Manchester Orchestra drummer Tim Very has passed away

The news hit like a bombshell on the most romantic day of the year. On February 14, 2026, Manchester Orchestra announced via social media that their drummer, Timothy Very, had unexpectedly passed away. No cause of death has been disclosed. The band spoke of the “sudden passing of their brother” and described the realisation of his death as a period of “absolute disbelief.”

Timothy Very was born on November 22, 1983, in Pensacola, Florida. Drumming was in his blood — his father was also a drummer, and that early exposure to the instrument laid the foundation for a career that would span more than two decades. As a teenager, Very began touring with local bands out of Pensacola, and it was in that city that he forged a lifelong friendship with Andy Prince, Manchester Orchestra’s current bassist. The two played together in church, long before the big stages would follow.

Before joining Manchester Orchestra, Very made a name for himself as the drummer of San Diego band Waking Ashland. That group, active on Tooth & Nail Records and Immortal Records, released two albums, the second of which, “The Well” (2007), was recorded with Very behind the kit. After Waking Ashland disbanded in 2007, Very remained hungry for new challenges.

In 2011 came the moment that would define his career. Manchester Orchestra, founded in 2004 in the suburbs of Atlanta by singer-songwriter Andy Hull, was looking for a new drummer after Jeremiah Edmond had left the band to focus on his family and the band’s label Favourite Gentlemen. Very was a perfect fit. His recording debut with the band came that same year with the album “Simple Math”, a concept record built around Hull’s life story that would go on to earn two MTV Video Music Award nominations. The title track was additionally honoured at the European Camerimage Awards.

What followed was an unbroken run of albums on which Very left his mark. On “Cope” (2014), a raw post-hardcore record that climbed to fifth position in the UK album charts, he provided the percussive foundation for what critics described as the most aggressive music the band had ever made. The acoustic mirror album “Hope”, released that same year, demonstrated his versatility — from thunderous force to restrained subtlety. With “A Black Mile to the Surface” (2017), produced by Catherine Marks, the band reached a new artistic peak. The single “The Gold” broke through to number one on Billboard’s Adult Alternative Songs chart. On “The Million Masks of God” (2021) and “The Valley of Vision” (2023), Very remained the rhythmic anchor of a band in constant evolution.

Outside of Manchester Orchestra, Very was active as a session drummer and collaborated with a diverse range of artists, including B.o.B, Bad Books (Hull’s joint project with Kevin Devine), Chris Staples and Brother Bird. He was a Zildjian and Vic Firth endorser, released his own drum sample library through Nashville Sampling Co., and ran a podcast in which he spoke with creatives from various disciplines about their artistic paths.

The statement Manchester Orchestra published on Instagram and X painted the picture of a man whose human qualities were at least as impressive as his musical talent. The band wrote that Very immediately endeared himself to everyone he met, and that his humour and energy formed the foundation on which the entire MO universe ran. Strangers quickly became friends, and friends became family, the band said. Above all, Very was a devoted father. The band called him the most joyful father you could imagine.

Very’s passing comes at a particularly painful moment. Just ten days earlier, on February 4, Manchester Orchestra had announced their new live album “Union Chapel (London, England)”, scheduled for release on March 20 via Loma Vista Recordings. The album, recorded during a sold-out three-night residency at the historic Union Chapel in London in the autumn of 2023, features Andy Hull and Robert McDowell in an intimate, stripped-back setting with reimaginings of songs from across the band’s entire catalogue. Frontman Hull was set to follow the release with a solo tour of the US. What impact Very’s passing will have on these plans is not currently known.

Over more than two decades, Manchester Orchestra has built a body of work that ranks among the most layered and emotionally rich in alternative rock. From Hull’s original vision — inspired by a summer spent listening to The Smiths and a desire to form a musical collective rather than a conventional band — it grew into a group that played Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo and Coachella, composed the film score for “Swiss Army Man” (2016) starring Daniel Radcliffe, and organised the annual Thanksgiving festival The Stuffing in Atlanta.

In all of that, Tim Very was the beating heart. The drummer who knew when to unleash and when to hold back. Who wove complex rhythmic textures beneath Hull’s raw, searching voice. And who, according to everyone fortunate enough to know him, made the room brighter simply by being in it.

Tim Very was 42 years old.