Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on October 2009

There’s been a bit of speculation about whether the title of The Cribs’ new album, Ignore the Ignorant, is some kind of political statement. But it turns out it could just as easily refer to the band’s upbringing.

“Wakefield is in the north,” explains youngest brother and drummer Ross Jarman over the phone from his hometown. “It’s an old mining district, but in the ’80s, Margaret Thatcher shut down all the mines, and since then it’s been quite a bitter place.

“The reason we chose music was that we didn’t feel we had a lot in common with people,” he continues. “The three of us chose music over football. When we would go to practice, if you’ve got a guitar on your back, people shout stuff. Some guy even came up and punched me in the back of the head. So we just locked ourselves up and played music.”

Still, granting that Wakefield “has its charms,” 25-year-old Ross is the only brother to remain in the small city. Singer-songwriter twins Gary and Ryan have decamped for London and Portland, Oregon, respectively. But formative years spent playing air guitar to Queen and annoying the neighbors with raucous jam sessions forged a lasting bond, as well as shaping the band’s raw sound.

“It’s always more difficult with friends, so we started writing together in, like 2002, and straightaway got signed,” Ross relates. “We never set out for any attention—we just made a demo and it got passed around without us even having to send it out. People were ringing us up every day, and all these labels were inviting us to come down to London. The very first gig we ever played was the gig we got signed at.”

This rags-to-record-riches story may sound unlikely, but it’s just this sort of indie cred that has made The Cribs darlings of the NME and a public in search of “authenticity.”

“It was never one of those things where we were going to be rammed down people’s throats,” says Ross. “The way we’ve done it, we’ve grown over three or four records and gradually built a fan base—and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Which brings us to the present, and the 800-pound rock ’n’ roll gorilla in the room: ex-Smiths guitarist and Manchester legend Johnny Marr, who appears on the new album.

“I originally got a phone call from Gary in Portland, who was at a barbecue,” recounts Ross. “A guy came up and said, ‘I fucking love The Cribs, mate.’ Gary didn’t know who it was at first, and the guy whose house it was then said, ‘Oh, Gary, you haven’t met Johnny yet then.’ And all of a sudden Gary was like, ‘Oh, it’s Johnny Marr.’”

The Jarman brothers conducted an extended courtship with Marr, beginning with some tentative but productive jams, including three songs that made it onto Ignore the Ignorant, their fourth album to date.

“We were just writing stuff so quickly that it seemed a shame to draw a line under it,” Ross continues. “It got to the point where Johnny sat us down one day and said, ‘Do you want me to teach someone else the parts?’ And we were like, ‘Not really.’ Johnny wanted to join the band and we wanted him to join, but it was like when you first start dating a girl—you both like each other but don’t want to commit.”

Marr ended up joining the group at the end of last year’s tour. His trademark insistent, strum-based guitar work permeates the album, in particular the song “City of Bugs,” which Ross says the band is most proud of.

“We wrote it in a van in Oregon, in the middle of nowhere,” he explains. “It was quite a dark vibe, and we started jamming and it came out really good. It’s one of the things when you’re writing: you don’t know what’s around the corner and you open different doors, and that was there, and we really liked the direction of it.”

It may be a coincidence, but Ignore the Ignorant is also The Cribs’ most successful outing to date, charting at No. 2 in the UK at the time I speak with the drummer.

“When we said to fans we were getting another guitar player, people said, ‘That’s rubbish—you’re a three-piece,’” Ross says with a laugh. “Then when we announced it was Johnny Marr, everybody was like, ‘Shut up,’ and then they were like, ‘Fair enough.’”
As famous as Marr is, it also must have been intimidating for him to join a band composed of three brothers who’d been jamming together practically since they were in diapers, no?

“Johnny joined at the Reading and Leeds festival, and also on the NME tour,” offers Ross. “I think it was really good for him to play live with the band before we did a lot of writing and recording, because the four of us then just all wrote it in the practice room. It wasn’t like me, Gary and Ryan wrote it and Johnny came in and added stuff. We wrote it collectively.”

And have The Cribs been able to resist the temptation to cover a Smiths song?

“Actually, we did play ‘Panic,’” Ross admits. “People heard a rumor that Johnny was joining, so we just chucked one in, but we’ve stopped playing them now. The record is more important at the moment, so I don’t think we’ll be doing any more covers. We do get asked a lot of Smiths questions, but it’s starting to die down and people are beginning to refer to Johnny as ‘Johnny Cribs’—which is really nice.”

The Cribs
English indie rockers with new member Johnny Marr. Oct 21, 7pm, ¥6,000. Akasaka Blitz. Tel: Smash 03-3444-6751.