We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tenebrum (“Tene” for short). We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tenebrum below.

Tenebrum, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

In 2021, I made a resolution for this year: release a single.

“A single” was a purposeful low-ball. I assumed that just getting started on a project would give me the momentum I needed to really start making music, to create a sound, to do all those things young musicians are obsessed with doing. I use that method a lot in life to make progress; start one thing, then let the feeling of finishing it propel you onto the next task, then the next, and so on. It usually works wonders.

2022, however, wound up being a strange year. My life changed in many negative ways and many positive ones, and even in ways that had both upsides and downsides. There was a whole maelstrom of growth, mainly involving me identifying and outgrowing childish old habits that I’d let into my adult life. None of those habits were good. Learning what they were and cutting them out was almost as painful as living with them, too.

I put everything on hold during those months (things got bad during the summer) and threw myself at work. I began gigging, producing, learning music on overdrive … consuming and putting in but never getting out. In the fall of this year, my home became something like a bed and breakfast to me — I recall an entire business week where Monday to Thursday, I arrived home as late as 4 AM, and had to wake up between 6 AM and 9 AM — as few as two hours later. 22-hour days on 2 hours of sleep is not something I would ever recommend to anyone, but it kept me distracted from the truth: even though I was putting effort into myself, changing, finding work, and making money, I was becoming jaded and angry. There were moments when it leaked into my demeanor, and those moments let me know that what I was doing wasn’t the way to truly learn and grow.

So I revisited my 2022 resolution. It was November by then, so I didn’t have a ghost of a chance of getting anything fully original out by the end of the year, but I did take some time to really sit down, to audit myself and my life since quarantine (the year I became an adult), and to decide on what I could teach myself with that story — and more importantly, what I could teach others.

That night, “Anomie” was born. The first full-length project I’ve set my sights on as “tenebrum.” At present it sits as a collection of notes in my bedroom, detailing 7 songs, the natures of each, and the nature of their relationships to one another. Looking through them, visualising them as a completed work, they feel vulnerable — something I’ve disserviced myself for years by not being.

Anomie is the most terrifying, most complex, and most necessary thing I’ve done yet, and will be the start of a journey that spans my entire life going forward. That’s why it’s the most meaningful project I’ve ever worked on.

Tenebrum, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m tenebrum, and I hate capitalising the first letter of my name.

But who I am isn’t as important as what I am. I’m a musician in just about every sense of the word. I perform, I compose, I record, I mix, and I’ve still got a small enough head about it all to admit that I can’t master to save my life.

I pride myself on versatility, and I take on challenges every day. Just a few weeks ago, I played bass in a band for which I normally play tenor saxophone; obviously, knowing the music by ear made the switch easy, but it was still an entire five-song set to learn in a matter of two very busy days, and I did so quite well by all accounts. A week before that I assisted in the writing of the score for a short film; another new undertaking that I was told I handled gracefully.

My goal in life is to always be learning and changing, and to that end I offer my services as a songwriter, composer, bassist, and tenor saxophonist to fellow artists all over Orlando, and even outside of the city remotely when applicable. I’m ambitious, resourceful, and an everyman — if an “everyman” can be nonbinary.

Nowadays, I’ve begun playing shows myself as well, both at open mics and in local venues, with the help of the Night Sky Collective, a band formed of musicians whose causes align with my own. We all work to enrich the lives of anyone who chooses to stop by and listen to us, always.

Because the dusk, “tenebrum,” isn’t the flashiest or most exciting part of the day, but it’s still inevitable, and those who seek it out are always enriched by the experience.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

I’m a big fan of Web Animator-turned-Showrunner Zach Hadel, currently popular for co-writing Adult Swim’s Smiling Friends, among other things. He’s done a lot of public speaking on his creative process since breaking into the sphere of TV animation, and in his appearances, he’s been very forthcoming about his takes on the creative process and turning that process into a living. I’ve rewatched his first appearance on The Create Unknown podcast (a creativity-themed interview style podcast, hosted by Keven Lieber and Matt Tabor of VSauce fame) many times, and every time I’m struck and heartened by Hadel’s overall message; making it in “the industry” is about perseverance.

I tend to get bogged down a lot by the idea that my work needs to be “special enough” or “unique enough,” but the truth is that ideas in the world of commercial creativity are almost always unique, and that what really sets creators apart from one another is how much they’re willing to invest in their ideas and how long they’re willing to stand behind them with confidence. Remembering that pride and confidence are half the battle is definitely an ongoing challenge for me, but that interview is a great reminder for when I feel unfocused or ungrounded in the truth.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I’ve always had a special interest in communication. My mother started reading to me the moment I was brought home after the hospital stay that led to my birth, and since then I feel my entire being has been full of concepts that I understand but can’t articulate with just normal speech.

Music is my answer to this issue. To sing, to play, to write, is to convey a feeling in a way that speaking eleven languages at once couldn’t compare to. It’s a science and an art, a use of our fundamental and simple senses to express feelings that are anything but simple or fundamental. My favorite part of being an artist is undertaking the challenge of expressing those feelings in some way or another, because we as a race have invented so many different ways to go beyond language and communicate what we feel.

I’ll honestly never know whether I truly want to become “good” at that communication — it’s a very dog-chasing-car type of problem for me. If, somehow, I discover the perfect way to say what’s on my mind, will that satisfy me? Maybe we’ll never know. Learning to appreciate that uncertainty has been its own reward.

Contact Info:

• Website: tenebrvm.carrd.co
• Instagram: @tenebrvm
• Twitter: @tenebrvm

Image Credits
n/a (all personal photos)