Tim Vanderweele

Tim Vanderweele is an American-British musician and filmmaker, most known for being the bassist and keyboard player for his band ***Brynnerd**.*

He has studied Jazz Composition at the New School from 2009 and 2010, never finishing his degree. He specialized in percussion, although he would later play Bass Guitar and Keyboard in the band.

## Physical description

### Height

1m85

He is one of the four founding members of the band *Brynnerd,* together with Bryn E. Carter, Carter Willson and Aaron Hoghstrasser. Tim was one of the first intial 'fans' of Bryn's music, discovering her through early tapes and live recordings that made it to New York, where he was studying for his degree. He got to know Carter via Aaron, a friend who he knew from the New York Jazz scene, and together they joined the band, only meeting Brynnerd in december of 2010.

Tim is also an accomplished filmmaker, having made and produced several short films, documentaries and music videos. Almost all of Brynnerd's music video's are directed by Tim, and as of 2020 all of the photoshoots or additional material surrounding her are too. He is best known for his long documentary ***Everything in its wrong Place**,* detailing the tumoultuous 2011 Computer Analyzed tour of the band. His documentary filmmaking knows a very personal dimension, only discussing topics or events he was himself involved in. Experts have dubbed his style as ***immersive realism**.*

## Youth

##### **Growing up in Oxford**

Tim Vanderweele was born in Oxford in 1992. His parents are ***Julian Vanderweele*** and ***Siobhan Jenson**,* a publisher and a nurse, respectively. Tim grew up in Oxford, where his father worked for the Oxford University Press. When Tim was eight years old, his father was layed off. Tim's nephew Kenneth lived with them for two years in Oxford, as his family was unable to provide good care because of the mothers long battle with lung cancer.

##### **Teenage Life in Baltimore**

The family moved to America, as his mother had lived there before Tim was born The family moved back to Baltimore, where Tim would attend a local music academy. He lived in Yorktown, a middle class suburb of the city. He attended the ***Towson High School*** from 2004 to 2008. At the School he was known as a very artistic and outgoing person, always participating in every kind of school play or band practice. He was known for his outlandish way of playing the drums, often disobaying teacher's orders at what he should play, and inventing his own licks. In his High School year book, he was voted as *Most Likely To Win A Grammy.*

Tim's teenage years were *"Calm, suburban, and idyllic. After the turbulence of my father's lay off it was exactly what we needed. My british accent suddenly dissipated entirely and my mother could resume being a proud American again. What I lacked in counterculture in the suburb, I found in the city".* Tim got quickly aquainted in the Baltimore music scene as a teenager, and frequented local venues and concerts. He would often stay over at friends in the city or couchsurf, his parents being pretty liberal with his curfew because of his stable grades.

Through the Baltimore music scene he befriended ***Monique Roels***, who would later become his manager. Then 20, Monique was a Belgian student (Vanderweele's father has Belgian roots) at MICA for performing arts. Tim briefly played the drums for her band *DStractor,* frequently filling in for their regular drummer. It was the first time he appeared in a non-Jazz collective before entering college. Monique took notice of his talent, but especially his ability to direct, stating that her group felt more 'glued' together when he was there. *"For a 16-year old kid it was impressive to see how he would listen, but also deviate just right. He would stop during rehearsals and tell me to lower my voice, or jump around more... Live it all made sense."* The pair lost contact during Tim's entry to New York, but contacted her again when recording *OK Computer* in Seattle, stating that *"Monique... Get ready, the world's about to change in just a few months. I've got some people here, me included, who could use your talents",* was the voice message Tim left cold-entry onto Monique's phone. The fragment would be later used in his documentary about the album. Monique was then hired as their tour manager after Alana Ferguson was fired by the band, and later stepped over to managing Tim only.

His father Julian thought classes in English at the local Towson University, while his mother Siobhan worked for the *University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center,* the same hospital that employed her previously. His father's payroll was increased generously, and the family could afford more than in England. Tim's nephew Kenneth left after two years in the States, and left to study PPE at *Exeter University* back in England.

Tim developed a closer relationship with his father, and they would often go fly fishing together in surrounding Baltimore nature. Julian also influenced him to read more diffucult material, containing a wide array of plays and difficult literature. He also pushed Tim to inscribe himself to act for the *Chesapeake Shakespeare co.*, where he got selected in 2006 and 2007 to act on stage. In 2006 he played *Rosencrantz* in *Hamlet*, and in 2007 he played *Sebastian* in *The Tempest.* For Tim, these first experiences on stage sparked his interest in *videography:* he would record the plays on tape to rewatch them and learn from his performances. *"It was the first time I thought about telling a story through showing things, sounds,... A complete composition of itself."* He has noted that the role of Rosencrantz was far too comical for him, and that he had wished to be casted in more 'dramatic' roles.

## Studies

**Move to New York**

Tim moved to New York for his college, and studied Jazz Composition at the New School. He was the only one of his graduating class to move to the city. Feeling pretty isolated at first, he found his ground in playing for small Jazz collectives and participating in competitions. He won the *New School Young Percussionist* competition in 2009, being the first freshman to do so. Thanks to this win he got to play three nights at The Blue Note with a band of his choice, and controversially he played an alternative repertoire. This is where he met Aaron Hoghstrasser, an aloof and quick-witted student from Juilliard. They kept contact and would sometimes play together.

In his second year of college, Tim took up some film school courses at the NYU school, but never pursued the study. He starred in several theatre productions in the city, including *The Death of a Salesman, Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?* and *A View from a Bridge.* Some small-scale recognition surrounded his performances, being mentioned in articles in the Times and the Herald. He has later mentioned that this on-stage experience has enhanced his music performance, and spiked his interest in directing.

In New York he was known as a down-to-earth but stern person, who could work whole day on something if he was given a project. He was a avent smoker, always rolling his own cigarettes which earned him a nickname amongst his friends.

**Discovery of Early Tapes**

in 2010 he directed his first documentary short film, documenting the Jazz department of the New School. The film was well-accepted by the school community but didn't get any critical aclaim. Tim would also record and publish basement sessions of smaller bands placing in New York, distributing them on CD and tape. This interest in niche recordings is how he stumbled on a tape of *Brynnerd and the Bullet,* which contained early recordings of *Creep*, *You* and *Street Spirit*. He was completely captivated and tried everything he could do to find out more about the band, contacting the phone number listed on the tape. The only thing he found was the name *Carter Willson* listed online under a listing of live performances happening in Seattle.

Tim would make copies of the tape he found and distributing it under his friends, quickly cultivating a cult following. Aaron was one of the first people to get a copy of such a tape. Unknown to him, Tim would upload the recordings online and tweak the quality a bit. He managed to upload recordings to Napster, SoundCloud, Bandcamp and Youtube, and created a bare-bones website where all the recordings could be found. On the same website he published a page: *"Mail me if you are Brynnerd",* as a cling to hope to find the people responsible for making the music. The site would fly under the radar of Brynnerd and Carter, but 'almost by fate' they would meet later anyways.

## Career

In Late spring of 2010 Carter would embark on a trip from Seattle to New York, initially to scour out record deals and find people who where interested in playing, but ultimately his goal became finding *Aaron Hoghstrasser.* Carter had met Aaron the summer before at an indie music festival in Portland, they had connected over their taste in music and exchanged phone numbers, initially staying in contact and exchanging bands. Because of Carter's drastic change in lifestyle, he didn't have his landphone anymore and didn't remember Aaron's phonenumber. Because of the things he knew about Aaron, he found him in three hours: he waited in the lobby of the percussion department of Juilliard, figuring that he had to meet the guy eventually.

Unknown to Carter, Aaron had already heard some recording of *Brynnerd and The Bullet* through Tim. Aaron immediatly agreed to join the project over in Seattle, and handed in his letter of resignation from the university the same week upon meeting Carter again. Aaron also took him to meet Tim, the reason why the website existed and that the tape was available online (already having 10,000 plays across all platforms, all limited to New York). Carter immediatly noticed the potential in Tim as a band member, and took to convincing him to join him West.

While Carter was in New York the three of them renewed the recordings on all the sites, as Carter had brought more up-to-date mixes of *Creep, You, Street Spririt, Fake Plastic Trees* and *Just.* The singles immediatly gained underground traction, and they would later release the whole album in August 2010.

Tim recolated to Seattle together with Aaron, joining the project on a whim full of youthly idealism and enthousiasm. In July they started rerecording and remixing *The Bends,* which contained all songs written by only Brynnerd and Carter. Eventually they re-released their album in August 2010, but it only knew limited initial succes as they were self-published.

## Filmography

### *Early Documentaries* (2009-2012)

##### *The New School* (2009)

The Film runs around 55 minutes and documents the peculiar Jazz Department of the New School. He uses a bottom-to-top approach, by interviewing passers-by on the street, to prospective students auditioning, to current students, to students playing their final performances to faculty. The film is full of hallway shots, excerpts shot in class and day-to-day moments in the school (filmed in cafetaria, student bars, performances). It marks Tim's first documentary and film, and shows his interest in his daily life environment. We don't follow any specific person or narritive, but rather a structure that Tim followed himself as a student. The Film received positive reactions by the school, being showed on multiple occasions and still linked on the school website page. It did not receive any critical reactions as it was a limited realease.

##### *Settlers, 1 backpack* (2010)

Filmed during Aaron and Tim's move from New York to Seattle. He filmed handing in their letters of resignation at their colleges, their last performances there, sporadic goodbye parties, phone calls with Carter, and eventual departure. Half of the documentary is spend in transit, with the duo being on Amtraks or on Greyhounds. Each of them only had one backpack with them, with 500 dollars on their bank accounts. They talk to the camera, or the camera is facing them while they're having conversations: they discuss the new york jazz scene, Tim's annoying roommate (who shall not be named), Aaron's ex girlfriend Alicia, why Wittgenstein is actually annoying, Aaron's failed attempt at a sketchbook and Oxford. Occasionally, other people talk, some in conversation with the duo, others in interview format.

##### *Vermeculite* (2012)

Captures interviews with Brynnerd and Carter, talking about Master and Subject (Brynnerd as Master, Carter as Subject). They take on the aparent roles as the film progresses, and their relationship becomes more abusive as time moves on. Master strips all Subject's rights, and Subject even forgets he had them to begin with. The film is seen as a semi-documentary, where the film begins rooted in reality, but soon new rules are introduced. In the end you end up with a whole different reality than you started with, which is completely based in fiction. The film was made at the end of the *Computer Analyzed* tour, with comic intent.

### *Towson* (2013)

About the town he grew up in after moving from Oxford. He talks to old friends, crushes, his first girlfriend, teachers, store-owners, neighbors and his parents. The documentary was highly praised for it's personal touch but universal value, and for the fact that it abstains from interviewing. What we see and hear are real conversations, curiosities and places. He revisits High School hallways, Baltimore streets and venues, theatre backstage spaces.

### *Lapdog* (2015)

Marks the beginnnig in Tim's work that focuses mainly on *Brynnerd* and their characteristics. Whereas Towson felt like a documentary with a personal touch, Lapdog marks the beginning of Vanderweele's *immersive realism* era, a style which he still utilises in all of his work. Later talking about *Lapdog,* Tim commented that *"It became clear to me that there was so much I had to say and show with these particular people... My worlds of people. Fiction or nonfiction, I figured they, or me, would always be my starting points. There was nothing else which could be so truthful."*

*Lapdog* shows Bryn sitting on the floor in her Los Angeles home, almost hunched over like the title of the film suggests. She's working on something, papers laying on the ground all around her.

### *Who Rings the Bell, Mr. Hoghstrasser?* (2016)

We follow Aaron in Philadelphia, where he meets old friends of his, and goes to old stores where he used to work. An unexpected meeting happens in the end.

### *Like Spinning Plates* (2017)

First short film. Features Brynnerd walking around New York city at night. Tim takes clear inspiration from Kubrick's cinematography in Eyes Wide Shut. Bryn first enters a store, where she meets the manager of a local band. They take a cab together to a venue, where she meets someone she would rather not meet. She runs away from the venue, running across the Brooklyn Bridge. She then stumbles across Greenwich nightlife after taking the subway there, and gets pulled into a bar by a random friend she sees there. The short film also marks Bryn's first acting performance, after *Vermeculite.*

### *Holy War for Cocaine* (2019)

Brynnerd, Carter and Aaron play a boardgame they've made up themselves while on tour. We follow them through three locations: Vienna, Madrid and Lyon as they simultaneously continue their game in transit. The game takes a week to finish. Everything we see happening in the cities corresponds to their moves in the game (wins, losses). The game is not orchestrated, while the city scenes are; but ultimatly what happens in the city scenes is predestined from the boardgame scenes. The boardgame follows personal references and anecdotes, which keeps the audience guessing to which dynamics are actually going on. The boardgame's name is *Holy War for Cocaine,* as the ultimatle goal is to place your knights in a position that will give you the desired drug, or anti-drug (which means there are two ways of winning it). Refractions in real life contain things like Brynnerd having to swim in the Donau after Carter drowning her knight, Aaron being reminded of a car crash he caused in his youth, in Madrid being confronted by an Andy Warhol Print, and Carter, afraid of heights, who ends up at the Lyon viewpoint.

Tim is entirely absent from this film, the three characters act the whole time like he is not there, which is completely absent from his other films.

### *Calistoga* (2022)

Documents Aaron's house in Calistoga, the people visiting it, living in it and the ideas and conversations that happen there.

### *Everything In Its Wrong Place* (2022)

About the disastrous but life-changing *Computer Analyzed* tour, also about his 'almost brother' Kenneth who died because of a Medical Error in England.

## Personal Life

Tim's nephew Kenneth died of a medical error in 2011 in the *Exeter University Hospital,* being wrongly administered a drug for diabetic patients. It marked a huge turning point in his life and career, and it added extra pressure to the *Computer Analyzed* tour. Controversially, some critics also say that it is one of the reasons why it made it more brilliant, because it added a raw emotional element to it. *"Kenneth was like a brother to me, even if he'd only lived with us for three years in England and the States. He was the older brother I always imaged having".*

In 2015 Tim came out as bisexual, stating that he never felt like he needed a label throughout his life and that he just did what felt right. In 2018 he was linked to *Alana Haim*. In 2021 he started dating the British actor *Ben Wishaw,* and they are still in a relationship together. Tim's newest documentary film *Calistoga* also features his life with Ben extensively.

Tim has stated that Oxford will always feel like home to him, and he often visits there as his partner Ben is based in the nearby London.