by CHRIS BARRY

When it comes to making music, or any creative endeavour for that matter, sometimes it’s simply better not to care too much.

After all, it’s not like you’ll ever see any real money for your efforts, and besides, chances are, nobody else takes your music anywhere near as seriously as you do. But most importantly, audiences can smell your earnestness and desperation a mile off, and, much like a fresh turd in your grandma’s diaper, the stench can be somewhat unappealing.

Which perhaps explains a bit why everyone seems to be so thrilled about local folk-rock upstarts Timber! these days. ’Cuz Timber! don’t care.

“It’s not so much that we don’t care,” says Timber! axeman Warren Spicer, “but all of us have our other musical projects going on, so there’s absolutely no pressure with this band. We’re not worrying about our next record or anything like that. Truth is, we’ve done shows where we’ve been unrehearsed, drunk, whatever, and like, it works, people still like it, people keep asking us to do shows. So shit, I dunno, maybe not having this make-it-or-break-it vibe is why people are liking us.”

Maybe, but it also might have something to do with the fact that Timber! are, well, good. Or they certainly appear to be if they’re debut, self-titled CD is anything to go by.

“Actually, the CD probably isn’t the best thing to go by,” says drummer (and Mirror arts editor) Matthew Woodley, who along with Spicer plays in the debatably more serious outfit Plants and Animals. “Live, we’re considerably louder, more upbeat, electric. And we goof around a lot more.

“That record was made in Nashville, in RCA’s famed Studio B, where Elvis and all of them recorded. The engineer, a friend of ours, offered Plants and Animals free studio time but we didn’t have our shit together, so Warren and [fellow Timber! guitarist/vocalist] Dave [Macleod] just went down alone to record some of Dave’s songs. When they came back here, they added the harmonies and sweet voice of the lovely Katie Moore and wound up making a very nice record even their parents love. But Timber! live? Well, that’s a slightly different story.”

With Shoot the Moon and the Ghost is Dancing at la Sala Rossa tonight, Thursday, Jan. 26, 9 p.m., $8, and with In-Flight Safety at O Patro Vys on Saturday, Jan. 28, 9 p.m., $8

>> Music Listings