The Cribs: 'It's difficult for working-class people to get into music now – there's so little money in it'

The Cribs readily admit that the title of their new album, Selling a Vibe, is both “tongue-in-cheek” and “kind of snarky”. 

“It’s a phrase that we use a lot in reference to music stuff,” says the band’s guitarist and co-vocalist Ryan Jarman. “And what it means,” adds his twin brother Gary, The Cribs’ bassist and other co-vocalist, “is that whenever there’s an influential band, a lot of similar bands come out. They’ve got the right look and sound for the time, but ultimately they’re just selling a vibe.” Their younger brother Ross, the band’s drummer, nods in agreement.  

Since they broke through in the mid-2000s, The Cribs have been selling much more than a vibe. A product of the grassroots music scene in and around Wakefield, the Jarman brothers’ Yorkshire hometown, they were a DIY success story who became an enduringly popular band. Filled with rambunctious, riff-driven rockers and ear-snagging lyrics (“Self respect will never cash the cheques, just take the credit,” they advise on Self-Respect), Selling a Vibe is the band’s ninth studio album. Seven of the previous eight, including 2007’s gold-selling Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever, cracked the UK top 20. 

But because the Jarmans have always had proudly independent values, they got branded ‘dogmatic’ by the 2000s music press. “That always kind of hurt our feelings,” Ryan says today. The problem, but also one of the band’s secret weapons, was that they stood apart from what Gary calls the “bone-headed garage rock thing” that was trendy at the time. 

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“We came up with a value system that was rooted in community and the DIY music scene. We weren’t a major label band and we didn’t have radio backing either, so we would try to represent that in interviews,” Gary says. “But because we had that value system,” Ryan continues, “some people would write us off as being dogmatic. Maybe [our stance] seemed a little bit challenging or abrasive compared to just being, like, ‘Everything is awesome!'” 

What was dismissed as ‘dogmatic’ back in the days of so-called ‘landfill indie‘ – identikit bands selling a vibe, basically – now seems passionate and perceptive. Today, The Cribs offer astute views on the UK’s grassroots scene, which Ross says has been “squeezed to the point where it’s finding it hard to sustain itself”.  

According to the Music Venue Trust, the UK lost one grassroots venue every fortnight in 2024. A separate report published by the same body in 2024 found that a typical UK tour now comprises 11 dates, compared to 22 in 1994. With fewer small-town venues on the circuit, live music could become the preserve of major cities.  

“When we first started touring, we insisted on playing every small town. That was why our singles did well even though they weren’t played on the radio,” Ryan says. “Because we came from a small town, we knew that when a national [level] band came to your town, that band would be held in high esteem there. The Lemonheads and Therapy? played Wakefield in the 1990s, and they were still totally beloved there 10-15 years later.” 

In the Jarmans’ eyes, the problem is circular and rooted in a lack of opportunity. “People started bands because they had somewhere local to play and develop,” Gary says. “And the local venues stayed open because they had bands to play there, so it was its own self-sustaining scene.” 

The “engine” of this scene, Gary says, was ambitious working-class kids like the Jarmans who saw starting a band as “a way out” of their hometown. “It’s difficult for working-class people to get into music now. There’s a barrier to entry because there’s so little money in it,” Ryan adds. “There’s a lack of local bands because there’s a lack of hope, you know?”  

A major part of the problem, the brothers opine, is the paltry royalties paid out by streaming platforms like Spotify. Another issue, Ryan says, is the music industry’s focus on the social media “metrics” of up-and-coming acts, which means that bands who are “more comfortable promoting themselves” have a better chance of getting signed.  

“My fear is that there’s a generation of young musicians who are really talented, but maybe lacking in confidence or maybe misfits, who aren’t generating the metrics that the music industry uses to judge their potential value,” Ryan says. “Music is more corporate than it’s ever been,” Gary adds, “because let’s face it, those social channels are owned by big tech [companies]. They’re not a benevolent music fan or a back-bedroom independent label. 

The Cribs are equally frank about how they sustain their own career. “Touring is still the fundamental thing, but we scale it to make sure it pays the bills,” Gary says. In countries where their fanbase is more cult, they keep a tight hold on the purse strings. “On our recent US tour, it was just the three of us and one crew member, and we functioned totally fine. We still felt like we were giving people a full show,” Ross says. 

Crucially, The Cribs have also worked hard to “get our business in order”, as Ryan puts it. “We’re lucky in that we now own every note we ever recorded,” he adds. Buying back their master recordings – which gives them total control over how their music is used – was a lengthy and mettle-testing process. Even Taylor Swift had to battle for years to buy back the rights to her first six albums. “It took us two-and-a-half years of arguing with lawyers in LA and having loads of paperwork dumped on us, which is really demoralising,” Ryan says, “but it became a vendetta for us.” 

At their lowest ebb, the Jarmans reminded themselves that they paid for their debut album themselves by working in a toilet roll factory. “We had two big record companies contesting our ownership of that album – that’s where your principles come into it,” Gary says. “They expect you to roll off. I’m never going to roll off. I think they underestimated our tenacity.” 

Selling a Vibe by The Cribs is out now. 

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