The Cribs slam the sorry state of the music industry and recall working with their heroes

THE Cribs have come a long way since their humble beginnings in 2002.

With a seventh album looming and a huge show at Leeds’ Millennium Square later this month, CHRIS MIDDLETON sat down with the Brit indie brothers – Gary, Ryan and Ross Jarman – to talk about doing things in their own time and what it’s like working with your heroes.

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What stage are you at with your new album?

Gary: Basically that album’s written and we’re going to record it whenever.

The thing that’s fun about that one is there’s no real agenda with it.

We don’t have any deadline.

We’re enjoying the liberty too much.

Ryan: It’s only just over a year since the last record (For All My Sisters) came out.

We’ve always been a band that works fast but it’s so funny how people’s attention spans are so short these days.

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Tell us about recording with Nirvana and Pixies producer Steve Albini again?

Ryan: We recorded three tracks with him and they’re all finished.

We’re definitely going to finish it with him, though – we’re not going to do anything else because he’s the guy.

Gary: We have such a casual approach to the recording schedule at the moment so it’s really dictated by when Steve can do it.

You’ve now got a new record label, Sony RED, and For All My Sisters was a much more positive-sounding record compared to the previous one. How was it to move on?

Gary: For All My Sisters felt like that because we’d parted with our old label (Wichita Recordings) and we’d been with them for such a long time and In The Belly Of The Brazen Bull had been a bit turbulent and Payola came out.

For All My Sisters did feel like turning over a new leaf.

Ryan: We can do things how we want and on our own timeframe now.

That’s definitely a different feeling to how it used to be.

Especially the first few records, it was just like we never stopped working and we were constantly touring and writing, and you can’t keep doing that forever.

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You’ve come a very long way since you started – are there any more milestones that you’d like to pass?

Ryan: There was never any great masterplan.

Having Top 10 records isn’t something we ever wanted.

It’s something we laugh at and find ridiculous.

It’s cool and stuff but it’s not what we set out to do.

So as far as future goals, I don’t really know.

One thing is we’ve never played a stadium and we’ve always wanted to do that.

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You’ve worked with a lot of your heroes over the years, Johnny Marr, Ric Ocasek, Steve Albini, to name a few.

Is there anyone else on your bucket list?

Gary: I think we’re going to self-produce next.

We’ve almost done everyone.

It’s exciting to work with people you respect.

As brothers, we always have the same influences and heroes.

It’s a real boost to us all just to be in that sort of environment.

You’ve always been critical about the music industry, what would you like to see change at the moment?

Ross: Delete the internet!

Gary: Musicians are getting ripped off left and right without even knowing it and that kind of thing is way more nefarious than entering into a contract with someone.

The corporate ogre now is some techie dude in Silicon Valley.

Ryan: I feel like the industry and how it was then and how full of bulls*** it was, is actually preferable to how it is now in some ways – because now it’s a lot of people flailing around not really sure what they’re doing.

— The Cribs play Millennium Square, Leeds, on July 22.