Music

Born Superstars

Giving a Poseur Some Attention

by Kathleen Wilson

A couple times a year, a band comes seemingly out of nowhere and makes a fast impression on Seattle's chattering music scene. Several weeks back, folks who keep their ears to the ground started mentioning Poseur, often recounting a remarkable set played by the three-piece at Capitol Hill's tiny Coffee Messiah, or the band's spellbinding rendition of Animotion's "Obsession" during a recent '80s tribute night at the Crocodile. I tracked down Poseur's loquacious frontman/songwriter Brendan Titrud, who spent a few minutes explaining how elements as diverse as Melvins, U2, and Coldplay influence his band, and how he employs poet Rainer Maria Rilke's theory that one should "live to write," sighting it as the motivation behind his constant output of songs. Even if he did write the bulk of the songs on his band's demo during a particularly agoraphobic time of his life.

"I was very claustrophobic when I wrote "Fake I.D.," he confesses. "That was written during a period of time where I didn't leave the apartment." Indeed, manipulation, alienation, and how those two actions drive hipsters to navigate life is summed up in the lyric, "For intimacy I need a fake I.D." The song bristles with an unsettling sense of fear and envy.

Since recording Poseur's demo, which featured sampled beats rather than live instruments, Titrud has gathered a live band, featuring--in addition to his own guitar--a bassist and drummer that the frontman calls so talented in their own right that he's sure he'll soon be part of two more bands. "Lindsey [Agnew] and Matt [Engebretson] are born superstars and I know there will be side projects," says the Omaha, Nebraska transplant of his Minnesota-raised bandmates. "We have this great chemistry when we play together, even though they've pretty much only been playing their instruments since they joined the band in September."

Though Poseur has garnered enough attention to get shows at big-league clubs like the Crocodile and Graceland, Titrud prefers smaller venues like Coffee Messiah because of their intimacy. "I'm used to playing in Omaha, where the only all-ages venues are coffee shops," he explains exuberantly. "I like playing to an audience that sits right in front of us. Also, we sound exactly like we do at practice."

Buy Tickets for Other Events