There are plenty of artists around right now with a lust for DIY, whether it's expressed in the scribbling of their album art, the writing of their own press releases, or the yelling of "Roll!" to their own music videos. And although this is all pretty healthy, it can sometimes be tough to look through the mirror and work out who's throwing punches - and who's throwing cleverly marketed poses..

This morning I had a cup of tea with Das Wanderlust, and was struck by the notion that they were genuinely DIY, but simultaneously not too keen to wear it as a cool badge. In a climate where faux-shambloic musicians are sometimes treated like the only genuine ones, the issue of being true to themselves is close to their hearts. As guitarist Andy Elliott says, "We're not consciously unfashionable, it's more that we sincerely don't care about being cool. In fact when we turn up to play a gig, the audience usually looks far cooler than us."

When bands like Das Wanderlust follow their own musical noses and come up for air with music sounding not entirely linear, it can confuse people.

"It's been said that we're deliberately amateur," says Andy, "and fair enough, it's true we don't go in for huge guitar solos - but the Guardian said that we "don't give a curly wurly about musicianship"! We were like - huh? We can all play our instruments! Laura's a really good piano player, our drummer Wes is an excellent jazz drummer and... eh, well, maybe it's just me that's an amateur."

The Laura he speaks of is singer Laura Simmons, a key figure in the bands DIY approach. Having studied art at Goldsmiths, she now hand draws all the bands sleeves. However, she can't tell us about it right now - because she's suffering a bad case of toothache. Andy picks up the story though, telling us about the artwork for the band's new single 'Puzzle'.

"Laura got an old box and fitted it out with wallpaper, then made a ghost out of a bit of cloth, with a face drawn on it in black nail varnish. What a goth she is! We photographed it with and without the ghost for that spooky double exposure feel, and it looks really good."

It's this kind of hands on approach that distinguishes Das Wanderlust from, as Andy describes them "musicians as posers." Explaining how the attitude lends itself to their songwriting, he continues; "It may sound awful and hippie-ish, but we don't worry about convention. We'll use everything at our disposal - drag out the kitchen utensils, the hanging baskets - grab it all. I guess the DIY element comes into our music in that way, but we don't set out to be weird - we just let the songs do what they want to do."

Although the group don't claim to be part of a scene, Andy says that they share ethics - and a sense of humour - with bands such as Shrag, Bearsuit and The Bobby McGees. "They all disregard convention," he says, "but they also know how to take the piss out of themselves. None of us are about to start sounding like Paul Simon." I wonder out loud if that might be a reference to the Vampire Weekend juggernaut. "Possibly!" he laughs. "We've devised a new name for the genre though. It's called You Can Call Me Al-core."

Ric Rawlins