Teddy Geiger Is One Mature 17-Year-Old

You'd think that with his crystal blue eyes, shaggy hair and recent smooth ride into the pop-rock charts, that Teddy Geiger might be a victim of a skillful production team forming a music sensation. But if you look beyond the surface of this Rochester, New York native, you quickly discover that he's a self-taught, self-made young man.

Geiger is a 17-year-old singer/songwriter. Think John Mayer meets a teenage Ben Folds. He got a break into the music world when he became a finalist for the VH-1 show, In Search Of The New Partridge Family.

"My mom made me do it," Geiger says. "She figured it would be a good way to get in and network, and it's a good thing because that's where I met Billy Mann."

Mann — who has previously worked with Pink, Sting and Kelly Rowland — was the producer for the series and saw something unique in Geiger. Mann got Geiger into the studio quickly to cut his first album even though the youngster had accepted a part on the short-lived CBS mid-season replacement show, Love Monkey.

"I wanted to go into music [not TV] in the first place, and kind of always had," says Geiger. "I had always written songs since I was little.

"I started playing guitar when I was eight, then was I was 10 or 11 I wrote my first actual song, which was called 'Try Too Hard.'"

"Try Too Hard" made it on to Geiger's Underage Thinking debut, a record that deals with everyday 17-year-old problems like girls and growing up.

"One thing about being underage is that I'll have played a club and there'll be a show I want to see the next day and I won't be able to get in that club 'cause it's an over 21 bar," says Geiger. "It's the most frustrating thing ever. But I get over it."

Listening to Geiger's new single, "For You I Will (Confidence)," you'd never know that the kid is so young. His deep, groggy voice and not-so-bubblegum lyrics put some older pop artists' compositions to shame.

However, in a sea of new opportunities, "Ted Heads" and high pressure, the young singer still finds time to be 17. He's just rediscovered his skateboard (and sucks at riding it) and kids around about making techno versions of his songs. On the other hand, Geiger is already thinking like an adult. He helped a bit with the production on Underage Thinking and plans on doing more behind-the-scenes work in the studio.

When asked if he's encountered people in the industry who don't take him seriously because of his age, Geiger replies confidently, "I haven't encountered that type of person yet.

"When and if I do, maybe they won't take me seriously, but then I just won't take them seriously. It's a trade-off."