FAQs

Why “Timber and Steel”?

The name is from the Cat Empire song “The Chariot”. The full lyrics are:

“Our weapons were our instruments, made from our timber and steel, we never yielded to conformity but stood like kings in a chariot that’s riding on a record wheel”

We thought the name was appropriate given that most instruments used in folk music are indeed made from timber and steel.

How can you call yourself a folk music blog when you seem to cover everything from pop to rock to indie as well?

Categorising music is a tricky business. While some artists fall neatly into predefined genres, others seem to do their best to not be pigeon-holed. At Timber and Steel folk music is our focus, but if we stray into other genres it’s because the music is just too good to ignore. Most of the artists we profile have a folk sensibility even if they are not strictly classed as folk.

You seem to be hosting a photo/mp3/video that I own and I didn’t give you permission. Can you take it down?

Of course. We offer this material in the interests of promoting the music we love and increasing awareness of our favourite artists. If you’re unhappy with the way your material is being used drop us an e-mail at timberandsteelaustralia@gmail.com and we’ll happily pull it down off the site.

Why are you so positive all the time? Surely there’s music you want to hate on?

Sure, there’s music we don’t like. But there’s also plenty of pages on the internet already dedicated to hating on artists. Timber and Steel has a genuine love for the folk genre and we want to promote it as much as possible. Keeping to the possitive side of things is the best way to go about doing that.

I’m in a great folk band that I think you guys would love. Can you promote us on Timber and Steel?

Obviously with so much great folk music out there we can’t cover everything and everyone. However we’d love to hear your band and, if we have time and space, run a piece on you. We just can’t guarantee that we can get to everyone.

I like folk music and I love to write. Can I contribute?

Sure! Drop us an e-mail at timberandsteelaustralia@gmail.com first and let us know what you’re interested in writing in. We have no strict guidelines other than stay positive. Pieces should be between 200 and 400 words. Publication of unsolicited pieces is up to Timber and Steel’s editorial discretion. Read through a few of the pieces in each category to get a feel for our style requirements

Ummm, you know no one uses Myspace anymore right? Why do you link there?

We used to link to Myspace a lot because it was a great tool for streaming music. But it’s had various upgrades recently that freeze or crash computers and their music service has become increasingly harder to use. Where possible we avoid Myspace but every now and then we need to link there because their is no other option. If you’re an artist we can’t stress enough how much we would prefer listening to your music anywhere but Myspace!

Why do you never write about my favourite band? They’re folk! You write about Laura Marling in every second post but my favourite band never gets a mention.

Again, we can’t cover everything. If there’s something you think we’re missing out on let us know and we’ll do our best to include it in future.