record them, and then you get to go out into the world and actually play them and sort of get good at them if you know what I mean.
Berkestir: Mm-hmm. And where and when will you be performing around the Bay Area?
Teddy Thompson: I’m in Mill Valley tomorrow night at the Sweetwater Music Hall.
Berkestir: Have you ever been there?
Teddy Thompson: I have never been there.
Berkestir: Oh, it’s been around since, uh, I believe 1972.
Teddy Thompson: Yeah, venerable.
Berkestir: Yeah. It, it’s a nice venue, and I will be there, and I’m very happy because I understand it’s a seated show.
Teddy Thompson: That’s good for you?
Berkestir: Yes, that’s good for me. Yeah, I’m not a young man.
Teddy Thompson: None of us are anymore.
Berkestir: No. None, none of us are. And, uh, you’re touring with a band this time?
Teddy Thompson: No, I’m solo this time.
Berkestir: Oh, you’re solo. Okay. And on your album, I believe you had a band. Who was in your band on the album?
Teddy Thompson: Yeah. I, I made the record with…Yeah, there’s a full production on the record, a band. It was essentially the producer that I worked with on this record and my last record, a guy named David Mansfield, who is, speaking of venerable, he’s kind of a legendary musician and producer. He started out in Bob Dylan’s band. actually, in the Rolling Thunder Revue, as a very young man.
So he is a multi-instrumentalist, and it was basically we cut the tracks with a drummer and a bass player, Tony Scherrl and Charlie Drayton on drums who are New York guys. We made the record in New York. And then David, um, basically played everything else. It was done that-a-way.
Berkestir: Okay. And, and you live in Brooklyn now, is that right?
Teddy Thompson: Yeah.
Berkestir: All right. The cover of your most recent album, Never Be the Same, is made up of photos of four different personalities with four different poses per person, total of 16 squares. What does this album cover represent?
Teddy Thompson: Uh, dress-up. I mean, it was, it was really a question of, I find that a lot of the things I do are sort of accidental, in the sense that I don’t plan them out too, um, comprehensively. But there’s usually some, some seed of something, um, usually often unconscious that ends up making sense to me. So the album cover was, it was born from the idea of wanting, needing to make some videos, some content for the record, which is what we all have to do now. And partly because I find that kind of stuff to be a little bit tiresome and boring when it goes on for too long, and partly because we don’t have the money to spend days and weeks doing these things.
I came up with this idea of basically doing vignettes. Instead of spending all the money making one video…of making five really short videos, really quick videos. And so we did that at a friend of mine’s house. And basically I just threw together a bunch of ideas and different looks for the different videos.
And we shot each one very quickly. And then after we shot the video we would take some stills of that look. So we did the whole thing in a day. And, uh yeah, it does play into the, obviously the narrative of, of not being the same, of change, of being different. And so it all, it all fit quite well.
Berkestir: Where can someone, if a, if a KALX listener wants to see those videos, where do they exist?
Teddy Thompson: Where do they live? Yeah. I think they live on the internet.
Berkestir: Okay. So-
Teddy Thompson: You can go to my website, and there’s probably some link to it, but you can also just go to YouTube, and you’ll, you’ll find them.
Berkestir: And, and look at them. Okay. I have not seen them. I’m looking forward to seeing them. Is there a theme to your new album?
Teddy Thompson: Well, you know, it’s, it’s about change really, or the lack thereof. You know, again, I didn’t … It’s not as if I sat down and set out to write a whole bunch of songs about that subject of change or not changing or being stuck.
But once I’d finished the record and was typing out the lyrics, I was struck by how often that comes up. So that is the overarching theme, if you will, but it’s not a themed record or anything. It’s just songs that I’ve, I’ve wrote along the way. You know, I tend to just write as I’m going in my life, and not really with the aim of making a record per se, you know, or re- making a record of songs that all fit together. It’s just a diary of what I was writing over the last couple of years.
Berkestir: I see. And were most of these songs then written recently, or are some of these songs older than others?
Teddy Thompson: Some of them are older than others. I mean, I don’t write that much in the sense that I don’t finish tens or dozens or hundreds of songs. I tend to just finish the ones that stick around and that, that persist, if you will. So I’m more inclined to have, you know, five or six songs on the go on the back burner or something. And sometimes they sit there for a couple of years and I just incrementally work on them, improve them as I go. But I often just don’t finish five or six of the songs, and I finish one or two and from that batch.
And so yeah, some of them can stretch back a ways. But I, I quite like- I mean, it might just be an excuse for laziness, but I quite like the way of writing where it’s survival of the fittest. You know? If the song is good enough, if it sticks with me, and if it, if it wants to be finished, then, then I finish it.
Berkestir: Wow. Wonderful. Well, let’s hear a song from your new album. Could you please pick a song from your new album and introduce it?
Teddy Thompson: Sure. Let’s do Come Back, which is the first song on the record and you know, I think that speaks for itself. Come Back.
Berkestir: All right. Well, let’s hear Come Back on your KALX with your Berkester and Teddy Thompson.
Musical Excerpt: Come Back by Teddy Thompson
Berkestir: Wow. That’s such a wonderful song.
Teddy Thompson: Thank you.
Berkestir: Yeah. My next question, since 2000, you’ve released around a dozen albums. Two of them, Up Front and Down Low and My Love of Country, consist of covers of country songs. How did you get into country music, and how did you decide to release these albums? I believe one is from ’07, and My Love of Country is from 2023.
Teddy Thompson: Yeah, how did I get into country music? Well, the short story is that I was just exposed to some very good music when I was a kid. Both my parents are musicians, and they used to play just some good music, and I remember being in the car and my dad playing, I think what I remember first was the Everly Brothers, which is not strictly country music at all.
In fact, at the time it wasn’t country music. Uh, there’s no instrumentation. But, you know, they sing country, and so to me it sounded very country, and I think to most of our ears now it does. But yeah, and it was the first music that I heard when I was a kid that I really loved, and so I was struck by it.
And then I just, you know, went and discovered some more things of that ilk and some more that were really true country, George Jones and Hank Williams and all that good stuff. And so, and you know, and I played a lot of it. I just learned a lot of it sitting… It’s easy music to begin with, you know, ’cause it is just three chords, and when you’re a kid you can strum along and it’s an easy entry into music I found.
And also it just really spoke to me emotionally, and also intellectually a lot of the songwriting was very smart, very clever. Um, great puns and turns of phrase that really sort of actually appealed to my British sense of irony and sarcasm, if that makes sense. I found it to be a really easy connection to make for someone from England actually, believe it or not.
So yeah, I just loved it. And then it’s, it’s kind of, I think your first musical love really is formative and shapes you as a musician. And so I’ve always come back to it, and it’s just something that I guess I do… It’s something I can do musically that’s just sort of pure joy really, and, and pure emotion without a lot of the angst of it being my own songs. So yeah, I’ve really enjoyed just singing great country songs in my free time, if you will.
Berkestir: And yeah, and I really enjoy both of those albums a lot. In addition to being a singer-musician-songwriter, you’re also a producer in your own right, as well as a guest artist on albums of other artists. What are some of the favorite albums you produced or that you were on with other musicians?
Teddy Thompson: Yeah, well, I mean, I’ve produced a couple of records, but mostly just out of necessity. I mean, I wouldn’t say that I’m … You know, there’s different types of producers. I would say I fit into the sort of old-fashioned tastemaker listener producer, in the sense that I don’t really have any technical knowledge of the recording equipment.
I’m not an engineer. And so a lot of what production is, if you’re not doing that side of it, is just having taste and making choices. And I produced a few records for a singer named Dory Freeman, who is a wonderful singer and songwriter actually. And I only produced her first record because she was new and she didn’t have anybody else to do it really, and I was the one that sort of was helping her, and I was like, “Let’s just try it.”
That’s all it was. And then I also enjoyed producing a record for Allison Moorer and Shelby Lynne, they’re the sisters. Um, wonderful singers. And again, it’s just a question of being simpatico really, and just getting along with each other, and being able to be the person to see the bigger picture and make not dispassionate choices, but choices and decisions where you’re not the artist is just what that’s all about really.
Berkestir: All right. After you complete your current tour, what other projects do you have coming up, or what other things are you working on? Are you working on any other new things?
Teddy Thompson: Uh, I’m working on myself. [Laughter]
Berkestir: Well, we all are.
Teddy Thompson: Not very hard. I’m just … But yeah, I mean, yes, I, I made a record with my little sister. Her name’s Kami Thompson, and yeah. She’s a fabulous singer …
Berkestir: Yeah, she’s a fabulous singer.
Teddy Thompson: Yeah she is. So we just recorded that last month, and, uh, we don’t know exactly what we’re gonna do with it yet. But we think it’s quite good, so we’ll see, uh, how that comes along. And then, you know, I have time off in August, but then I’m, I’m touring a lot for the rest of the year, which I’m happy, you know, grateful for.
And then, you know, and then I just keep, you know, this is the way, this is how we do things. Then you just keep…you know. I have a few more songs on the go, as I was describing earlier, things that sort of, you know, are on various burners on my stove. And some of them you start to get kind of excited about and interested in and then start to think about how to make the next record.
So that’s what’s happening.
Berkestir: All right. And as a singer-songwriter, many of your songs are very personal. Where do you get your inspiration from?
Teddy Thompson: From me.
Berkestir: From you. From your life.
Teddy Thompson: They’re all personal. Yeah, I think every good song is personal. Even if it doesn’t, even if it’s not in the first person and me, me, me, I, I, I. I think if it’s not written from a place of personal, I’m gonna say experience, although that doesn’t mean you have to have experienced what you’re writing about. But, you know, it has to be from you, from, you know, a sort of deep well, if you will, within yourself. And it’s all sounding very pretentious now but, you know, you can’t just sit down and write something superficial about any subject. You know, it has to come from you, from your own experience and your own emotion.
And so yeah, I mean, I think I do. I am in the category of someone that does write mostly me, me, me, I, I, I, and it is in the first person. And yeah, it’s all about me. It doesn’t necessarily mean that every word is the truth of my own experience. But you begin with your own feeling and try to be as authentic and honest as possible.
Berkestir: I see. Yeah, that’s, that’s very true. Teddy, would you mind doing an ID for the station?
Teddy Thompson: Sure.
Hello, this is Teddy Thompson. You are listening to KALX Berkeley. Love it!
Berkestir: All right. I’m gonna have you pick another song, and it can be from your new album or one of your country albums. I have a few other of your albums here. And if you have something else to say about your show tomorrow night before we go?
Teddy Thompson: Uh, sure. Um, I mean, I would lean towards playing another song from the current album, maybe Baby It’s You. And what do I have to say about the show? I mean, I don’t know. I think it’s gonna be good. There’s only one way to find out, I guess, if you, if you come. There’s no refunds, so I can’t guarantee … that you’ll love it, but, uh, you know, it’s a punt, and if you like what you hear, you can hear more of it.
Berkestir: Will you be playing acoustic or electric or-
Teddy Thompson: Yeah, acoustic and, uh, obviously, you know, this record and songs from previous records.
Berkestir: Okay. And will you be playing some of the country covers?
Teddy Thompson: Uh, yeah, probably one or two.
Berkestir: Okay. All right. Did you want to introduce “Baby It’s You” before we sign off?
Teddy Thompson: Sure. Hello, everybody. This is Teddy Thompson. Thank you for listening to me. We are gonna close the show with a song called Baby It’s You from my new album, Never Be the Same. Enjoy.
Berkestir: Thank you so much, Teddy, for coming on KALX, and I look forward to seeing you on Friday night.
Teddy Thompson: Okay. Thanks for having me.
Berkestir: All right. Let’s hear Teddy Thompson from Never Be the Same, the song “Baby It’s You” on your mighty KALX with your Berkestir.
Musical Excerpt: Baby It’s You by Teddy Thompson
