"The secret is you just don't go for the big bucks". Kevin Drew is explaining how to go about paying all 17 occasional members of Canadian band Broken Social Scene. It turns out that the financial arrangements are as egalitarian as their music, with everyone contributing and everybody gaining. Even if this means no one getting very much at all. "If you do something for love, the money will come", Drew says, his pale blue eyes and full, rugged beard emphasising his sincerity. "I never wanted to be rich so I probably will be."

The Broken Social Scene story began in Toronto when he and Brendan Canning recorded an album Feel Good Lost in Drew's basement. They quickly became a full-blown band when the pair decided to take their ambient rock sound to a live audience. Toronto's thriving live music scene provided rich pickings and soon they had assembled a loose collective of the city's finest talent.

"We had these live jam nights where whoever was around would play with us. We have members from bands like Stars, Metrics and Do Make Say Think and suddenly we were all writing songs together." In 2002, the newly enlarged Broken Social Scene went into the studio with producer Dave Newfeld and recorded You Forgot It In People. The ambient approach of Feel Good Lost was replaced by a lo-fi extravaganza of instruments and vocals, that recalled both the muted fuzziness of My Bloody Valentine and the intense clarity of The Flaming Lips. The album won a Juno award in Canada and soon Broken Social Scene were seen by many outsiders as an embodiment of the burgeoning Canadian music scene.

Though he seems slightly exasperated at again having to discuss his country's current emergence into musical respectability now that the likes of Arcade Fire and The Dears are eradicating the embarrassing memories of Shania Twain and Bryan Adams, Drew is keen to explain the transformation. "About six years ago people stopped turning to cities like London and New York to see what was cool, and they started looking at themselves. In Canada bands like The Hidden Camera and The Constantines came out and I didn't just like these guys, I loved them. So when you have bands that you adore coming from your own community, your influences are suddenly not just the downbeat stuff you're hearing on the airwaves. The great thing about our scene is that none of the bands sound alike. It's not like Manchester or the New York sound - we don't sound like The Dears, they don't sound like Wolf Parade."

While this year saw Arcade Fire have a top 20 hit and received acclaim from the likes of David Bowie and U2, Broken Social Scene didn't take to the UK on their first visit in 2003. A distribution deal with Mercury Records was cancelled after only six months, with the band claiming they were buried by the label. "It's a hard music scene in England", says Drew, "bands come and go every week. They wanted us to prove something so we went somewhere else".

Having finally returned to the UK for some live dates ahead of the release of their self-titled third album, Broken Social Scene played London's Barfly late last year - the first venue they played in the UK - though this time it was considerably fuller. With over 10 musicians it was as tight a squeeze on the venue's tiny stage as it is amongst the audience but there was an overwhelming air of friends reunited. The band bantered with the crowd, Fanning giving someone money to get him a round of drinks from the bar, while the audience gave the new songs a good reception, with special rapture reserved for one of the outstanding tracks on their new album. Ibi Dreams of Pavement is a nod towards US college rock heroes Pavement, and sees BSS move on from You Forgot It In People's slow motion fuzz to a fuller, strident rock sound. It also features the lyric "don't get high on what you create" and this statement on self-satisfaction is important to Drew.

"This record was one of the hardest I've ever made. We could have gone in and made a record like You Forgot It In People again but that wouldn't have been honest. Getting lost in repetition is the curse of any musician." The album took almost two years to record and many of the connections between of the discordant contributions of the Scene's myriad members and guests like The Dears' Murray Lightburn and rapper K-Os, were formed at the mixing desk. Drew thinks the protracted and unique style of producer Newfeld is one of the record's main elements.

"I think Dave is one of the greatest producers of our time, he has a sound like no other. In terms of time spent on it, this is his record. He would keep remixing tracks, changing them, making new versions. It was tiring and never-ending and in a way you wanted to hate what he had done, but you couldn't, you just love it. And then you think, I wasn't when that happened! But you just have to get over your own ego."

Tossing aside rock'n'roll's creative egotism is a vital aspect of being part of such a large band but it helps that most of BSS have their other bands to concern them. Those interested in chasing success or fully expressing themselves have other outlets, so they are more willing to experiment when on BSS duty. Which fits in with Drew's casual insistence on never doing it for the money.

"This record could have been straight up, with the sound all right and the vocals up. But we didn't want that. I'd love it if our songs were played on the radio but we're not into writing songs so that will happen -at least not yet. I like it when you're doing your own thing and people come over to see what you're doing."

words: Colm Larkin

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