Introducing: Yeasayer

From Talking Heads' work with Brian Eno in the late 70s, to TV on the Radio's kaleidoscopic anthems of the new millennium and Vampire Weekend's 2008 afro-pop stylings, New York has a fertile and ongoing habit of merging traditionally white and black musical elements. Yeasayer is another Brooklyn band with an indiscriminate musical ear.

Bassist and singer (they all sing) Ira Wolf Tuton explains his band's musical philosophy: "I think we're all interested in exploring as many avenues and flavours as possible, bringing it all into the pot. We like to keep an open ear and an open eye to different sorts of tones, styles, melodies and arrangements we can use, to keep it fresh and exciting." Think of the rhythms and bassline of You Can Call Me Al - or anything else from Paul Simon's Graceland – think of Fleetwood Mac, and Peter Gabriel; but insert steel drums, falsettos, chants and screams, handclaps, synths, keyboards and the apocalypse. There are guitars too of course; they're just not as fetishised as they often are elsewhere. "It's a mixed-bag," Ira says. "We all have our own home studios so we all write our own music and see how the others can improve it. It's a pretty collaborative effort, and technology makes that possible."

The proliferation of easily-available music is another technical advance that benefits music: informed musicians have to stretch themselves further to find originality. "It's such an advantage to be able to so easily listen to so many different kinds of music; it's at your fingertips all the time. I think it helps anybody to be exposed to as many things as possible. It can only widen your horizons and help you understand other people and other things more - and to understand yourself a little bit more, who you are and where you fit in. It opens your eyes to realise how many different things you can make of yourself."

Yeasayer have already finished their first European tour, and are set to return this month. They're yet to play in Scotland, despite having booked a gig at the Hive in Edinburgh last November. The gig was cancelled at the last minute because two different dates had been announced, with nobody really sure when it was actually going to happen. Of course, Ira perks up when the conversation turns to The Skinny's obligatory golden question about the nation's indigenous food, and reveals he's looking forward to finally making it to these shores to sample some haggis: "Anywhere we go we try to eat the specialty. In Wales we had some meat stew, it was pretty delicious. I grew up in Philadelphia where we have a very similar specialty to haggis, it's pretty close to the cheesesteak I think."

Whether it's travelling the world to sample local cuisine, or browsing the net to taste international musical flavours from the comfort of a home studio, Yeasayer display an open-minded tendency to try new things, compare them, mix them all together, and sing over the results. With more touring planned, videos to be made and singles about to hit the virtual stores, All Hour Cymbals could yet prove a 2007 sleeper that waits until this year to awake and take a stretch. "This album is about a lot of temporal things, issues of global conflict, some mythology too. I think our second album will be more love and relationships!" Listen out then for oysters, chocolate and smooth jazz, but in the meantime rest assured: indie-rock isn't as narrow-minded as some people seem to think.