Social Clubs And Steamrooms: Bricolage

If the quality of a country's musical output was measured by how twee it was then Scotland would be World Champions, Olympic gold medallists and winners of every best cardigan award going. 2006 may have seen the Americans trying to challenge ferociously for all three crowns with numerous imports of ‘indie’ delights but the Scots have been doing it for decades and that puts them in an unassailable lead. From the Postcard Records output of the early 80s to the emergence of Belle & Sebastian in the 90s they’ve always had a knack for the jangling melody and kitsch, hair clip pop. And now you can add to the list another name, Bricolage, four men from Glasgow with the best collection of jumpers this side of Argyle.

Bricolage are Graham Wann (Guitar/Vocals), Wallace Meek (Guitar/Vocals), Darren Cameron (Bass/Vocals) and Colin Kearney (Drums). They formed just over a year ago says front man Wann taking up the story: “It was about this time last year, we'd all played music together at some point, and we just happened to all be in the same spot at the same time,” he explains. “To begin with we were more sure of what we didn't want to do than what we did want to do.” What they wanted it turns out is to be the antithesis of the predominant trends currently dominating the music scene across the UK and beyond. Something different in a wave of similarity currently sweeping across us.

With tongue ever so slightly in cheek Wann describes the sound the band eventually found as “serendipitous, tantalizing, pernicious!” Adding that, “it was a reaction to the amount of bands cropping up and just re-hashing the sound of angular post-punk groups. It's a good sound, but everything gets tiresome after a while and after The Rapture got big suddenly it seemed everyone was fixated on emulating Gang of Four, PiL or Joy Division. We thought, okay, let's write a glam song...now a doo-wop song, and just kind of found our own way of writing pop songs.” Not that the four piece are not influenced by the aforementioned bands, they just like to express it in a different way.

In fact the bands influences are so wide spread it’s a surprise to Gigwise that they have ended up sounding so essentially Scottish. “Our shared musical influences are documented on the bundles of tapes that come with us in the van when we go on the road,” says Wann. “In there we've got everything from Early 60's surf stuff like the Tornados, the Blue Men and Moontrekkers through Bowie, Roxy Music, Slade, the Kinks to The Fall, PiL, a bit of O.J. and Josef K, the Smiths, Magnetic Fields, Pavement, the Shins and the list could go on for ages!” In essence they’re simply music lovers wishing to hear as much of the good stuff as they possibly can. Wann agrees adding that “it seems a terrible bore to shut your ears to it.” And what of their current musical peers? Well, there are a few surprises there too with Wann admitting that the band are currently listening to the likes of Wolfmother and The Go! Team alongside the more obvious Field Music and The Long Blondes to name but a few.