Timothy Very, the longtime drummer of Manchester Orchestra, has died. Bandmates Andy Hull, Robert McDowell and Andy Prince confirmed the news of Very’s death on Saturday (Feb. 14).
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His cause of death has not been reported.
Very joined Manchester Orchestra for the group’s third full-length album, Simple Math, which was recorded in 2010 and released via Favorite Gentlemen in 2011, when it debuted in the top 10 on Billboard‘s Top Rock Albums and Top Alternative Albums charts. He began touring with them starting that year.
“The entire Manchester Orchestra family has been devastated by the sudden passing of our brother, Timothy Very,” the band wrote in a statement on Instagram Saturday afternoon. “The most beloved human being any of us were lucky enough to know in this life. We’ve all been dreading sharing this news as we are all still in absolute disbelief.
“Tim was instantly likable and interacted with everyone he met with kindness and warmth. His laugh was infectious and he immediately made people feel invited and encouraged. His humor and energy were the very foundation that held together the entire MO universe. Strangers quickly became friends and friends became family.
“He had an undeniable light that was only matched by his dedication and love for the craft that he was clearly put on earth to do. No words can ever do him justice. Please know, if you are someone who loved Tim, he loved you too.
“The only thing that Tim loved more than creating music was being with his family. You’d be pressed to find a more joyful dad.
“We love you Tim, thank you for loving us. You are a force of positivity that will be a constant presence in the rest of our days,” Manchester Orchestra’s note said.
Very officially started working with the group — originally formed by frontman Andy Hull in the suburbs of Atlanta, Ga., in 2004 — upon former drummer Jeremiah Edmond’s departure in 2010.
Very’s first live performance with Manchester Orchestra was in Camden, London, in 2011 on the U.K. leg of the band’s tour in support of Simple Math. During an interview the following day with Alter the Press, he said, “I threw up during it. It’s been awesome. I can talk about it for hours, but I’ll just say this is what I’ve always wanted to do and these are guys I’ve known for a long time. It’s the best.”
He stayed with the band through the time of his death, appearing on the albums Cope/acoustic companion Hope (2014), A Black Mile to the Surface (2017) and The Million Masks of God (2021), and the EP The Valley of Vision (2023).
“I guess I would like to describe myself as a songwriter’s drummer,” Very said in an episode of the podcast Drummers on Drumming in 2022. “I’d like to think that after doing this for 20 years or so, whatever it’s been at this point, that I’m bringing something to the table that isn’t just drums and grooves and all that, but it’s understanding what a song should have, or could have in it, to hopefully enhance it or hopefully add something — a flavor, a feel to it … Leaving your mark on a song and feeling like, ‘Man, that’s better ’cause I played on it,’ that’s kind of what I’m always sort of circling around and hoping to reach: having an impact on a song that’s just that right thing.”
Very, whose father is also a drummer, began playing the drums himself as a teen, when a neighbor spotted one of his dad’s unused drum sets and asked why he wasn’t playing.
“My dad heard me banging on them and he came down and set ’em up the right way,” he recalled of that day. “That really kind of started the whole path. I wasn’t one of those guys that got to start playing when I was like six years old, got lessons out the gate. It took me a little while to kind of find my identity. I instantly knew that this was something I was going to be doing for a long time.”
Dave Grohl was a huge influence on Very’s drumming, he said, noting that it was Nirvana’s heyday in the ’90s when he started on the instrument. “I instantly jumped in and started trying to learn Nirvana songs, which I think is a killer place to start as a drummer because he [Grohl] writes attainable drum parts, but they’re the perfect parts for songs. It’s a great introduction on how, what I hope to do is service a song, kind of enhance it — he still gets to have his fun, but he’s doing the right thing for the song.”
“It sounds so trite when you’re young, when people are like, ‘Believe in your dreams!’ But some of that is true,” Very said more recently, in a podcast clip on how he got his start in music posted on Manchester Orchestra’s Patreon in July 2025. “If you actually believe in yourself and are willing to just bite down on the dream and go like, man, I’m gonna hang in here. Whatever it is, whatever you’re doing out there — it doesn’t have to just be music — this can go across the board for anything. You can make it happen. It just won’t happen the way you thought it would.”
