I Think I Like This Little DJ Life
You better not kill the groove!
I know one day, today’s guest will need no introduction but we’re still in the window of opportunity to say, “I knew him when…” so don’t mind if I do so while I still can.
This week’s guest was the first to ever pitch me which was an ego boost we all know I didn’t need. The more we worked on this piece, though, the less I felt like I was writing a traditional E4P piece and the more like it was 2020 and I was back in my parent’s house writing my first-ever celebrity feature. The part of this conversation that stood out to me the most was the notion that the work we produce can serve as a time capsule for where we were in life when we made it, and I can’t shake the hope that this might be a touchstone for fans of my guest to one day look back on when writing about the early stages of his career.
Today, I’m joined by multi-hyphenate threat Teff to talk about his musical journey, his growing prowess as a New York City DJ, and what’s next on his inevitable trajectory.
Teff is a producer, artist, and DJ that leaves no dance floor empty. His work will make listeners feel like the hottest bitch in the room. If you gagged at A Teffortless Cuntiversary, welcome to the missed connections era. His style is both an homage to his hometown of Atlanta—hot and heavy bass lines—with a queer and very New York slutty house flair.
Teff moved to New York to study Health Administration at Columbia after graduating from Emory in 2021. He now works in hospital operations at one of the best hospitals in New York. By day, he is in a suit and tie and by night, he is on an incessant pursuit to connect with people through music. It may be hard sometimes balancing both and keeping it cute but ultimately “IT’S TEFFORTLESS BABE,” and he has kicked ass in New York both personally and professionally.
Now THAT’S What I Call Music
Teff was something of a legend at Emory as he was someone everyone seemed to know in some capacity. In fairness, it’s hard not to know Teff as he fills rooms both with his personality and his talent as an event planner (back then, with our school’s programming body). It’s no surprise that he’s doing that same thing now as a DJ but that doesn’t make him actually doing it any less iconic.
Before I get ahead of myself, I asked Teff to start at the very beginning:
Emily: Can you give an overview of your musical journey up to today?
Teff: My first instrument was a classic Yamaha keyboard in the third grade. I was not able to get piano lessons, so I taught myself the bare essentials. When I joined the school band in Atlanta the following year, I played the clarinet and bass clarinet but most importantly learned how to conduct and transpose music between different instruments.
Our band was really great. I played solos at Carnegie Hall in New York at like 13. I never left the first chair, and was certainly on a path to be a drum major at a top HBCU, but the school system was absolutely falling apart. We had a garbage superintendent that was literally committing crimes so around 13 or 14, I decided I would leave DeKalb County, all my friends, and my hometown, with the hopes of getting into the college of my dreams.
My new school in Augusta had a band but it honestly drained my passion and made me feel that I had made a terrible mistake. I went from playing level five music down to three. After my freshman year in Augusta, we moved to Holt Michigan, but packed up and left behind in Georgia was my interest in symphonic band.
In my sophomore year, I started producing music on the application GarageBand. Right there next to my new unlimited musical instrument was the same Yamaha keyboard I made silly beats with as a child. It all was coming full circle, and I started really loving writing and composing again. Having experienced what my life felt like without music, my personal musical renaissance became much more enjoyable. I honestly feel so much like myself when making songs.
I made a ton of rap beats between 2015 and 2018 and then tapped back into one genre that I was raised on: house music. My mom is from Jersey, my cousin is a pretty famous pioneer of Jersey club music (his name is DJ Taj—get into him), and I just absolutely grew up listening to BOPS. I started working on more house songs around 2019, after having such a great experience studying abroad in London going to raves, and decided my next move would be New York.
I put out my first serious project on my birthday in 2021 and got a lot more serious in 2023 with BE MINE. I was so in love and wanted to retell my first date with a coworker at a club sonically. It was a great way to express myself, while keeping the music fun and relatable. A year later I am back with missed connections and I feel more clear and refined than ever!
Emily: What elements of your classical training do you see in your musicality today, if at all?
Teff: KEY—the biggest thing that matters to me as a DJ is genuinely matching the pitch of the songs to compliment each other. You wouldn't let someone in the band play the wrong note on top of what everyone else is playing, so I apply that rule to most things I make.
When I was a kid, I would be able to play popular songs by ear and recognize notes which absolutely helps me when I am adding my own instrumentation to my mixes/original songs. In “u make me feel brand new,” I built the entire soundscape around those old school vocals and guitar and it is not like you have the sheet music for the original song telling you which notes to play. I often am winging it but relying on that past practice of arranging and recognizing notes has always helped me create.
Also some of the ways I play with vocals from different songs overlapping and interacting with each other is definitely from band. I was one of those kids that was gagged when they would mashup songs on Glee. I was in an all-state level quartet for a little bit in Georgia and the director was making original music for us, so I started doing that with my classmates. I would say, “Ok you play this, I’ll play this at the same time and lets see how it sounds.” At that age, I wanted to be a doctor that would retire and become a composer.
Looks like both of those changed but I was not too far off.
From the get-go, this conversation with Teff reminded me of why I started E4P in the first place: to celebrate and spotlight people who live their lives in unique ways and do things I could never dream of doing. As someone who sang the bass notes of “All I Want For Christmas Is You” in middle school choir because they couldn’t sing any other note correctly (I peaked), there’s no way I could ever come close to Teff’s raw or honed musical abilities.
What’s more—and this may come as a shock to all of you—I’m genuinely just enamored with talking about hobbies.1 The combination of innate musical ability and Teff’s decision to lean into DJing led me to ask:
Emily: What relationship is there (if any) between your daily professional life and your creativity and musical pursuits?
Teff: One is high stress and the other is stress relieving. I work in hospital operations and it is literally like being in the military. Just yesterday, there was a cybersecurity attack on an insurance company and my team had to help the hospital remain protected and respond to the disruption in operations. LIKE WHAT?!
But, one thing I noticed is that a lot of my old music and beats from when I was in high school were super relaxing and definitely felt escapist and that is still a component to some of my songs. I have a few songs like “Barbie Girl,” “The Boy is Mine,” and “Beauty & a Beat,” that me and my bestie Adeja call fugue—they are nostalgic with repetition or chants and have a real dream like quality that can be really relaxing. When I have a crazy ass day, that is the kind of song I am making.
My music can definitely hype me up, but my comfort zone musically is definitely that whimsical and dream-like state. “dreaming of u” is a good example on missed connections of when I get in that bag.
He’s Not Like Other DJs…He’s a Teffortless DJ
Friends, before we go any further, I have a confession to make: I, Emily Sharp, exclusively call house music unce unce music in a slightly mocking tone because I, Emily Sharp, rarely like unce unce music. Honestly, it takes a special arrangement to intrigue me enough to not get annoyed by fist-pumping dance tracks (for context, the top genres on my Spotify Wrapped each year are some niche variation of pop or indie so take that as you will).
But I feel like describing Teff’s music as just unce unce is not only reductive—it’s not accurate. Even the quickest listen to one of his mixes will reveal that Teff does more than just blend songs over a synth beat. Instead, he creates brand new songs altogether.
With that in mind, I wanted to know:
Emily: What makes your music stand out from other DJs?
Teff: I am actually making my mixes with production software, adding instrumentation and reverb and echo to vocals, effects, ad-libs all kinds of tricks and not just playing other people’s music. I use a lot of words in my music and create songs for personal listening not for raves.
I have an eye for creative direction and marketing that most have not been able to do on such a large scale. I credit the Student Programming Council (SPC) at Emory for a lot of my quick marketing and graphic design strategies.
Maybe this won’t come as a surprise to anyone besides me but the concept of DJing is still under 100 years old. As the story goes, radio DJ and prolific sex offender Jimmy Savile claims he was the first person to ever DJ, or “to use twin turntables to achieve continuous play,” at a party held in the Loyal Order of Ancient Shepherds in 1943 (X).
However, according to Paul Donovan’s 1991 book, The Radio Companion, twin turntables had been advertised for sale since at least 1931. More to it, the term disk jockey (aka DJ) was first used in 1935 to describe Martin Block, “the first radio announcer to gain widespread fame for playing popular recorded music over the air” (X).
From there, the history of DJing unfolded in a fairly linear fashion: the first disco opened in Paris in 1947,2 with the word discothèque literally “deriving its name from the French word meaning a nightclub where the featured entertainment is recorded music rather than an on-stage band” (X). In Jamaica in the 1950s, DJs would host parties with “massive sound systems that made the disc jockey the center of attention” (X), and in the 1960s and 70s, the concept of beatmatching helped DJs create cohesive songs that fit together (X).
It’s interesting that Teff has found New York City to be such an inspiration for his creativity as it is the very place where DJing as we know it came to exist. In 1973,
DJ Kool Herc transformed the art of DJing into a new form of music creation with his technique of switching back and forth between two identical records to extend the length of musical breaks. This technique gave people more time to dance and rap over the beat, giving birth to “turntablism,” the art of using turntables to create original music and sounds (X).
All of this made me curious to know:
Emily: Where do you pull inspiration from when making mixes? Do you just hear songs and immediately know you want to mix them, or is it a more nuanced approach?
Teffin: I am intentional in choosing certain elements to be included in songs like ballroom, Black culture, NOLA bounce, rap, poppity pop, anything honestly. Not everything is for everybody but the closest you can get to that without making the art worse is the goal.
Recently, before making a project, I make a humongous playlist with all of the songs that have sounds that inspire me or connect to my theme. A good example is in “u make me feel brand new,” the “HA” you hear occasionally is pulled from Lady Gaga’s “Love Game.” It is a sound I just love and wanted to include.
Songs also should have some compatibility and sometimes I can recognize that randomly while I am out or listening to music, but other times I just try a bunch of different things I have in my library.
But Teff is clearly set apart by more than just his unique slash kind of vintage approach to building songs. In case it wasn’t radiating out of his responses enough, I had to ask:
Emily: You have such a clear sense of confidence. Is it something you have worked for or something that has always been an innate part of your personality?
Teff: I am someone who believes that practice and preparedness make better products. Whether it was with SPC or in my job now, that trait helped me see that people who are good at what they do work hard. It also helps when after you produce your product people genuinely enjoy it and the cycle just continues.
I have also just put myself in the spotlight consistently as a child all the way through college and that type of stress gets you to the place where not much rattles you. Some parts of my confidence I even had as a child but I have come into my personality and figured out how I want to represent myself more authentically than ever.
It doesn’t hurt being a cutie too.
Emily: Is there any relationship between your confidence and your music?
Teff: I wasn’t always confident. It often took years for me to show people music, but I love being watched, and that fuels my confidence for sure. I love Nicki Minaj and one thing I admire most about her is that her music inspires confidence. That is something that will always be a part of my brand as well—bad bitches make music for other bad bitches. Inspiring confidence in other people can contribute greatly to how someone feels and it is a great way to connect.
One thing about music right now is that it is pretty sad, and due to the state of the world, I fear it has progressively gotten worse. There was a time where the world was a little less shit than it is now and euphoric pop music was SO IN. As much as I love a Lana or SZA moment, I would much rather hear something like: “When I walk in/ sit up straight/ IDGAF if I was late.” Like why wouldn’t you want to feel sexy and confident? That is the kind of music I tend to make.
I do have a lot of moody tracks too because the only thing that can almost kill a bad bitch is love.
It’s funny, though—love seems to be the name of Teff’s game at the moment.
Missed Ya, Missed Ya, Really Wanna Kiss Ya
I’m a big fan of defining new periods of life as eras, á là Miss Tayla Swiff. And while I fear some might not be, let’s say, the most honest about the energy they’re trying to claim (I don’t know who needs to hear this but very few of you are actually in your Villain Era), Teff is certainly genuine about being in his missed connections era.
On his new album of mixes, Teff captures the sensations of falling fleetingly and fully in love.3 All of his glitzy, gutsy, slutty energy is still there, but there’s an air of—dare I say—certified lover boy to every track. In this era, Teff has also been leaning more into the very things that made him famous in my world.
All of that said, I wanted to know:
Emily: You just put on this spectacular event to celebrate the release of your new album, missed connections. What was your rose and your thorn of the party, and do you have any new buds you'd like to share?
Teff: My thorn: the equipment was not what I was expecting and it was a bit challenging but I would do it again!
My rose: People really showed up, listening and celebrating how much they liked the missed connections project. That really warmed my heart.
New bud: I met someone really cute at the party who I actually met on the train a few months ago. He asked me out and I have been on three dates with him in the week since soooo that's a new bud.
Emily: Are any of the mixes on missed connections inspired by your own love life?
Teff: “penthouse daddy” is about the first time leaving a dinner date, agreeing to go to this guy’s place, and realizing the elevator was going to the penthouse. The elevator opens up to this gorgeous apartment and I feel like sonically the song paints a really lavish backdrop to show one element of my first impression of him. Future kind of sweeps you off your feet and that is how I felt that night.
Emily: So wait...there is an actual Penthouse Daddy?
Teff: Yeeesss. You should follow me on Instagram to find out more :*
Emily: What is your favorite mix you've ever made?
Teff: I will give you one from each year because it is hard:
2022: “Hollaback Slut” - it is one of my classics undisputed
2023: “Practice Mix” - first amapiano influenced song I ever made and it blew up
2024: “obsessed” - maybe I am biased right now but this one slaps so hard and I feel like such a baddie when I listen to it
Each of these captures three of my big major styles: slutty, a little island girl moment, and a glamorous cunty house song. If you hear these, you can get a good idea of what a set from me might sound like.
Emily: Do you view your playlists and albums as time capsules in a way of where you are in your life as you make them?
Teff: Yes they absolutely are, and almost too closely to where I am in life that it is sometimes scary. Like I can go back to BE MINE and visualize the whole night I based it off of just from listening to the first two songs. Cuntiversary starts with “IT GIRL” and is just sexy, glamorous, and powerful throughout and it is super cool that one day I can go back and say, “What was I feeling like on my 25th birthday?” and there is a whole mix and playlist for me and my friends to go back to.
I am making memories to the music I create, using experiences to guide my direction, and I hope listeners can connect with me that way. I am a bit cryptic in the way I reveal things but if you pay close enough attention you can follow the logic through the chaos.
During our conversation, Teff mentioned that he hated to be asked if he wanted to DJ full-time. I understood exactly what he meant—that obviously if he could make a sustainable life for himself doing what he loved, he would drop everything else right now—because fucking duh! I would do that, too, as I’m sure most people reading this would as well. Which is why I told Teff the truth: that question—if he would do the thing he loved most for his career right now if he could—is boring and predictable.
Instead, I wanted to end by asking Teff:
Emily: Where do you see yourself and your art in five years?
Teff: I see myself madly in love, and I would want to either be in London full-time or be a touring act. I should be remixing peoples songs for a fat fee, and doing shows and not clubs. If this thing works out to where people really want to see me do this full time, I would definitely take the chance.
I love my job and love helping people but ultimately my dream is to help people through music.
Thank you so much to Teff!!!! This was unsurprisingly so much fun to work on because he is so much fun to be around. Stream missed connections and missed connections - after dark now!!!
And a collective gasp rises from the crowd.
Likely place for disco to begin.