We recently connected with Teddy Brown and have shared our conversation below.

Teddy , appreciate you joining us today. What’s the best or worst investment you’ve made (either in terms of time or money)? (Note, these responses are only intended as entertainment and shouldn’t be construed as investment advice)

The best investment I have made is in myself. I have spent a considerable amount of my life and money to help achieve success with the gifts I have. There are a lot of professionals in the world, but few are passionate about what they do. Anyone can be thrown into something like sports or music as a child and fall out of that thing. Then, later on, there is no joy left to be had as a professional or even a hobbyist. Music, as much as acting, requires an extreme amount of pre-planning so that the execution is flawless and fluid. It needs to be impromptu and not rigid. You must whole heartedly love what you do to invest all of your mind, body and soul to truly hone a craft like an expert sculptor.

It is a long story, a very long story. In 1993 I had my finger cut off in an accident and it needed to be reattached. I needed to rehabilitate my finger. I took up the bass guitar to help with the rehabilitation. I sold all my Magic the Gathering Cards and bought a BC Rich Warlock bass guitar and a small crate amp. This is literally how I got into playing music. I learned to play an Electric Bass Player and then soon after that I began DJing. I had been using a friend’s record player since 1994 because I could not afford to buy my own turntables until the late 90’s. Up until that point I owned a very expensive set of Ortofon Nightclub Stylus needles because the borrowed turntables were lent out without needles and you can’t play vinyl without the needles. I also owned a wicked set of vinyl records that was better than anyone I knew at the time. I spent all my free time in record stores looking for rare gems on vinyl. I was looking for the kind of record that no other DJ could have this track or version of. This was when crate digging was a skill.

You have to understand, I come from a place called Arlington, a district in the town of Poughkeepsie, NY. Most people have very passionate feelings about music and artists. This is a place where you spend 46 weeks a year inside, due to weather or temperature. If you knew someone whose parent was a professional musician or artist, they reinvested in themselves. If you were serious about music, you were usually stuck inside hanging with them in their makeshift studios. However, very few people around my circles had a passion to make music their career. There were two people who I grew up with, who are now full time musicians from my home town. I am inspired by them to this day.

Talk about getting back to reinvestment, in 2008 I shipped all my records, turntables, and mixer to my apartment in Los Angeles from Poughkeepsie, where I had them stored in a storage facility. In October, 2010, I was able to once again play my vinyl in my new city of Los Angeles, four years after moving here. In 2012 my mother helped me transition to digital with 2 Pioneer CDJ2000 Nexus and a brand new mixer out of nowhere. I like to think that this was the Universe starting to prepare me for the next chapter in my journey.

I started my character/DJ Jacques Cousteau in 2013 in Los Angeles on a shoe string budget and industry standard gear. I first performed at Exchange LA on September 20, 2014 as Jacques Cousteau in a costume I designed. Since then I have played all over Los Angeles including Avalon and Academy Hollywood. For the past 11 years I have been blessed to have been accepted and embraced by the LA electronic scene.

Since 2014, I have gone on to play shows in San Francisco and abroad in Amsterdam. In the beginning, I hardly got paid at all. So as an emerging artist, I had to reach into my pockets to keep this dream alive. As all this was going on, I was starting to learn how to produce music. That became an entirely new financial rabbit hole I was going into at the same time. Because Rome was not built in a day, neither was Jacques Cousteau or I AM THE BAND. When I DJ I go under the name Jacques Cousteau. When I play live it is as I AM THE BAND. That financial rabbit hole I mentioned? That is where I AM THE BAND came from.

I AM THE BAND is a one man show with no DJing. What you are seeing is a live musician performing on stage. There is no computer playing things. It is just machines at my disposal on a grand scale. It has taken over 13 years to assemble such a diversity of devices. This is due to the huge amount of expensive lessons learned on picking the wrong gear to make this happen. It was a huge learning curve for me, but a challenge. Luckily, I researched everything about my equipment like there was no tomorrow and had a few friends who I DJ with also got into live production, as well. I had some starting points, but made a lot of wrong turns on gear for a while.

I am glad to say the journey thus far has been very rewarding mentally. It challenges me to make things work and also sound amazing. I had to keep the live aspect hidden for years. In the beginning my DJing was amazing but my production was terrible. It took forever to understand how to use a workstation, and financially it cost an arm and a leg to start up. Once I sidestepped back to my roots of being a bass player I got the urge to perform my own songs live instead of DJing. I used sequencers to obtain my goals in live production.

Teddy , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

When I was a child my mother would play a game with me called title and artist. This game was where I would remember the title and artist of tracks on the radio. I loved listening to music as a child. We had one television. I was the youngest of three, and my older siblings always commanded the television and later the car radio. We had a few radios in our house, so I would sit in the laundry room and listen to the radio or listen to the tapes my brother and sister had on my brother’s boom box.

When I was a child I lived up the street from the local AM radio station, WKIP. I snuck into the station a few times to try to get on the air. When I was a young child I had one chance to pick music on the radio. It really sucked when you lost your radio privileges. So, this made me work very hard to overcome getting booted off the car radio duties.

My brother was big into making mix tapes and he had good taste in music, as did my sister. My mother was a guiding light in understanding what is good and what is bad music. My siblings were my bridge into modern music when I was a kid. I remember going to my grandparents in NYC every month and hearing all the prime time NYC radio stations back in the middle to late 80s. It was a prelude to my later life as a Radio Disc Jockey at WDCC (a college radio station) and morning associate producer of Cooper and Tobin on WPDH(a local radio station).

I have ADHD and a very active and visionary mind. When music comes into play, my hyper focus becomes a center stage and time slows to a halt. I later learned how to see outcomes (pattern recognition) from music played for the audience,( a throw back to my car radio duties). Then later on college radio, I had to review about 300 cds a week. There was so much awful music. I discovered early on what a song must have to work. I could tell you who was going to be the next big thing and who would be forgotten. I can hit 5 points in a music track and know if it is good or total garbage. Growing up and being able to identify new music was kind of a parlor trick for me. It was my personal version of a spelling bee.
To me, knowing good or bad music is a prestige. I under promise and over perform to maximize the impact of my music. I get giddy knowing how awesome my performance will be. In order to be at this level, you must be on point professionally in your skill set and be crazy and passionately in love with the music. I love making people move to the rhythm of the music and taking them on a musical journey. I just know what works at this point. I spend 80 to 100 hours of preparation to make sure my performance and confidence are on point at every show. In my mind, you are only as good as your last show. This leads to the why?

I take the greatest pride in my journey into sound. When given the opportunity to show off my music, I go all out. I have been to over 30 different clubs in the US, Canada, Ibiza, Israel, and Amsterdam. I’ve been to over 400 concerts in the US. I have studied every frontman I could from every concert I ever saw. I saw what worked musically, what didn’t. I have seen DJs make tracks work that were impossible to understand through decades of research and experience since being an avid club goer and DJ since 1994.

I pride myself on hitting a target people do not even see. I like being the Pied Piper of the dance floor and being the soundtrack to your life. I even DJ’d at my own wedding and got to show my entire family my gift. I love seeing people happy and really enjoying the music. To me, perfection is seeing a room full of positive energy dancing to the music that I am playing. One of the best feelings is giving the listener a one of a kind experience to be forever remembered. Nothing is better than someone reminiscing about a show that they saw you in that made an impact on them. They may have met their significant other while I was playing and I helped set the mood and tone for them. The look in their eyes is as genuine as can be.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

It takes hard work, dedication and a certain level of mysticism, to pull off a flawless performance. You cannot flinch. You cannot be indecisive. You need to be better, be fast on your toes. At the same time, to be a team player you need to know the rules. I always believe that you are only as good as your last performance. I have played more shows than I can count. If an event was slow, I would still DJ @ 110% to see if the bartender would dance. I also hoped maybe even the security guards or management would dance to the music I was playing.

The level of obsession Kobe Bryant had to be the best is the same way I see music as a DJ and music producer. This is your brand, and in a sea of DJs you need to stand out. You must love music more than anything to keep growing and to strengthen your skills. As technology progresses, you must keep up with that as well. I never got into music for the money. However, something bigger than myself guides me on this journey. There is no way of getting away from this cosmic force. Music was never the dream of what I wanted. I wanted to be an actor and the universe had other plans for me

Music has been a focus of mine since I was very young.The first “no” I ever experienced was in third grade. I had wanted to join an elementary school band. I wanted to play the sax or some brass instruments. I was 8 years old with really bad ADHD. My teacher and the music director of the school pulled me into a small room and let me know that I did not have the math skills to be a musician and it was never going to happen. But, that did not stop me. I knew they did me a favor.

I used to write lyrics to songs in my head. I would hear the lyrics, but didn’t write them down as they only existed in my head. My best friend became a cello player in the same school band I was rejected from. He grew up to be a fantastic cello player in high school, and he would tour the world with his high school orchestra. After high school he didn’t really play his cello anymore. He was just another professional player who had no passion left in his craft.

I feel as a neurodivergent individual there is truly nothing I cannot do, as long as I am passionate about it. I feel that when you make art, you are giving something to the universe with a little piece of your energy. You are breathing life into a moment in time. After creating the music, I know I will never forget that moment. For me this creation of music is not about the money. This is about the benefit to me and the audience of performing and being able to rip people out of reality and transport them back to a place that is fun and pleasing to their mind, body, and soul.
Now the interesting part is that my mother knew the whole time that I had this gift and was always trying to help me. She said that I had an ear for music. She took me for guitar lessons. She also drove me to various music stores around New York and Connecticut to purchase musical equipment.

I am a mystical person, and I believe through sound you can conjure up positive emotions that trigger good memories. When professional skills and passion come into play, I believe something truly magical happens. It cannot be duplicated. You see people go from angry to relaxed and friendly through my music. I love seeing this mystical event taking place and seeing the energy take hold. Nothing is more beautiful to me than seeing a naysayer become a fan after performing.

I have used eclectic samples from 80’s and 90’s songs that are synth heavy, funk, and various forms of house music to bridge the past and the future and delivered to you in the present. It is my gift. My music appeals to the masses as a universal good. I may be one of the best kept secrets in the LA music scene. If you need proof, come to one of my shows. I had to learn a lot of fundamentals. I have also had many setbacks trying to get to where I am today in realms physically, mentally, creatively and financially. Yet, through it all, I persevere with a smile on my face and music in my heart..

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

One of the most rewarding aspects of being an artist are the unknown doors it opens. Once I embraced my calling as a musician, a lot of fascinating things started to happen to me. On September 20, 2014, I rebranded myself after 20 years and debuted as DJ Jacques Cousteau. After I started to gain momentum in the Los Angeles music scene, I started to learn the hard lesson of what frenemies mean. I also found out who my real friends were and started to make more genuine and lasting friendships than I ever have had in my life. Music was this mysterious ticket to my world and I made it open every door that I could find. I had finally found my purpose.

I joined a few DJ crews in Los Angeles and in Hollywood. Doing this, I met a lot of the local talent, club owners, promoters, and scene regulars. I have forged everlasting friendships with many of these people. I started getting invited to the after parties with all the “cool kids”. I got invited to be the headliner at my friends’ events in Pomona and San Diego. Later on, people would tell me tales of their seeing me perform and how much of a core memory it was for them.

Afterwards, I started getting booked in new places as Jacques Cousteau. In Arizona I got booked at the “One Love Festival” and also got booked in San Francisco at the famous Underground 20 Mission parties. I got to book some of my favorite DJ artists alongside myself. Later on, I was booked for “Glow Con” and played on top of the world famous Dancetronauts BoomBox Art Car (the loudest audio boombox art car in the world). I was on the front page of the San Francisco Weekly Newspaper for GlowCon. It was the first time I had my image appear in print, let alone the front page! This was also the first time my image was on a flyer. Later on I played at pop up shows and private parties in the Netherlands. While in Amsterdam, I was asked to play at the Amsterdam Dance Event, also known as ADE. I have also been invited to play in Greece as well as Slovenia.

In the beginning, as Jacques Cousteau, I wore a metallic silver suit with a disco ball type material. It was really awesome when no one knew who I was without the silver suit on. It gave me a level of calm and allowed me to do more without being recognized . I am, by nature, an incredibly nervous, shy and introverted person. Once I donned that outfit, I felt invincible. I became outgoing. And, I became the center of attention. It felt like I was a spectator at my own show. I’m sure the people who dress up as Mickey Mouse and take pictures at Disneyland feel the same way. The one funny thing that was like a running joke to me, was that people would approach me and ask, “Is it hot in there?” Yes. I was profusely sweating. I did it all to stand out in an infinite sea of DJs.

During the Pandemic, I dropped the costume and played without it. The reaction from the crowd was electric. People said it was the sexiest DJ performance they had ever seen. For the first time ever, people could now see the biggest smile on my face as I played, and how much I love music. They could see that I was performing with passion, talent, and knowledge. I started to get noticed in public as Jacques Cousteau,(my DJ alias). It truly felt like the career that I was always meant to have. I had always been scared of pursuing my music and had always tried to run away from it.

Music gave me the outcomes I could only dream of. When I was traveling in Ibiza, Spain,some people recognized me and asked for a photo. This was just absolutely crazy to me. As an artist, you truly never know how far the ripples you create will go. You don’t know how many people you touch with your gifts. Doing what you love even when no one is watching, is truly one of the most fulfilling things in life. Watching the smile that you bring to someone’s face doing what you love is everything to me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tedbrownmedia.com
• Instagram: @tedbrownmedia
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/musicjacques
• Twitter: @tedbrownmedia
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TedBrownMedia
• Soundcloud: https://www.soundcloud.com/ted-brown-media
• Other: For Contact: [email protected]

Image Credits

SuzieD
SF Weekly
ADE
Nexus Radio
Brian Morris
unknown