Tei Shi

Early life

Valerie Teicher was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. to Colombian parents. She spent her childhood in Bogotá, Colombia and her family later moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, and afterwards moved to New York City.

2013–2015: First singles, Saudade and Verde

In the summer of 2013 Tei Shi released her first single, which she announced would later appear on her upcoming debut EP. Titled "M&Ms," Dummy Magazine called the single "transportive and exceedingly gorgeous," stating "minimal background instrumentation is limited to an echoing drum track, mouth organs and a few lonely guitar bits, but they provide a solid framework for her soft, cooing a cappella." A video was released along with the song, and directed by singer-songwriter Grimes' brother Mac Boucher.

She performed her first shows in the fall of 2013, playing at CMJ. According to Noisey, she loops live vocals during her set to create a layered effect.

On November 1, 2013 she released the second promo song for the EP, titled "Nevermind the End." The Fader called the track "slinky" and "more traditionally structured" than her first song. Kim Taylor Bennett of Noisey described the track as one of the "best seven songs" of 2013, and praised her lyrics, harmonies, and tonal buildup. Hypetrak wrote that Tei Shi's "airy" vocals "contrastingly bump well with the heavy production and hints of charming synth pop."

A third promo single, "Nature Vs. Nurture," was released on November 5, 2013. Stereogum wrote that the track is a "cascading bedroom-R&B and future pop track that evolves from quiet, but dizzying layers of harmonies into fleshed out vocal rounds with a Tropcalía-tinged backbone."

Tei Shi released her six-track debut EP Saudade, on November 12, 2013. Among her collaborators was her friend Luca (Gianluca Buccellati), who she had met while a student at Berklee. The word "saudade" is Portuguese, describing a sentimental yearning for someone or for the happiness of a former place or time. Her previous singles were included on the EP, as well as several new tracks. Stated Noisey, it is a "layered masterpiece of melodies that duck and dive, expertly entwined vocal loops, and shivery sonics." Saudade later received a physical release in 2015 through the indie label Turntable Kitchen.

In January 2014, Tei Shi released her first single from Saudade, Adder(f)all", as a free mp3 . She told Rolling Stone that the song resulted from three different song ideas joined together. "Instead of making a really structured song I just looped these three sections/melody lines over one another, building them up and layering with harmonies. It was originally a capella and when the instrumentals were added it really came into its own." In the same month a remix of "Closer (Heart Shaped Birthmark Remix)" by Spirals hit the blogosphere with the prominent blog Kick Kick Snare stating, "SPIRALs has found a way to make something already so smooth into a beautifully jagged juxtaposition of a mixture. A robotic end to a beautiful romance."

She released her second music video in March 2014 for the track "Nevermind the End." Also in March 2014 she was a featured guest on the track "Holiest" by Glass Animals, an English indie rock band. She sings a duet with Glass Animals' Dave Bayley, with both voices representing the perspectives of different characters. Under the Radar called her vocal performance "delicate," with Vogue describing them as "airy and minimalist [and] R&B-inflected."

In summer of 2014 she collaborated with Gianluca Buccellati, and together they arranged and recorded a cover of "No Angel" by Beyoncé. Wrote Stereogum, "In her cover, Tei Shi keeps the song's lovesick drift intact but adds all these trickly little bloop-pop flourishes." The Fader described the cover as an "'80s-leaning take," stating that "breezy vocals and glowing synths were made for this role."

Tei Shi's second EP, Verde, was released digitally on April 14, 2015. Verde later received a physical release on May 5, 2015 through Mermaid Avenue and internationally via Double Denim Records and Caroline Australia. The EP's first single, "Bassically", was released on February 11, 2015. "Bassically" was extremely well-received, accumulating over seven million streams on Spotify and spawning remixes from Body Language and Honne. Canadian singer Grimes called "Basically" "one of the best pop songs of 2050". The music video for "Basically" was directed by Nicolas Pesce and released on February 11, 2015. The video features Tei Shi and a gang of female rebels engaging in firefights around NYC. Tei Shi explained "I wanted the video to look like what the song sounds like – fun and empowering without taking itself too seriously. So we created a fun fictional comic world with a troop of bad ass girls.

The second single from Verde, "See Me", received a music video on August 20, 2015 directed by Dreamtiger and Jonathan Wing. The video was shot in Bogotá, where Tei Shi spent much of her childhood. Speaking about shooting the video, the artist explained "It was a combination of the familiar and the new for me. More than just being a music video, it was an experience that tied in really fittingly with the song for me personally.”

"Get It", the third and final single from Verde, had its own music video released on December 8, 2015. Directed by Dreamtiger, the music video serves up footage of Saturn from NASA's 2004 Cassini mission as a background for Tei Shi herself.

2015–present: Crawl Space

Tei Shi spent much of 2015 and 2016 playing major festivals like Electric Forest and Coachella, as well as opening for fellow musicians Years & Years, Jungle, and Grimes. During this time, she also began work on her first full-fledged album, Crawl Space, and signed a new record deal with Downtown Records.

Tei Shi's debut album, Crawl Space, was officially released on March 31, 2017 through Downtown Records. The title of the album is derived from a "crawl space" she used as a child to confront a fear of the dark.

On January 27, 2017, the first single from Crawl Space, "Keep Running", was released digitally with an accompanying music video directed by Agostina Gálvez.

Musical style

The Fader stated that she is "known for making whisper-y, slow and sensual bedroom pop." Tei Shi jokingly describes her work as its own genre, "mermaid music". In an interview with NY Mag, she stated "personally it’s always hard for me to label it as a genre because it shifts and I try to make music that isn’t one thing or the other."