Timothy Very, the longtime drummer of Manchester Orchestra, has died. Bandmates Andy Hull, Robert McDowell and Andy Prince confirmed the information of Very’s demise on Saturday (Feb. 14).
His explanation for demise has not been reported.
Very joined Manchester Orchestra for the group’s third full-length album, Easy Math, which was recorded in 2010 and launched through Favourite Gents in 2011, when it debuted within the prime 10 on Billboard‘s Prime Rock Albums and Prime Various Albums charts. He started touring with them beginning that 12 months.
“The whole Manchester Orchestra household has been devastated by the sudden passing of our brother, Timothy Very,” the band wrote in an announcement on Instagram Saturday night. “Essentially the most beloved human being any of us had been fortunate sufficient to know on this life. We’ve all been dreading sharing this information as we’re all nonetheless in absolute disbelief.
“Tim was immediately likable and interacted with everybody he met with kindness and heat. His giggle was infectious and he instantly made individuals really feel invited and inspired. His humor and vitality had been the very basis that held collectively the complete MO universe. Strangers shortly grew to become associates and associates grew to become household.
“He had an plain gentle that was solely matched by his dedication and love for the craft that he was clearly placed on earth to do. No phrases can ever do him justice. Please know, if you’re somebody who liked Tim, he liked you too.
“The one factor that Tim liked greater than creating music was being together with his household. You’d be pressed to discover a extra joyful dad.
“We love you Tim, thanks for loving us. You’re a drive of positivity that will probably be a continuing presence in the remainder of our days,” Manchester Orchestra’s observe mentioned.
Very formally began working with the group — initially shaped by frontman Andy Hull within the suburbs of Atlanta, Ga., in 2004 — upon former drummer Jeremiah Edmond’s departure in 2010.
Very’s first dwell efficiency with Manchester Orchestra was in Camden, London, in 2011 on the U.Ok. leg of the band’s tour in assist of Easy Math. Throughout an interview the next day with Alter the Press, he mentioned, “I threw up throughout it. It’s been superior. I can discuss it for hours, however I’ll simply say that is what I’ve all the time needed to do and these are guys I’ve recognized for a very long time. It’s the perfect.”
He stayed with the band via the time of his demise, showing on the albums Cope/acoustic companion Hope (2014), A Black Mile to the Floor (2017) and The Million Masks of God (2021), and the EP The Valley of Imaginative and prescient (2023). [Manchester Orchestra has a live project, Union Chapel (London, England), set to be released via Loma Vista on March 20, 2026. The set was recorded in 2023, during a special three-night residency at the historic church.]
“I assume I want to describe myself as a songwriter’s drummer,” Very mentioned in an episode of the podcast Drummers on Drumming in 2022. “I’d prefer to assume that after doing this for 20 years or so, no matter it’s been at this level, that I’m bringing one thing to the desk that isn’t simply drums and grooves and all that, nevertheless it’s understanding what a tune ought to have, or may have in it, to hopefully improve it or hopefully add one thing — a taste, a really feel to it … Leaving your mark on a tune and feeling like, ‘Man, that’s higher ’trigger I performed on it,’ that’s sort of what I’m all the time kind of circling round and hoping to succeed in: having an impression on a tune that’s simply that proper factor.”
Very, whose father can be a drummer, started enjoying the drums himself as a teen in Pensacola, Fla., when a neighbor noticed considered one of his dad’s unused drum units and requested why he wasn’t enjoying.
“My dad heard me banging on them and he got here down and set ’em up the best means,” he recalled of that day. “That basically sort of began the entire path. I wasn’t a kind of guys that bought to start out enjoying after I was like six years previous, bought classes out the gate. It took me a short while to sort of discover my id. I immediately knew that this was one thing I used to be going to be doing for a very long time.”
Dave Grohl was an enormous affect on Very’s drumming, he mentioned, noting that it was Nirvana’s heyday within the ’90s when he began on the instrument. “I immediately jumped in and began attempting to be taught Nirvana songs, which I believe is a killer place to start out as a drummer as a result of he [Grohl] writes attainable drum elements, however they’re the right elements for songs. It’s a fantastic introduction on how, what I hope to do is service a tune, sort of improve it — he nonetheless will get to have his enjoyable, however he’s doing the best factor for the tune.”
“It sounds so trite once you’re younger, when individuals are like, ‘Consider in your desires!’ However a few of that’s true,” Very mentioned extra not too long ago, in a podcast clip on how he bought his begin in music that was printed on Manchester Orchestra’s Patreon in July 2025. “For those who truly consider in your self and are keen to simply chunk down on the dream and go like, man, I’m gonna cling in right here. No matter it’s, no matter you’re doing on the market — it doesn’t have to simply be music — this may go throughout the board for something. You can also make it occur. It simply received’t occur the way in which you thought it will.”
