Photo courtesy of Tiberius

Not enough people know this, but being in a band is hard work. It’s a lot of schlepping shit around, trying to find parking. It’s long hours, late nights, and great personal expense. There’s a lot of self-imposed pressure and your take home pay isn’t that great either. It can wear on you. People wonder why bands break up, I’m amazed they happen at all. 

Brendan Wright’s Tiberius has been an active entity since 2017 and in that time has transformed from a bedroom dream-pop project into what Wright calls “farm emo.” Today, we’re thrilled to premiere their new single “sag,” and we even caught up with Wright to get the scoop.

Though the song is named for the Saggitarius season when it was written, Wright has been pronouncing the song’s title with a hard-G to reflect their low-hanging mental state at the time. They describe the personal anguish of professional dissatisfaction with their musical project and weigh a move to New York City. Been there.

“From my perspective, the reason a lot of bands end up leaving town is because Boston lacks the infrastructure to be a big music city,” Wright said. Ambition can be a shackle here. “I think that if you’re in a Boston band and you’re trying to be the next big thing, people have to know you – particularly people in the industry have to know you, and there’s a better chance of that happening in one of those industry cities.” 

In “sag” Wright distills the agony of band life–the tantalizing proximity to success, the toll it can take on your psyche–into punchy couplets. There’s a great line about “dragging amps and dragging ass,” and once it’s time to “play a show, play a show, play a show,” they sound utterly exhausted. “My aspiration for Tiberius is to just keep doing it and to keep getting better at it until I’m dead,” they said. While that might sound grim, Wright is a true believer in art for art’s sake. “For those who genuinely love making art, participating in their scene, and continually trying to push themselves to get better at what they do, opportunity will follow.” 

The song ends with a question: “Why do I keep on trying?” Wright’s answer: community. “I think something that people don’t realize is how awesome our Boston music scene is. I think it’s a warmer environment than perhaps what people may think of when they think of Boston, which I think has a gruff and colder reputation.” 

You can stream “sag” here, courtesy of your friends at Allston Pudding.