The Crooked Fiddle Band are based in Sydney, Australia, and formed in 2006 through our mutual love of the energy and intensity of various traditional world music.

Whilst writing and arranging, we discovered that this energy was shared by the other music we love: there seems to be a common thread between the frenetic accompaniment of gypsy, klezmer and punk rock; between the twisting rhythms of math-metal and balkan folk; between the clear tonalities of Scandinavian folk, Celtic folk, and cinematic post rock.

All these influences went into the mix, but what came out was The Crooked Fiddle Band. The sound we love is dark and often driving, but also writhing and ecstatic. We’ve jumped around with whirling crowds at festivals, bars and dirty warehouse parties throughout Europe and Australia and also played our more cinematic sounds in the Opera Theatre of the Sydney Opera House.

This music we’ve sometimes called ‘chainsaw folk’ – even though we’re pro-conservation – but others have called it “14th century Romanian metal”, “thrash folk”, “whirlwind gypsy” and even “what Sepultura would sound like if they provided the soundtrack to a hyperactive version of O Brother Where Art Thou.” So whilst the search continues for a name for our genre, we’re mainly concerned with making music with melody, energy and intensity.