When Ryan Jarman of the Cribs finishes touring, he likes to head straight home, go off the grid and relax with his pet cat, an animal that “showed up one day and never left.”
Jarman himself seems to have finally found a place of his own in life, and is all the better for it.
If the Wakefield band he formed with his two brothers have continued to enjoy success over the past decade, then Jarman found his no-musical life a tougher nut to crack.
“We had a break between records and I finally got things together,” he reflects.
“I always had this nomadic lifestyle and I never had anything going on outside of the band, so getting that sorted helped the song writing. It rejuvenated me in a lot of ways…
“I feel that it (the band) had got to a point where it was just weird, like that was going to be my lot in life and that I was just going to keep doing the band and nothing else. It does help that there’s a context now. I feel proud of the fact we’re still around after all this time - when you’re happy in your personal life it’s easy to contextualise things and see them for what they are.”
Key to that change has been his move to New York. The switch to living Stateside has benefited both Jarman and the band, given that this year’s For All My Sisters record is one of their best yet. Always a spikey, punky proposition, album number six sees them in one of their leanest moods, ratting through sharp blasts of power-pop.
In many ways it’s a direct reaction to In The Belly of the Brazen Bull, the band’s previous effort that was a more expansive album.
As a band who’ve been able to work with various alt rock heroes (Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth guested on a track previously, Alex Kapranos has produced them, Johnny Marr was a full member for a few years) the Cribs are a band with sufficient pedigree, but Jarman believes For All My Sisters is the first time they’ve made a really snappy record since 2007’s Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever.
“We never really made a proper follow-up to it (Men’s Needs…) because Johnny (Marr) joined the band and the whole dynamic changed. Then when Johnny left, the fifth record was a reaction to that.
“So we never made a follow-up to Men’s Needs and this one is kinda like that follow-up. The last album was a really sprawling record, but this time we wanted something that was really concise, and something that was just 12 tracks and lots of singles.
“It’s rare that we go into the studio with that kind of mentality.”
Tonight sees the trio bring the album to the Glasgow Barrowland for what will be a typically raucous show. Yet for all the rowdiness that accompanies the band, they’re more sensitive souls underneath - For All My Sisters continues to make clear the group’s support for feminism, even though Jarman himself strikes a cynical note.
“Sometimes it feels like nothing ever changes,” he says.
“It’s like the more that things do change, the more they stay the same. I think it’s important for us to keep nailing our flags to the mast and constantly remind people that it’s something that we care about.
“I’m under no illusions that we’re going to change anything but at least it gets people thinking about it - you still see a lot of sexist bull**** in the world and I’ve never understood it.”
More optimism, however, can be found in his New York life. It’s a move that is also throwing up some possible collaborations.
“I do love being here and there’s a lot of opportunities out here,” he adds.
“When I first moved here one of the first things that happened was that I was writing music with other people - I started working with Julian (Casablancas) from the Strokes straight away, and I saw Albert Hammond Jr the other night, and we’ve been talking about writing together too.
“There’s so many opportunities to work with people that I like and respect.”
The Cribs play the Barrowland tonight.
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