Interview - Bricolage

Like Adam on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Bricolage were touched by "the hand of God," when Alex Kapranos began to drop their name to all that might listen.

Sons and Daughters and The Blood Arm have already benefited from a Fernandian deux ex machina, going on to major label signings with success and prestige following close behind. Heard initially through Swoptimo, Optimo's file sharing service, Bricolage have since fielded a barrage of phone calls from America, been chased by the Fire Engines' manager and shaken untold numbers of rabid record labels from their hinds. All this with no apparent effort. "We've played five gigs so far," says Wallace, "I guess we've been spoiled. We'll have to spoil him back, send him some Ferrero Rocher or some Alex Kabanos sausages."

Part of a scene that's "a collection of individuals making music, rather than just one sound," Bricolage are the embodiment of a DIY aesthetic that stretches back to the hallowed days of Postcard Records, when Edinburgh briefly had a music scene it could be proud of. Whilst other bands indulge their avant-garde animus and others unashamedly smear themselves with pop grease, Bricolage temper their sybaritic gusto with unabashed intellectualism to create an alloy that is irresistibly vivacious.

Most of the band are from Fife, reared on a punk scene centred around Kirkcaldy's Panthers, a place "our parents said all the druggies hung out so I guess that's where we went," their passion leading them to Glasgow where "the music we loved was made."

Josef K and Orange Juice are the obvious touchstones, yet Bricolage, a term that means making art from whatever is in front of you, are much more than pilfering magpies, rearranging the units of past heroes into a facile pastiche. Referent points are alighted on, absorbed, and subsumed within a gestalt that is powerful, arresting and propulsive, with the ferocious performances always accompanied by equally frenetic audiences.

Their aesthetic is summed up by the lyric 'looting takes the want out of waiting,' explained by Wallace as a way of "eloquently saying 'have it.'" Inspired by a resurgent underground scene across Britain that mirrors the way punk "transcended music, the ethic not just centred around music, but ingrained into a way of thinking," Bricolage look set to become one of the leading figures in a nationwide gathering of equals.