The Cribs Are Set To Rock Australia…
Beloved UK indie‑rock trio The Cribs; brothers Gary, Ryan and Ross Jarman will return to Australia in October 2026 for their first national tour since 2018, celebrating the release of their bold new album, Selling A Vibe. After more than two decades, nine albums and a reputation as one of Britain’s most fiercely adored bands, The Cribs arrive revitalised, reunited and creatively recharged. Selling A Vibe captures the siblings at their bottle‑rocket energetic best a record rooted in family, resilience and the unbreakable bond that has powered their music since day one. The album sees The Cribs embracing modern pop recording techniques while staying true to the raw, hook‑driven spirit that made them cult favourites.
The album arrives after a turbulent period that saw the brothers separated across New York, Portland and Wakefield during the pandemic, unable to tour their acclaimed 2020 record Night Network. That distance forced a reckoning and ultimately led to the emotionally charged centrepiece Brothers Won’t Break, a declaration of unity that closes the album and defines this new era. Gary Jarman talks to Rob Lyon about the tour.
Heading back to Australia for a first tour in nearly eight years this weekend, you’ve got to be looking forward to that?
It’s weird because it’s like it doesn’t feel like it’s been eight years, but the last one, yeah, it was 2018. But I guess the pandemic just blew a hole in the space‑time continuum because it still feels like that tour was kind of recently. It was really fun last time, so we’re psyched to be coming back. We just don’t get to do it enough.
Four shows in five days is a pretty tough grind. How do you prepare for something like that, plus the jet lag on top of it?
Well, we’re currently in Hong Kong and we’ve just done three shows in China. We’ve got Hong Kong and then Japan, and then Australia’s on the back end of it. So to be honest, we’re pretty well adjusted at this point to the jet lag. The schedule… it’s not easy, but back in the day we used to play like three hundred shows a year or something, so it’s essentially a conditioning thing. When we first started this tour, the Selling a Vibe tour, I was mentally a bit more well‑adjusted than I am now, and I think the reason why is because you can’t try and live a normal existence on the road. Eventually something ticks over in your brain and you get back into touring mentality. Once that happens, it’s almost like an alternate reality and you’re okay. You’re not thinking about the outside world or your normal life, you’re just thinking, “I got to get to the gig, I got to play really well, I got to get to the next gig.”
There’s something clarifying about it. When you’re out there, you’re fine, but when you get home it takes ages to decompress and you go into hibernation for a little while. But while you’re out there, you’re not thinking about it. It’s strange, it’s like a primal thing that comes back. I learned it in my early twenties and I can’t activate it until I’m in that situation. It’s not quite fight‑or‑flight, but it’s cool. That’s how you end up being a good live band, because if the mentality becomes like that, nothing else is more important. It’s conditioning, total mental conditioning.
Playing in China, that’s got to be pretty wild. What’s the live scene like over there?
It’s good. The shows were really great. I would say it’s the third time we’ve been over, and I really like the fact that it’s not jaded. They don’t get that many shows. The UK, the US, mainland Europe, all these places get a lot of gigs, and people get used to it. Whereas the Chinese shows, every show feels like a special event because it’s less common for western bands to go there. The first time we went was 2016, and it was pretty new territory for touring. They all feel like special occasions. That’s really fun, especially for a band like us who’s been around for a while and that’s why Australia’s always a big deal to us too, we don’t get to come down there often. When we do, it’s more meaningful. If you’re not going to be back for a few years, you’ve got to try and leave a big impression. It always feels like a special occasion for us.
Are you focusing more on Selling the Vibe on this tour, or going back across all nine albums?
In the UK we’re focusing more on the new record because we play there more often. But when we’re in the US and Asia, it’s been a total spread, because if you’re not there that often, you’ve got to make the most of it. We’ve worked really hard on the setlist to make sure it covers everything. In the UK it was more centred around the new record, but out here we’re trying to cover all the bases. We’re constantly tweaking the setlist to get it as good as we can. I think we’ve got a really good balance now. If you’ve got people who’ve liked you for a long time, they don’t just want to hear the new stuff. If people haven’t seen you for a while, you don’t want to let them down. It’s not about us. We prefer playing the new songs, obviously, but it ain’t about us, we really appreciate the fact that people are coming out to see us, so we want to make the most of it.
Are you stoked with Selling a Vibe, it’s a great album, I love it, have you been pleased with the fan reaction and response?
Yeah. This year has been the best time we’ve had in a long time. The thing that mattered to me most was that people understood the record. I don’t place too much stock in reviews, but the reviews were good, and more importantly, people understood the band and what we’re about. All the features we did in the press, it seemed like people really understood us now. It feels like it’s taken a long time. We’ve been around twenty years and seen a lot of phases, fads, periods. It felt really nice to be understood. The main thing for me is how the people who already liked the band feel about it, the fans who’ve been with us for a long time. It was really well received.
This year’s been reinvigorating for us. It’s made me feel really good, given me that sense of purpose and commitment back. That’s why we’re doing so much touring, getting back to places we haven’t been for a while. We all feel really motivated behind this record. Not that we didn’t on the last ones, but with the pandemic and all the obstacles, it was harder to get momentum. This time out, we feel motivated, like we’ve got the bit between our teeth. It’s been really fun to tour this record.
When you talk about being understood, is that purely in terms of the sound of the band, or is it about being grouped with other types of bands you don’t necessarily feel connected to?
That’s it, yeah, a bit of everything. I mean, when The Cribs first came out, it was right after everything started kicking off with The Strokes, The White Stripes and The Vines from Australia. There were loads of new bands coming out, it was a really exciting time to be a band, and that’s when The Cribs first came out. So initially we got swept along in all of that, and that was cool. But then after that, the UK had like a million bands and the whole scene changed, and the UK became really focused on that kind of thing. That was tough for us because we didn’t really feel like we fit into it too much.
In the years after, when all that stuff died down and we were still continuing and still putting records out, it was always hard to shake off that stigma of being locked into having come up in the 2000s. Everything felt like it was viewed through that prism.
As much as it was fun in the early 2000s, the later 2000s were not something we felt much association with, not because of anything other than the fact that our backgrounds were quite different. Our intention as a band when we first came out was never to be in that position. We had pretty DIY ambitions and came from that world. So being associated with the mainstream rock movement was a stigma that took us a while to throw off. But when this record came out, people didn’t really talk about that. They talked more about what we represented, what we’d done over the years, how we’d operated, and that was really gratifying.
It’s nice when people like the record and give it a good review, but what matters more to me is that we’re not misrepresented and people understand what we’re doing. Even if people don’t like it, I’d still rather they understood it. It’s always mattered to me because it’s me and my brothers, and all that really matters is that people understand us. Hopefully people see we’ve always been a sincere band. We’re not cynical. We’re grateful. We’ve always had a more grassroots, hardcore fanbase for that reason, and we’re proud of that. Being associated with a more mainstream movement would undermine that sometimes, it wasn’t who we were or how we operated. So that’s the thing that’s really meant a lot to me this year. It’s a really liberating feeling.
With six years between albums, did you start getting anxious that it might not ever get there or reach a point where you could finish it?
Well, we don’t really think that much about it, to be honest, because we’re lucky in the fact that we own our own catalogue. We can release records when we want, and we’re not under pressure in that way, which is great. We’re privileged in the fact that we just make records as and when we feel like it. Sometimes that means longer between albums, sometimes it’s quicker. This one did take a little while. After putting Night Network out, which was a record we were really proud of, and not being able to tour it very much, I think we all felt a little disillusioned. So it took longer to get back in the mood to make a record. But by the time we came to writing it, we were all really excited, and it actually came together pretty quickly. Touring it and releasing it has been really motivating as well.
We’re back in that phase now where we feel really motivated again. Being completely honest, there were periods where it was quite disillusioning. You felt like you had to put more effort in just to keep things going. Things change over the years, and sometimes it felt like you had to work harder to maintain momentum. Making this record was really fun, and touring it has been really fun. It’s given us a lot, it’s really reinvigorated us. Things feel really positive in the band. We’re not the most optimistic people sometimes, but everyone’s been having a really good time. We feel very appreciative of it all, and we’re looking forward to making another record. We’re all working on solo music as well, so everyone’s feeling really excited again. In part it’s because of the record and the response to it, it’s been a really positive year so far.
Do you see that excitement within the band itself as a kind of measure of success, having a great record, playing all these shows, and already thinking about what might be the next record?
Yeah. To me, for sure, the parameters changed over the years. In the 2000s, when we first started out, a measure of success was to release a record on a label we really loved, Kill Rock Stars or Wichita or whoever. That was the ultimate measure of success and just to have a good time and be part of a community, that was the most important thing. In the 2000s everything got so big and mainstream that the measure of success, at least in public perception, became being on the main stage at Glastonbury, being on TV, being in the top ten of the charts, stuff we’d never cared about or even thought about before.
Those parameters changed and then after that, once things died down and stopped being mainstream, it was better for us. We could go back to our original intent. For me, just the idea that we can tour all these different countries and people come out to see me and my brothers play music, and the records still have resonance to people who like the band or even beyond that… I’m not trying to be idealistic or hippie about it, but it’s really meaningful to us. This year has been a vivid reminder of that. That’s why everyone’s so motivated again, it’s reminded us of that feeling, that idealism, that reason for doing it initially. It might sound cliché or idealistic, but it’s been really meaningful. I feel like for the first time in a long time I’ve been able to absorb that and gain fuel from it. It’s been cool.
That must make it all the more exciting heading into 2027?
It’s funny because people are already talking about doing twenty‑year stuff around the third album, because that was our most popular record. People are talking about twenty‑year anniversary tours. I get that, and it’s really nice that people twenty years down the line want you to do that. It’s flattering. But it’s not where my head’s at right now. I’m really enjoying living in the current record and in the present. It’s nice that people want us to do it, but my mind’s not on that at all. My mind’s on this record, and on the solo record I’m making, and moving forward. So it’s not a conflict, but the idea of looking back on something right now just feels like an abstraction.
Absolutely. Keep the wheels turning and moving forward. It’s been really cool chatting, I hope the Australian tour goes well and hopefully next time you’re able to come and play in Adelaide. I think the last one might have been at The Cranker.
I loved it. That was our favourite show of the Australian tour at The Cranker. That’s it. It was so fun. That was my favourite show on the tour. There are some good bands from Adelaide too. I remember the bands who played with us. We’ve always had an ethic of doing that because we’re from Wakefield. Adelaide’s clearly much bigger than Wakefield, but Wakefield was always passed over for Leeds or Sheffield. So ever since the band started, we’ve had an ethic of trying not to be one of those bands who miss stuff out. I think that’s why we enjoyed it so much when we got to do it last time. There’s something about when everyone plays the same cities, it’s cool, but those cities get used to it and it can be a bit more jaded. If you play in places that don’t get as many shows, that’s more our natural environment being where we’re from. It fits with who we are, and it always ends up being a good vibe.
Interview By Rob Lyon
Catch The Cribs on the following dates, tickets from Destroy All Lines…
