Shiver Like Timber, Tamworth

Current band roll call?
Just me and my guitar.

Shiver Like Timber has been around since...
2005, I think, officially. That's when I played my first show in a friend's lounge room in Brisbane.

Let's play Six Degrees of Shiver Like Timber...
Hummmmm. I'm not really sure if I am linked to anybody in particular! Most of the time it is just me freewheelin' on my own.

First song ever written?
Wander/Tumble was the first.

Music-making for you began when...
In high school, I taught myself to play guitar and spent my lunchtimes figuring out Cranberries songs.

Most unusual sound/instrument you've used in your music?
In the background of one of my first demos you can hear the fishtank
burbling...

Strangest gig you've ever played?
Maybe the show I played with Japanther at Urtext in Adelaide because of the interesting mix of bands playing on the night and also the fact that I had just driven overnight from Melbourne and was feeling somewhat delirious.

Do you pin up images when recording to help inspire your songs? (Or put up other things in the studio for the same effect?)
I usually make up songs in my bedroom, where I do have pictures on the walls, yes. Mostly drawings and photos by me and my friends, Polaroid photos and yellowed pictures from 1960s National Geographics. My attic bedroom at my parents' house still has all the posters that I put up when I was 14, posters of horses and teenage dreams.

Unlikeliest thing to influence your music?
I think my music is influenced by everything I've ever come across, from train trips to crumpets, giraffe spots to trumpets.

If you had to offer any of your lyrics as love advice (or life advice), you would offer...
On E.T. & Me: "Don't pull that broken-hearted face, because you know there is always outer space."

Most useful lyrics you've heard in a song?
All of Animal Collective's lyrics are useful because they make me very happy.

Do you think the country/city/town you live in affects your music in any way?
Yes, of course. I grew up in the countryside, in a big open space between Tamworth and Gunnedah and I think you can hear this in my songs.

You would love to record with... Tony Dupe... Soon hopefully.

Favourite person you have performed with/recorded with...
Playing a show with Beirut was pretty exciting.

Outside of Shiver Like Timber, you spend your time...
Riding my bicycle, drawing pictures of monsters and people, cooking dinner for friends, thinking about moving to Iceland.

Next for you is...
Travel and shows around Europe. More recordings.
New songs.

If record stores had to come up with a new genre name to file your music under, it would be called...
Galloping-asteroid-rumble-folk.

Five things you currently love

Musically?
Valet and Atlas Sound.

In Print?
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov... I am thinking about travelling to Russia sometime soon... This book is pure madness set in Moscow.

Locally?
The streets of East London... where I am spending my time these days.

Visually?
I keep looking at people's tattoos... Maybe it's time for me to get one... I've never paid such notice of them until now.

Cinematically?
Old Joy... Such big spaces of greenery and nice music!

Shiver Like Timber, ie Betony Dircks, writes feverish and fragile songs. The raw acoustic strums break away like twigs and her voice catches and burns like a tender flicker that's either about to flame out or start raging intensely. Her song, ET & Me, pretty much breaks my heart into uncollectable pieces everytime I hear it. You can keep up with all her songs and news here.