THERE must be times when Kevin Drew wishes he had never had this bright, batty idea. On these occasions, the singer and Broken Social Scene leader probably rues ever assembling a freewheeling, 17-strong musical ensemble, let alone fronting it.

Yet there's been ample compensation along the way for any trying times. The acclaim for BSS's You Forgot It In People (2002) and their current self-titled collection has been loud and sustained. Containing the sort of dramatic flair, ecstatic sounds and glorious racket reminiscent of a bygone indie age, BSS's albums are all about a new kind of big music.

Broken Social Scene themselves are all about a new kind of big band. Among the musicians who pledged allegiance to the Scene during the making of their new album are members of Stars, Metric, Do Make Say Think, The Dears and Leslie Feist, who has also developed a burgeoning solo career thanks to her fine Let It Die album.

Such a roll call of talent means that BSS are at the centre of any Venn diagram you might draw to represent the strength of Canadian music. Indeed, You Forgot It in People could be credited as the album which kicked off the current Maple Leaf indie revolution.

"You really have to respect everyone involved because each of us has a part to play," Drew says. "I suppose myself and Brendan [ Canning] became the public faces at first, the interview guys, because people wanted a focus. But as the others have released records and got their faces out there, people have started wanting to talk to them as well. That's been really exciting for all of us to watch, and I suppose good for the band too."

Costs, logistics and the size of the stages in the venues they're now playing probably prohibits a full-scale live revue. Instead, there's a core half-a-dozen or so musicians available to represent the Scene when its time comes to tour.

Drew would prefer a far greater turn-out for these jaunts. "If there were more people on tour, then there would be more people to talk to," he reasons. "You don't really get problems which arise because of the music when you're touring, but the other stuff does lead to tensions. You know the kind of thing - the food, health, what might be happening at home, the lack of money. Especially the lack of money. It's all the personal life stuff which becomes a drag and you notice people handling those issues in different ways. I think maybe having more people around might help with that."

Coming up with new material to record is probably the easy bit. "Songwriting has never been a big problem for us because we have so many songwriters in the band. We just get together and we write and we jam. People come in with ideas and we take it from there."

The tricky aspect, given the collective and individual schedules, is finding time to get all this writing and recording done. "It does seem sometimes like we're always recording. Like some of the songs on the album, for instance It's All Gonna Break, are a couple of years old. More stuff was written on tour or you'd record scraps onto answer-machines and bring it all together.

"When we record, we just pile stuff on, layers and layers of sound. People would come in, record something and go out again. People are also making their own records, so it can get very frantic. You just never know what you're going to get when you walk into the studio, so you have to have someone like Dave [Newfeld, the band's producer] to keep it all in check, otherwise you'd never know where you were."

Drew feels that Newfeld has played a vital role in bringing the BSS sound to the surface. "Remember that each member is also a producer in their own right, so we naturally have a hard time letting this guy make our record because we could all do it ourselves. But we knew that he was going to create a sound we didn't know how to create. He was incredible and deserves full credit for sticking with us and coming up with that."

He describes the current album as "a gigantic, beautiful mess" and it's a perfect fit for how it zips through styles and sounds. "We never really followed any guidelines on how to do things, but it did turn out to be an indie rock record. I think it's a record which is going to make more sense in years to come rather than right now because of the craziness that went into making it."

Future records can be expected, though Drew admits that constantly dealing with so many people can be a draining experience.

"The Broken Social Scene is a six-member core and then there are 20 to 30 other people who are also involved. We have to deal with a lot of people, emotions, scheduling and extra stuff. There's just so much you have to keep in mind and account for to do with the band. Like, you don't really have much time to think about where you're going because all your time is really spent making sure you're all just going in that same direction."

What keeps the Scene together, then, is the response from the audience. "You do get hooked on the need to be loved and having all these people adoring the music and screaming and stuff. That's really the payback for all the other stuff we have to put up with. That's why we keep going."

Broken Social Scene is out now on City Slang. The band play the Temple Bar Music Centre, Dublin on February 11th