10. The CribsThe New Fellas
EC: I produced this.
GM: It was a marriage made in heaven, Edwyn and The Cribs.
EC: I got drunk, of course, when we met.
GM: They breezed into our lives and our studio to make that album – it was just perfect. We had such fun. I think they would say that too.
EC: Gary and Ross and Ryan. First, when we were making The New Fellas, they were… frightened?
GM: More hesitant.
EC: Yes, hesitant. So I said, ‘Come on, guys. it’s a great, great record. Don’t you worry.’
GM: They were going through a little bit of self-examination around then, maybe, and then they ended up just feeling so happy with the whole record. There was a huge amount of laughter around it all, and when you’re creating this atmosphere, as Edwyn did, it makes people feel the top of their game. And it actually came out just after Edwyn got ill. They were very, very lovely about keeping in touch and coming to see him and stuff. I think they were pretty devastated, really, when it happened. They used to go on stage to…
EC: [Edwyn’s 1994 single] ‘The Campaign For Real Rock’. Every night!
GM: There was such a brilliant immediacy to The Cribs. And what was their work ethic like Edwyn?
EC: Ryan is naughty, Gary is nice, and Ross is the sensible one.
GM: But seriously, how hard did they work?
EC: Immensely hard.
GM: Edwyn fell into producing after his solo career began, because he decided that the only way he could possibly not have record companies dictating his life was to have his own studio. So he sat himself down, and we were stony broke at the time, and he learned everything – and then he got obsessed with studios and recording and gear.
EM: All night long on eBay!
