Offers fans chance to take survey on songs
DETROIT -- It's been more than two years since teen rocker Teddy Geiger's major-label debut album, "Underage Thinking," scaled to No. 8 on the Billboard 200. But he's making up for lost time with new album and soundtrack projects.
"My outlook's changed on a lot of things," said Geiger, 19. "The guy who wrote those ('Underage Thinking') songs is a very different guy. That's the me that was in high school, writing those songs. I'm older. I've got my own place. It's weird; it's starting to feel like my life more, if that makes sense."
Geiger is in the midst of determining the track list for his next album, tentatively titled "The March" -- but in a very different way. He's launched an online fan survey at his Web site called TG33, which allows fans to listen to the 33 songs he's worked on for the set and vote for them, either outright or by buying individual song downloads.
"Between all those things -- what songs wind up doing the best as far as votes and purchases and streams -- that's how we'll figure it out," explains Geiger, who's playing mostly new material on his current concert tour. "It's exciting for me, and I think it's exciting for them as well. I'm glad they can get to hear so much of what I'm working on."
He's also not worried about whether the promotion will cannibalize album sales when "The March" comes out in September.
"I think there's a certain amount of risk in that," Geiger said. "They're still buying the music, so that's nice. If they do buy the music and don't feel like buying the CD, that's one thin. I'm just happy the have the music. And when the album comes out, hopefully they'll buy that, too."
Geiger will also have nine songs on the soundtrack for "The Rocker," a movie in which he stars as the leader of a garage band for which his ne'er-do-well uncle (Rainn Wilson of "The Office") plays drums. Emma Stone, Josh Gad and Christina Applegate also star in the film, which is due out Aug. 1. Famously ousted Beatles drummer Pete Best makes a cameo appearance. The soundtrack is due out July 22.
"It was a really cool experience," Geiger says. "I'm not really a huge team player guy; I wasn't really into sports or anything. But it really helped to be involved in such a huge, collaborative effort like (a movie) and then be able to bring some of that back into my own career, musically collaborating and that sort of thing. It really helped me in terms of being able to open up."
