Interview: The Cribs

2020 was meant to be the year The Cribs made their glorious return. Having been driven to near breaking point by the two years of legal battles over the ownership of their own music and the sheer mental challenge that it possesses, the Jarman brothers were once again ready to dive in head first, as they always had done. With Covid-19 having taken its toll, they return perhaps not in the way they expected, but still remain as captivating and vital as ever. As Gary and Ryan explain from their homes in Portland and New York respectively, their new album ‘Night Network’ is their most candid and timeless moment yet.

How have you been, how have you been handling these last few months?

Ryan: Where I’ve been in New York it’s just been really weird, I’ve essentially been locked down the entire time because my neighbourhood was the epicentre of pretty much the whole thing. The numbers are down here, but that’s because it’s still essentially lockdown, so life hasn’t felt the same for some time here now.

Gary: Ry has a different experience to everyone else really, because New York being as dense as it is - and the fact that the Queens borough was affected as it was - his relationship with what’s going on right now is a much more immediate and present sort of thing. I don’t think Ry would mind me saying, even though New York is recovering now, he’s still traumatised by what happened at the start of it, so it’s harder to reintegrate into some sort of normal situation. Honestly it’s been the same for everyone, a year of adjusting to a shitty situation.

Having to adapt to this thing that we don’t even know how it’s going to change itself?

Gary: The start of this year was amazing, because we’d finally dealt with all the business and contractual stuff that honestly had been festering for years without us realising it.

Ryan: Two years of litigation will make anyone want to just walk away and fuck it off. It’s not just a case of it being something that happened to stretch out for two years, it’s working everyday and being stressed out about something and that happens to stretch out for two years.

Gary: It’s psychologically damaging, it’s more like a divorce really. When people talk about divorces it’s more like that because there is an emotional investment.

You’re at odds with somebody that you’ve obviously had a relationship with. It was hard to not be scarred by it, so taking it as a whole, battling over the work you’ve created that you’ve got an emotional attachment to, and then having to view it through the prism of business is really demoralising, it really can crush your spirit.

It feels quite pertinent that you essentially get to now do this all on your own terms?

Ryan: I think after the last couple years and having to deal with so much business stuff, if we were trying to do absolutely everything by ourselves and try to be musicians as well, the two things aren’t cohabitable, they don’t work together.

It could affect what you do creatively in that respect?

Gary: You don’t want that to be superseded by the hustle. Honestly we’re not self-promoting personalities anyway. That’s another thing in this media age where the people who are self-confident and are the best self-promoters are the ones that have the advantage.

Words by Ross Jones

Read the full interview in Issue Twenty-Eight