They sound like The Strokes, only more fun. They're two sets of brothers, but they don't fight. They've toured with the UK's hottest bands, yet they're from America. They're geeky, but not emo. Ooh, San Francisco's Scissors For Lefty are just a big mass of contradictions aren't they? We caught up with singer Bryan Garza to find out what floats their festival boat before their weekend gigs at Reading and Leeds...

Best Festival?
“Germany was really good to us, Southside and Hurricane. Lot of fun. Back in San Fran, we played the Market Street where you get 6’5 trannies introducing you and your whole city facing. That’s cool because we get to meet new bands and share lunch. We like seeing what our audience is.”

Worst?
“If we have bad shows it’s only on your end. Our worst show was in Coventry - it wasn’t bad, it wasn’t bad! Our worst festival? So far everything’s been pretty top notch. Our first show, people were creeping backwards from us. We were playing wrong chords, srings broke on three guitars and bass. So for one song we just sat there and stared at the audience. But you need that…”

Weirdest thing you’ve ever seen?
“I kind of like that stuff. I like the little quirks that make something odd in retrospect. Let’s see…Arctic Monkeys’ lead singer (Alex Turner) wouldn’t take his shirt off because of his love handles! They winked at us. (The band or the love handles? Ed.) Fiery Furnace, they’re such a modest band they never talked to us. We played five or six shows with them and they never said a word to us.”

Festival essential?
“Of course! We have our rabbit’s foot y’know. For those festivals overseas we keep taking pictures like we’re never going to come back so we always have our camera. That’s a good one. And we always have some beers y’know.”

Best festival band?
“I’m a big, big fan of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The 1990s - those guys are great. I love the way he says OK every time, like “I can’t get no satisfaction, OK?” I can’t wait to run into them again. Right now I’m just looking forward to hooking up with Dirty Pretty Things again. We shared their kit and bass and it’s interesting because you get overwhelmed at a (UK) show because you don’t realise how daunting The Libertines experience is over here. I have a feeling he (Pete Doherty) will make a comeback. The other day he was in the newspaper again for something naughty. Then again, we’ve got a lot of black sheep in our family…“

Scissors For Lefty play the Carling Weekend this weekend and the Indian Summer festival in Glasgow on September 2. Read on for more about touring, siblings and why British service stations rock...

“I’ve just walked off stage,” says a slightly bewildered Bryan Garza, explaining why his voice mail’s been on for the last 20 minutes. “It was good and I can still talk so I guess I’m in good spirits!”

Our rubbish time zone knowledge aside, Bryan is as cheery as Santa. It’s a good time for San Francisco’s most amenable garage band Scissors For Lefty, who, having just racked up a 20 date in 30 days UK tour and US tours with Dirty Pretty Things, Arctic Monkeys and The White Stripes, are returning to the UK for the Carling Weekend and another enormous stretch of touring. So - bored of us yet?

“No, come on now!” says Bryan, mock-scolding Aloud like a Trisha granny. “This is like a vacation, and we get to play shows. It’s what we want to do.” Living on service station food is an unlikely favourite. “We really love petrol station fruit. They have mangoes, blueberries.”

Having thus ascertained that Scissors For Lefty have never visited a service station on the A1, what brings them back to the UK circuit?

“They’re very similar to San Fran, similar cities,” he says. “(Last time) was great. We just thought we’d be going over to five or six people walking out, so we got fantastic people. Maybe because we’re so tall and quirky!”

Ah yes, the height and the quirkiness. Along with their seven-foot bassist James, and their name – “If we pride ourselves on anything it’s being playful” – Scissors For Lefty are all about fun. They might sound like The Strokes, but the geekier, more endearing version.

“Rated A to rated X we’re PG13,” says Bryan on the band’s absolutely lack of grumpiness. “We have to get along - we’ve only got two surnames.” No, they’re not gay – although the San Fran link clues you in otherwise – they’re brothers. Bryan and Robby Garza, and Peter and James Krimmel.

“It’s quite easy to get on because you know how much you can pick on each other,” says Bryan. “There are boundaries before you have to ruffle hair. James is a normal nice guy despite being seven feet tall. Peter is the typical older brother, always jacking him over. Peter’s great company, he was like my idol growing up, listening to Kiss and noodling on the guitar - and now I’m playing guitar!”

So, exactly how the hell do you form the Osmonds garage band? “We were going to college and trying to figure out what to do with our lives like anyone else. We found a good way to distract ourselves and got along. We didn’t have any bands (growing up), maybe friends trying stuff for a weekend once. I would cherish that: we’re the band. That’s it for us.”

While geekiness might have become part and parcel of most self-respecting US emo bands (viz, Weezer, Death Cab For Cutie et al), Scissors For Lefty fall firmly in the dirty garage sound bracket. It’s all a bit English, and you can see why they tour with so many Brit bands.

“I did college radio DJing for a couple of years and all the stuff that caught my ear was Britpop and stuff,” explains Bryan. “We’re only familiar with the hits usually, not so much the albums. I’ve no idea what their impression is of us. They’re probably going, ‘Who are these guys?’”

Unlike the Brits, they’ve yet to pick up any bad habits. “We never really learned how to be irresponsible,” offers Bryan. “We all had our day jobs and it’s good for us. (Now) we get to play with bands we adore, and sit there next to Jack White or the Arctic Monkeys!”

Whatever they’ve done – and the phrase “We have no agenda” is rolled out at least four times during the interview – they’re doing it right. All the band bar Robby have quit their jobs to focus on the band. “We’re riding the credit cards! We had our jobs, good jobs too. James lives in the studio, Peter’s on wife support. I live with my brother and Robby still works 2-9am with UPS. I sold everything, even my car.”

The money-saving even extends to touring. “We’re going to try and share suitcases and we always seem to share clothes anyway. I’m not going to bring running shoes this time… We got this case of two guitars instead of one. Then you save 130 euros.”

Bless them. With widespread US approval, a growing UK fanbase and a ludicrously catchy sound the future looks bright for the band. Not that Bryan’s convinced.

“I’ll be back to McDonalds in a year,” he cackles. “Next please! How you doing?”