INTRODUCTION & BACKGROUND

Please introduce yourself and share a bit about your background. Tell us a bit about yourself. (Location, artist name, the works!)

My name is Brendan Wright, and I've been making music under the name Tiberius for nearly a decade.

My hometown Rutland, was more or less a passing through town for skiers, with a dilapidated strip running through the middle. It offered little to do. My teenage years were pretty consumed by listening to and playing music, mostly with my best friends Jordan and Noah.

When I went off to college in 2015, I started making music under the moniker Tiberius. At that point it was a bedroom project and a safety blanket for some more personal thoughts and a place where I could explore a musical landscape without anyone looking over my shoulder. Naturally it started off pretty rough - probably rougher than most artists would want to keep out online [see all Tiberius 2015-2019] but it's nice to be reminded of where you start.

I figured if it wasn't going to be good, it might as well be honest, that way at the very least people might go easy on me when they'd criticize it. That kind of became my only rule.

I live in Boston now, and feel very passionate about the local music scene and supporting my pals who also make art and music.

MUSICAL IDENTITY

How would you describe your style of music?

I think it's confessional emo country tunes that have a bit of a psych and a shoegaze influence. They're more or less pop rock tunes, but with all sorts of dressings on 'em.

How is your personality reflected in your work?

Tiberius certainly reflects the more introspective, anxious, and snarky parts of my personality. I'm a pretty anxious person, and have been on antidepressants since about the time I started this project. I feel like Tiberius is my most honest outlet, and also an opportunity for me to say things that I might feel a little more intensely than I may let on in everyday conversation. Sometimes those are really first draft thoughts, and other times they're ruminations and rewrites and anxieties that've been living under the surface for years.

Describe your creative process when you write new music.

I try to observe my feelings as much as I possibly can everyday, and write them down as often as possible. When I get a chance to pick up a guitar, usually, I'll draw from notes for inspiration, or I'll try the best I can to just start singing and not think too hard about what comes out. I mostly just try to pay attention to if it feels good to say. From there, I'll usually try to make a home demo and/or show it to some of the Tiberius family to try to make it work in ~the rock show format~.

CURRENT WORK

What is the name of your latest releases? What was the inspiration for that release? What challenges or unexpected moments did you encounter during the writing/recording process?

I wrote our upcoming record, "Troubadour," in a period of deep uncertainty within myself and my surroundings.

I talk with my therapist a lot about how I define myself in relation to the other. I compare a lot. I understand myself as how I serve other people. In this period, a lot of the relationships I had to the "others" were changing around me, and I fell into an identity crisis. My self esteem got really low. I started writing constantly. Music became my best friend again. At the end of it all, I had all these particularly vulnerable songs, about heartbreak and change, that I've since developed a more complicated relationship with. I don't feel good about the person I was at that time, and it's hard at times to face them as I promote these recordings for release.

PROMOTION & ENGAGEMENT

What strategies do you find most effective for promoting your music?

When it comes to promotion, If it's not fun for me, it's simply not fun for anyone else. I really don't like to take promoting my music too seriously. The music is extremely serious, and I feel like the promotion actually gives me an outlet for my less serious side. I do like making silly videos, or skits. I also like to try to make my social media posts generally as casual as possible. To me it makes me feel like I'm not bullshitting anyone, even when we're all kind of bullshitting each other online anyway.

How do you engage with your fans online and offline?

I think I prefer to meet people in person as much as possible. When someone engages me about my music, I'm always really flattered, but I actually really don't like talking about myself too much - or at least not when it feels like it's out of a conversational balance. I like asking people about their passions, and what gets them up in the morning. I belong to a scene where most fans of my music also make art or do creative stuff themselves, so I usually just try to become a fan of what they're doing as much as I can. And then I get to take home something to be excited about.

What upcoming promotional activities or releases are you most excited about?

I got to make a ratty VHS video for 'Sag' which was really fun to edit together. I've been collecting a lot of super 8 film from the past year that I'm excited to edit into some shorts. I'm also very much excited for our 'Troubadour' cassette run. I'm a big tape head, and I love physical media.

How can folks contact you (socials/email/websites etc.)

I'm on instagram too much and usually try to respond to emails as much as I can (tiberiuswright@gmail.com).

Other than that we got:

• threads
• Twitter
• TikTok
• Facebook
• Website

ADDITIONAL INSIGHTS

Is there anything else of interest that we should have asked about? Please include it here.