Interview: James Cox (Crows)

Photo by Sandra Ebert

Renowned in the UK for their high-energy live shows, London post-punk quartet Crows aims to expand their fanbase with their less-intimidating third full-length, Reason Enough, now available on Bad Vibrations Records. While their music still retains a sinister edge, the influence of bands like Interpol and Idles adds a lighter touch, and tracks like “Is It Better?” and “Vision of Me” even offer glimpses of radio-friendly melodic rock reminiscent of late ’90s Idlewild.

After a day of slinging burritos (one of the side gigs frontman James Cox juggles to support his music), the affable singer joined me from the front seat of the burrito van for a lively chat.

Crows music is a bit brooding and dark. I expected your personality to match but I watched an interview you did and you were anything but brooding and dark. Do you think post-punk musicians are generalized in that sort of dark, brooding fashion?

JAMES: I think it’s quite a funny question because I’ve been thinking about it more during this album cycle. When we first started, we felt like we had to act a certain way in interviews or say we liked certain things. I remember people would ask, “What films do you like?” and we’d always say, “Anything by David Lynch.” But as we got older, we admitted we actually just like stupid, funny films like Step-Brothers. When people meet me after gigs—because the gigs are quite intense, and I have a different persona on stage—they’re like, “Oh, you’re really nice and normal, nothing like you are on stage.” I think now that I’m older, I don’t care about maintaining a charade or facade about what people think we should be. We’re always just ourselves whenever people meet us, and they realize, “Oh, you’re just a couple of idiots who like to have fun and get drunk.”

Do you feel like there are two James’? Is there the onstage James where you’re intense and then and offstage James where you’re not?

JAMES: There’s definitely two Jameses in that sense. The music is so intense and heavy to play live. It would be a bit weird if I was being my goofy self trying to play it live. Although it does slip in occasionally, especially when we’re having a really good gig and having a really good time. It’s hard to maintain that serious, angry demeanor when you’re just having a really fun time. Like, I’m playing music with my best friends in a different city or country, and something funny happens. It’s hard to maintain that anger sometimes.

We’re going to talk about the new record but I would be remiss if I didn’t at least ask you about the whole Oasis reunion thing and your feelings on that.

JAMES: You know, I was never a massive Oasis fan. I was more into heavier music when I was younger, like metal. It’s not that I didn’t like Oasis, it’s just the people who liked Oasis I didn’t really like. They’re going to make some good money, and they’re going to make a lot of people happy as well. So, all power to them. And if they can stomach each other that long, and that amount of cash will keep them going, then yeah, power to them.

When you say metal, what kind of stuff did you grow up listening to?

JAMES: I’m 35 now so in the mid-2000s, I was like 13, 14. My first gig was Machine Head, Korn, and Slipknot. I was very much a nu-metal kid when I was young. My tastes refined as I got older.

Korn was the last band I saw before the pandemic shut everything down. Had I known that was going to be the last show I’d see for two years, I may have picked another band! Do you remember the last show you saw before lockdown?

JAMES: Fuck, you know, no idea. I’d have to think about that. I mean, it seems so long ago now, that’s why it’s more confusing. I honestly can’t tell you. But I literally went to see Korn a few weeks ago. We all went to the big London show here at Gunnersbury Park. It was good. It was a big nostalgia fest, and everyone was having a really good time. They were playing deep cuts, and I was like, “Fuck, I know all these songs!” There was a really nice vibe in the crowd—young kids, older fans, people my age. It was just fun. A sunny afternoon, everyone having a great time. Good vibes all around.

You write a lot of political and societal lyrics, and your music reflects that. How do you disconnect? I’m addicted to my phone. I’m checking stuff every 25 seconds. When something happens, I know about it within seconds, whereas it used to be hours or even a day before you learned about stuff. For my own sanity, sometimes I just need to disconnect.

JAMES: I’m pretty similar to you. I’m pretty addicted to my phone. It’s the immediacy—you know something is happening right away. But then it’s the constant re-up every five minutes with the same thing from a different outlet. That’s the exhausting part, I think.

People have been asking me about this album and its political nature, but to me, I always thought this album was much more personal than political. That might be because we wrote a lot more songs for this album—some of which didn’t make it on there. The ones that did are quite political, and now I’m looking at it like, “Oh yeah.”

It’s all about the UK and the news cycle. The UK hasn’t been a great place to live for the past 15–20 years, so it’s inspiration that keeps happening involuntarily. There’s always something that inspires me to write about it. You write what you know, and the thing that pisses me off a lot of the time is life in this country so it’s quite an easy thing for me to write about.

In terms of switching off and being mindful, I think I have mild ADHD, so I’m quite good at switching my focus to something else and not getting too caught up in things. But if I’m really getting caught up—like with the race riots here the other day, with people targeting asylum seekers—I had an immediate reaction to that. It made me so sick to my stomach that this was happening in 2024. I spent all day on my phone, seeing different videos of what people were doing across all platforms. I never go on Twitter, but I found myself going on Twitter just to find more of the disgusting stuff, which was making me more and more angry. That’s when I had to make a point to just get off my phone for the day because it was driving me insane.

Unless I’m deeply passionate about something and can’t stop trying to research it or look into it, it’s like that car crash effect—you can’t not look. Sometimes you really have to force yourself to stop. But most of the time, I’m okay at switching off and just deciding, “You know what, I’m going to turn off my phone, put something silly on TV, and veg out.”

But yeah, good question.

Are you a regular music listener outside of your job of playing music?

JAMES: Yeah, I’ll listen to music at work and when I’m traveling, but I won’t really sit at home and just listen to music unless I’m doing something else. I prefer to have TV on or
whatever.

I’m the same way. I’ve been obsessed with buying vinyl since I got a record player a couple of years ago, and I own more vinyl than I’ll ever listen to. In all those moments when I’m like, “I could throw on Netflix or I could listen to a record,” Netflix wins 99 out of 100 times. And I’m like, “But I have this great music to listen to.” It’s much easier to listen to and consume when I’m in my car, when I’m at work, when I don’t have Netflix.

JAMES: At some point, it’s just easy to stick something silly on TV. But I definitely listen to enough music at work or because of work. I work in a tattoo shop as well—me and Elliott, who does all the Crows artwork, own a tattoo shop together. It’s very music-oriented. We’re constantly sharing music in there. I also work in a food truck—a burrito van, which I’m actually sitting in right now. And there, we listen to music all day, from like seven till three. So, it’s on the way to work, on the way home from work… Sometimes, you’ve got to watch TV.

What did you listen to today?

JAMES: We actually had a really varied day today. We started with a lot of ’90s hip-hop, then switched to Fontaines DC radio for the new album, which is pretty good. We had that on for most of the service, and then switched back to more ’90s stuff—I put on Mos Def radio. It was nice and eclectic today.

You’ve watched bands around you go from playing in front of a handful of people to being signed and selling out gigs. When you see or hear a band that is just starting out, are you able to tell that they’ve got something special? The reason I ask is because I can hear something in your music that I think has a lot of big potential and I can imagine a year from now, people are going to say, “Wow! You talked with James from Crows? How’d you land that interview?”

JAMES: Thank you, man. That’s very sweet. I’ve seen it happen loads. I don’t want to say it’s all down to your team, but having a really good manager and a really good booking agent behind you will change things for a lot of bands. It just puts you in front of the right people, and the right strategy gets the band in good places. But you do have to back it up with songwriting.

There are a few bands I’ve seen where, personally, I’ve loved the music, but I didn’t really get why they went so stratospheric. But then there are others where I’m like, “Yeah, they deserve it, and they are worthy of that.” They just needed to be in the right place at the right time and have the right people behind them.

But that can also happen really naturally, like with Idles. Idles were at the same level for so long—like eight, nine, ten years, similar to where we are. Then all it took was Steve Lamacq pushing them on Radio 6, and they skyrocketed to the next stage. It was such a wonderful thing to see because they deserved it so much. They worked so hard for it.

That’s actually how Joe [Talbot] and I first met. I think I saw him at a festival. I’d known about them for years; they were always on the radio, at a similar size to what we were doing. And I messaged him like, “It’s good to see you doing so well. It gives bands like ours hope.” And he messaged me back saying, “I’ve been a Crows fan for ages.” At that time, we were having trouble putting out our first record because a deal had fallen through, and he just asked, “Would you let me release it?” I was like, “Yeah, I’d let you release my record!”

That’s how the first record got released and how our relationship with Idles and Joe got started. It was really organic. Joe recognized we’d been doing exactly the same thing as them, it just hadn’t hit for us yet. It was a little persistence and a little bit of not giving up.

Back in the ‘70s, it might take an artist like Tom Petty three or four records before people really started taking notice. Sometime in the ‘90s, it felt like major labels would chew bands up and spit them out if they didn’t sell a ton of records right out of the gate. I appreciate the persistence you’ve had, and bands like Idles have had, to ride it out and see what happens.

JAMES: It is really difficult to get to that next stage without a good amount of money from a label behind you. All it does is push marketing, get you tour support—it’s all these little things people don’t necessarily realize. We’ve always been signed to small independents with not huge budgets, and I know bands that have big budgets behind them, and it just helps. I mean, shocking, loads of money helps! I’m not trying to cast anyone out, but that’s very much the way the music industry works. Having a lot of money behind you does help you get to that next level.

Who’s putting this record out?

JAMES: It’s a guy called Keith Miller. He runs what started as a promotion company in London called Bad Vibrations. Keith’s been doing it for like 10 years. He puts on the coolest gigs in London. It’s named after a Black Angels song. He was the first to really capture that market with bands like Osees and all those kinds of bands. He programs at the cooler venues in London, like Moth Club, Shacklewell Arms, and others. He’s head of programming there, but he does a million things. He also started a festival called Wide Awake, which is a really great genre-specific day festival here in London.

Keith came to me and said, “I want to start a record label as well.” And I was like, “Of course you do, with the few hours you have left in your day!” Then he asked, “Would you like the Crows record to come out on the label?” I was like, “Yeah, you know what? There’s no one else I’d rather do it with.” Keith’s a good friend and long-time collaborator. He’s been around since we first started in London, so it just made sense. He’s really passionate, and I trust him with my life. He’s just a really sweet, amazing guy.

Then Fuzz Club got involved too. They’re a label based partly in the Netherlands, partly here. We loved them growing up; they did all the psych bands like Dead Skeletons and Dead Meadow, who were big influences on us when we were first starting out. Fuzz Club handles the mechanical side, while Keith’s more of the face, so it’s a good partnership. With Fuzz Club managing all the admin and working parts, it’s a great level to be at. Our last record did really well, and I think this one will be just as good. So yeah, I’m happy.

I’ve never heard a band say, “The songs we wrote for this record are okay, but the last ones and the last album are better.” So why are the songs on this album the best you’ve ever written?

JAMES: I think it’s because this is definitely the most time we’ve had to write a record. There was no stress, no “Oh, throw that song on there because we need another track.” For this one, we wrote 15 songs, then had to pick and choose to get it down to 10, which was difficult and really annoying. But I think everyone says their newest music is the best because they’re sick of playing the old stuff. Still, I feel these songs are more crafted and thought out, and the production is a big step up. I listened back to the first two records recently, and to me, they’re night and day compared to the new one. The first one especially is more lo-fi, and my vocals are drenched in way more reverb and delay, which I’ve always used as a kind of mask, or maybe it was a self-confidence thing.

But working with Andy Savours, who did this record, was great. He was like, “Let’s roll back that reverb.” And I was like, “I hate it; it’s dry as hell.” But we found a middle ground, and it was a big confidence boost. He’d say, “You’ve got a really good voice; you shouldn’t hide it with effects.” So on this one, I sing a lot more compared to the last record, where I was more depressed and singing sad songs.

Was there one song that was easy to write and another that was really hard to write?

JAMES: “Land of the Rose” came quite easily. The way we write is we’ll do the music, and I’ll just sing melodies over the top. Then I’ll go away and dip into a bank of lyrics or ideas I’ve got lying around. But that one came as I was just making up the melody; the words I was singing over and over just stuck. It’s nice when it comes naturally like that, and you don’t have to mess with it too much.

But “Living on My Knees” was different. I had a completely different set of lyrics for it, and they just weren’t good. I was really frustrated because I loved the song but hated the lyrics. So I left it for a while and came back to it. I think I even rewrote it after we’d recorded the music in the studio. By the time I came back to do the vocals, I had completely changed the lyrics. The guys had heard the old ones, but when they heard the new version, they were like, “Oh, these lyrics are totally different—and way better.”

”Land of the Rose” seems political in nature, but you said at the beginning that a lot of these songs are more personal in nature. Where does that fall on the spectrum?

JAMES: I think that’s a bit in the middle, maybe leaning a bit more towards political. It’s about how our government just has such disdain for the general public. But then that’s kind of a bit more personal because you would like to think you can be proud of where you’re from. It’s not in a nationalistic or xenophobic way. It’s nice to feel pride in something, and you would like to feel pride in where you’re from. But at the time, it was just all shame. Again, like what happened with the riots over there. It was just all shame about it. And again, how we’re perceived by the rest of the world. I was like, people must be looking at the UK and thinking, what a fucking archaic mess. So I guess that one’s a bit in the middle of those two.

In the lyrics, you sing, “every day is a struggle.” What is something, even at a very personal level, that could change in your life that would make it a little bit less of a struggle?

JAMES: Getting paid to do this full-time but I don’t know if that would affect our actual writing, because then I’d be like, I don’t have anything to write about..

I think people would argue less and actually hear each other out and listen to each other instead of having their own opinion and just waiting for the other person to stop talking so they can say their own opinion. Or if Twitter or X, whatever it’s called, didn’t exist anymore, I’d be pretty happy.

Tell me a little bit about your place within the UK scene. Are you headlining clubs? Are you opening for bigger bands? If I were to come tonight and see you play somewhere, what would the situation be?

JAMES: We’re kind of in the middle. We’ve just been here so long now. Our next London headline show is at Village Underground, which is about a 700-cap venue. In South London, we’re a London band, so that would be that. Regionally, we’ll be doing like 200-250 capacity club shows. But to be honest, we actually play more in Europe than we do in the UK. In France, the Netherlands, and Germany, we’ll be playing more like 300-350 capacity rooms. To be honest, touring the UK kind of sucks so we actually just play more in Europe, which is great. Switzerland, we’ve got really good followings over there. They treat you much nicer and pay better. And then it’s more fun because you’re traveling in different countries. I mean, I’m saying the UK is a shitstorm, but everyone knows that. So I’m fairly happy saying that.

I know you did dates in the U.S. with Wolf Alice two years ago. Do you hope to get back over here to play shows?

JAMES: Yeah, we’re still talking about America and when to do it. We were thinking about possibly doing another South by Southwest but we might push America to a bit later in the year. It’s being organized right now. The plan is definitely to come back. We had such a good time, but it’s just so difficult for bands, especially at our level, to come over and tour, especially when we’re all still working full-time jobs and trying to balance family and life stuff. We just need to figure out the perfect time that’s going to work for everyone.

When UK bands come to the U.S., they tend to play shows in New York, Chicago, LA and maybe San Francisco. There’s not a lot of stops in the middle of the country or down south. I imagine the drives in the U.S. are much longer than when you’re touring in Europe.

JAMES: Mate, you can drive all day and still be in the same state in America. It’s crazy. You drive across four different countries in Europe and you haven’t left an American state. So, yeah, it is crazy. But that’s the dream. That’s why that tour with Wolf Alice was so much fun. It’s what everyone dreams of as a kid being a musician—touring in America. It was really grueling with long drives and a lot of work, but it was so much fun and we loved every minute of it.

We did DC, New York, Toronto, Chicago, Denver, Salt Lake City. The second half of the tour, from Denver on, was with Wolf Alice. The first half was headline shows. Wolf Alice were in a sleeper and we were in a little van, so we were chasing them. They’d drive through the night to the next place, and we’d have to sleep, drive, stay somewhere else, then drive the next bit. Especially that middle bit. I remember the funniest part. I can’t remember exactly, but it must have been after Denver. Maybe it was either Denver to Salt Lake or Salt Lake up to Seattle. I remember we got on the road and looked at the satellite nav, and it said, “500 miles, then turn left.” And I was like, “We’re going to be on this road for 500 miles without turning off once!” That was bizarre. But I loved it. It was an amazing time.

You’ve released three videos for the album. There’s no such thing really as MTV anymore. So it’s for promotional sake to get on YouTube and get people talking about the band, right?

JAMES: Yeah. Music videos are a pain. I think they are really important. I love music videos. I love a really good music video. But they aren’t cheap. We’re very fortunate that we have a lot of amazing people who want to collaborate with us. We reach out, and they’re like, “Yeah, I know you’re a small band with no budget, but I would really like to do it.” So we’re very fortunate to have quite a lot of really good music videos thanks to really talented people wanting to work with us. I know that people always pull out all the stops to make a really good video for us when we have such a small budget. I would obviously love to pay people properly, pay people the way they deserve. It’s just the way it goes in that industry.

What bands should I be paying attention to that I’ve not heard of, maybe friends of yours or any bands that you’re pretty hyped up about right now?

JAMES: Ooh, it’s good at the moment. There’s a band from Brighton called CLT DRP (pronounced Klitdrip). Great band. They’re really cool. Lambrini Girls. They’ve just come over to the States and had a really good South by Southwest. They’re all friends, three girls from Brighton doing great, straight-in-your-face punk. They’re a good band.

You mentioned owning a tattoo shop. What was your first tattoo and your most recent tattoo?

JAMES: First, I think I was 17. It’s a music note on my butt. And it was with my first high school band. There was this guy who had literally been up all night on speed. He was proper tweaking. And he was tattooing my butt, and halfway through, he said, “Wait, it’s not gay that I’m tattooing your ass, is it?” And I was like, “How did I get myself into this situation?” Most recent is getting all my side done. I own a tattoo studio, so I get tattoos quite a lot. But Mario, @sonofthegoddess is his Instagram name, he is filling in my side currently. It was one of the last big gaps I had left.

You’re also involved with a band called The Humanist. What can you tell me about that band?

JAMES: Rob Marshall, who is The Humanist, is a multi-instrumentalist. He writes everything and gets people to provide guest vocals. I hadn’t heard of him until we played a gig in a town called St. Leonard’s, where he lives, on the south coast of England. His manager reached out and told Rob, “You should get James to sing on it; he’s in a cool band.” So he just reached out and asked if I wanted to collaborate. He sent three songs and said, “Choose which one you like, write something on top, and we’ll split everything 50-50.”

He’s the most wonderful human being, such a sweetheart. We got on really well, and then he asked if I’d be interested in the live side of it. Because there are so many different singers on the record, it’s hard to figure out how to do it live. So me and this guy called Jimmy Gnecco (Ours) joined the live version. I was like, “Why not?” We weren’t touring with Crows at the time, so I had time. And he was like, “The first tour is with Depeche Mode. We’re going to do these arenas around Europe with Depeche Mode.” I was like, “I can make time for that.” The second tour was with Jane’s Addiction. I’ve played some amazing venues that I wouldn’t have otherwise. And I’ve made a really good friend. Rob is honestly a brilliant human being and an amazing songwriter. It’s been a real pleasure to collaborate with him and do all this cool stuff.

Last question. Working in a burrito truck, there must be a special “James Cox Burrito.” What are the ingredients?

JAMES: You’re going to get some real insight now. My nickname in the burrito van is Big Chopper, not for the connotations you might think. One day, I was chopping loads of onions, and they called me Big Chopper. So that’s my nickname in the van now. I went through a period of just having chicken, which is like poached chicken, and the vegetarian option is shallow-fried sweet potato. So I’ll be doing chicken, sweet potato, very spicy. That became known as “The Chopper.” Now, whenever anyone orders that on the truck, it’s called “I’ll have the Chopper,” which is funny.