Introducing: Tiberius

Based in Boston, Massachusetts, Tiberius is the musical fronted by one Brendan Tiberius Wright. Making melodic rock with a load of heart, their music is often softly spoken, until it needs to be something else, something more.

First up, could you tell us something about yourselves?

I’m kind of caught between feeling like a full blown Masshole and a more introverted character from Vermont.

I take meds to help me combat my anxiety and obsessive compulsive thought patterns. It consistently sparks introspection within myself, which is ideal for songwriting, but hinders me from doing anything productive with it most of the time. I love 7-Eleven sandwiches, but have been trying to cook more.

Who would you say are your main influences?

I tend to really be a sucker for dynamics, melodies, and storytelling. When I was young, pop bands like the Beatles and Nirvana really engrained themselves in my approach to writing music.

In college, I fell in love with contemporary songwriters like King Krule, Car Seat Headrest, and Andy Shauf, and became utterly obsessed with the worlds they created.

As I crossed the threshold into my mid- twenties, Neil Young finally clicked with me, and ended up writing a lot more country stuff. The most consistent comment I get from folks after Tiberius shows is that my voice sounds like “the dude from Pinegrove, but grittier.”

Above all, my favorite bands and biggest influences now are people in my scene – I’ve learned how to be a better songwriter from watching bands like Clifford, Paper Lady, Sweet Petunia, and countless others.

How does the creative process work for you?

I try as much as I can to create everyday – writing notes on my phone, singing in my car, finding some new chords that feel interesting together etc. When something sticks, I try to flesh it out into a song, either making a demo on my laptop, or bringing it to my drummer for structural ideas.

From there I’ll usually try to bring it to the rest of my band and we’ll try to envision it for a live audience. The recorded versions that make it out in the world tend to land somewhere between my original idea and what the rest of my pals put into it. 

Who do you have on heavy rotation right now?

I’ve been listening to a lot of Frog – it’s been the first band in a while where I feel like I’m really living in a discography. There’s actually a live video of them playing at Warehouse XI in Boston that my friend Trent took (Osprey Corp) which kind of serves almost like a ‘best of’ compilation. It’s freaking rad.

Another is Dead Gowns’ newest LP, It’s Summer, I Love You, and I’m Surrounded by Snow. I run a little tape label/duplication service in Allston and I ended up dubbing some tapes for them to sell on their tour.

In the process I ended up relistening to that record a dozen or so times over the last week. It’s one of my favorites from the year. I like to sing the first line to In the Haze, to my partner while we make dinner.

Which comes first – lyrics or melody?

Melody, but heavily informed by syllabic meter. Stuff I wrote in my notes app or journal usually act as seeds for tunes, but it’s really the melody that steers how much room I have to work with.

I also find if the lyrics don’t feel conversational, as in, a person would actually say this in a conversation to another person, then it doesn’t really work. If it feels natural to say, it’ll be natural to hear.

What was the biggest learning curve for you in terms of writing music?

In more cases than most, less is more. I struggle a lot with that generally – especially with the ability to just record and layer things so easily.

Lyrically, I’ve found my songs are much more effective when I don’t overthink the wording. The more I want to come off as sounding introspective and thoughtful, the less effective I am at capturing an emotion or a moment.

What local bands or artists should we be keeping an eye out for?

Clifford, Paper Lady, Sweet Petunia, Winkler, Dead Gowns, Kinship, Gollylagging…honestly so many Boston/New England bands. All pals, all rockstars and all huge influences to me.

What advice would you give someone starting out in the music business?

If you want to play shows, then go to shows. Go out and try to find your new favorite band, and love art for the sake of loving art itself. If you’re not interested in getting to know other people and their art, I can guarantee no one will be very interested in getting to know you.

Fuck trying to be a cool band, or ‘leveling up’ – that shit is stupid and you will never be happy with your music or frankly anyone else’s, if you let yourself believe that.

Could you tell us something about your latest single?

The newest track we have out is a tune called Sag and it’s about this dreaded ‘Allston to Bushwick’ pipeline we have in Boston. A lot of musicians end up using Boston to cut their teeth before heading off to New York or LA to pursue their music careers.

I wrote Sag when I was really playing the ‘comparison game’ in my head, and asking myself what role I wanted music to play in my life. It was the first in a batch about looking at yourself in relation to the others around you, and trying to decipher who you are without that context.

What’s up next for you in terms of live appearances, new music, or anything else you’d like to share?

We’re putting out a record later this year that we’re pretty jazzed about! We’ve been sitting on it for a while, trying to come up with a plan, and we finally got that plan!

We’ve got some shows in August out to the midwest & back, ending with the Rats City Arts Festival in Allston, an awesome hodgepodge of local art and culture.

Sag and Tiberius’ 2023 album Fish in a Pond can be downloaded on Bandcamp and streamed on Spotify. For details on new music and upcoming live events, follow Tiberius on Instagram.