Interview: Tiberius
Left to right: Tiberius Wright, Kelvin (guitarist & singer in Celsius), Marco, Seb. Chillin in the Studio, post-show.
Let’s ask the real questions here. What’s your favorite type of sandwich?
”I don’t know about my favorite, but my go-to has been the 7/11 sandwich. I’ve been really digging the kickin’ chicken salad sandwich. There’s some habanero… chipotle mayo in there? I don’t know. Honestly, you could pick one up and realize there’s none of that in there. But I like it anyways.”
How long have you lived in Boston? How has Boston impacted your music?
”I moved into Boston in the fall of 2019, right after I graduated. I got settled in, got comfortable, ready to make music… then COVID happened.”
”When I got more into the DIY music scene here in Allston/Brighton, I made more friends to jam with, like Christian Pace (on Spotify!) and Kelvin. And they really influenced my music… I got really into louder, fuzzy music”
What was the writing/recording process for your latest release? Was [your album] Lull your latest work?
“[Lull] was stuff I wrote about the transition from college life to Boston life, a lot about self-love and trying to better yourself… a lot of that was written at home”
”Our bigger song we put out, called ‘Pale Ale’, was the real college song we did, it was done with some of the older members of Tiberius”
”We have a song coming out soon, called ‘Fish in a Pond’, and it’s like a small fish in a big pond, or a big fish in a small pond, just being a part of the community and reflecting on yourself at the same time”
What does music mean to you? How did you get into it?
”Music to me is definitely like, my form of creative expression—or just expression in general. I really strive to write honest songs, songs that just feel genuine and come from… inside”
”[My music] is always gonna mean something different to me than it does to someone else”
Tell us about your motivations
”I don’t know man, these are tough questions!”
”This is totally something I love… I just want to make music that feels honest and true to me… coming out of school, I didn’t know what that would look like, and I still don’t know what that would look like, but I know this is what I wanna keep doing”
What about your inspirations? Who did you really like to listen to?
”Some of my inspirations, when I was in college, my friends and I were like a Car Seat Headrest cult… Will Toledo, specifically… Annie Clarke… I really liked, well I still dress like him, Mac DeMarco, and Tame Impala… What do you guys like to listen to? What are your inspirations? Throwing it back at you”
M: Yeah, that’s fine… Honestly, with my growing interest in all the local bands, I just listen to a lot of you guys. A lot of Tiberius, Winkler, Cilantro… I’m in my Indie era, 100%.
S: For me, my music taste sways like crazy. I think I’m a lot like you, I used to listen to a lot of unhinged music, like BMTH, MCR, ETF… then I moved to some real Indie stuff, like Catfish and the Bottlemen…
So, you’re not huge yet, right? You’re on the road there, definitely. What types of roadblocks are you hitting that challenge you as a local artist?
”We had a music scene at Skidmore, but it was small, not much of a scene. But then, coming here, I’ve seen a lot of musicians that were really established… I was a little intimidated…”
”I didn’t want to come off as feeling full of myself by promoting my music… but I still wanted to promote my music… I want to make genuine connections, but in the DIY scene a lot of interactions seem network-y and business-y and ingenuine. I think I struggled a lot navigating the business scene. When I have a conversation I’m thinking should this just be about business? Should I be trying to make a friend here?…”
What do you guys do to engage with the local community?
”Well, you know, there’s the Tiberius Club Picnic… We got the slumber party, big slumber party…”
Whoa, give me the date! I’m there (we never got a date)
”No, but that’s a good question, we could definitely do more”
K: ”An answer, not the best one, but still—whenever we finish a show, I stick around to talk to people, get their name, start a conversation, just make a connection”
K: “Whenever I go to a music venue, my favorite one is Brighton Music Hall (shoutout!), I’ll see some of my favorite musicians there… I just thought it was crazy that they stuck around by their merch tables and talked to people, like they were genuinely interested in their fans and getting to know them… I told myself, even when I get big, if, I always wanna be available to the fans”
One last, fun question. If you suddenly became rich—let’s say, like 10 million—what would be the first thing you do?
”Umm, I would probably consult… my mom. Hahaha, I would be freaking out, I wouldn’t know what to do… definitely pay off some family debts… put some away for a bit, figure out my life… but I would never need that much money, probably give it away to charities”
