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photo: Cara Robbins
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Franz Ferdinand came on like gangbusters in 2004 with its excellent,
acclaimed self-titled debut album, which went platinum in America and spawned
two Top 20 singles at alternative radio (the gold-certified “Take Me Out,”
“This Fire”).
The indie rockers’ initial success was magnified at home in
the U.K., where they snagged Brit, Mercury Music Prize and Ivor Novello Awards.
In ‘05, the Glasgow-based band followed up with a moderately successful You Could Have it So Much Better and
another U.S. hit, “Do You Want To?”
A decade later, Franz Ferdinand teamed up with Sparks for
the solid FFS album/tour. Last year,
front man Alex Kapranos also contributed to his second modern rock supergroup BNQT,
alongside Band of Horses, Travis, Grandaddy and Midlake members.
After founding guitarist/singer Nick McCarthy decided to
exit Franz Ferdinand in 2016 to spend more time with family, Julian Corrie was
recruited on keyboards/synth/guitar/backing vocals. Then Dino Bardot was added
on guitar/backing vocals.
Now they're back with Always
Ascending on Domino Records.
Kapranos checked in from New York City to
discuss the group’s recent changes, portraying a preacher in a music video and
the wonders of drinking Whiskey Sours with a French producer.
Question: The
first two music videos you’re released from Always
Ascending are intriguing in their own way. How was experience making them,
particularly “Feel the Love Go,” with director Diane Martel, who previously helmed
your “Do You Want To?” and “Evil Eye” clips?
Answer: They’re
quite different from each other. ‘Always Ascending’ is really cool and has this
beautiful aesthetic to it. The one with Diane is totally crazy. She’s such a
good laugh to make videos with. I love doing stuff with her.
Q: And
you get to portray a preacher in her video.
A: Yeah.
My God, it’s the part I was born to play! [laughs]
Q: For
the new album, you worked with Frenchman Philippe Zdar of Cassius, whose production/mixing
credits include Phoenix, The Rapture and the final Beastie Boys album. How did you
come to that decision?
A: I
first met him when he was doing the Beastie Boys record and we were making the
last Franz record. Laurence [Bell] from Domino [Records] put us in touch with
each other because he thought we’d get on. It was supposed to be like a five-minute
chat just to say ‘hi.’ We ended up on the phone for about an hour and a half.
You know when you connect with somebody straight off and you
realize you share a lot of the same tastes? He was an inspiring guy. When we
were making this record, we knew that it was heading toward the dancefloor but
in a way that we hadn’t done before. We didn’t want to go to somebody who was
used to working primarily with electronic music because we still wanted to keep
the identity of a raw rock ‘n’ roll band at the heart of it. So, it had to be
somebody that appreciated a live performance but embraced the sonics of
tomorrow. Phillippe was the obvious choice. I can’t think of anybody that
would’ve done a better job. It was a real joy to make the record with him. He’s
a very large, positive personality and a generous, warm guy.
Q: In a
behind-the-scenes video from the new album’s sessions, you are seen laying down
a vocal, while Phillippe is jumping up and down. Was he that excitable all the
time?
A: Totally.
He’s an irrepressible personality. If you’re a performer, [you] like an
audience. If you’re performing in the studio and you get no feedback about what
you’re doing, it can really screw it up and kill the vibe something rotten. To
have somebody like Phillippe in the room with you and get a response off this
person, you feed off it.
Also, you know it’s honest because if he didn’t like it,
he’d make it just as clear. I believe that’s one of the greatest roles of a
producer. There’s understanding the sonics. How to craft the sound is essential
too, but you’re as much of a director and a performer as a producer too. He’s
also an amazing mixer on another level.
Every year, I don’t drink between Jan. 1 and my birthday,
March 20. We were in the studio at RAK [in London last March]. Phillippe is
really into whiskey sours. He makes the most incredible ones. That was the
first drink I had last year. My God, it was mind-blowing!
Q: In
that same clip, I saw a lava lamp and other decorations around the studio. Did
you try and create a distinct vibe there?
A: You
want it to feel like you’re at a good party - like you’ve had a really great
night out, come back and it’s the coolest place to hang out. When we were
writing this record, we did it in my studio in a quite rural part of Scotland,
which was a great way to detach ourselves from the world. One thing we agreed
on straight away with Phillippe was to go to an urban environment and change
the atmosphere. That’s why we went to London and Paris to mix it afterwards. Your
environment has an impact on the way you perform. All of it does.
Q: Two
standouts on the album are slower tempo tracks like “The Academy Award” that
could be on some old film noir soundtrack and “Slow, Don’t Kill Me Slow,” which
reminded me a bit of Jarvis Cocker and Pulp.
A: I
think those two songs are possibly my favorite songs on the record as well.
Maybe it’s because I’ve always loved the comedown at the end of a night out. Maybe
even more than the night out itself. Those songs fulfill that purpose on the
record. Each one is at the end of either side [of the LP format]. The
atmosphere of those songs - I get a chill right up my back as I imagine
recording ‘Slow, Don’t Kill Me Slow.’ I’ve never known the band to perform as [we
did] on that. Everybody played beautifully. It’s funny you mentioned Pulp.
There wasn’t a desire to emulate [them, but] I do love late-period Pulp, that
sort of dark stuff on ‘This is Hardcore.’
Q: Is
that a Theremin sound I hear on “Slow, Don’t Kill Me Slow?”
A: No.
I’m playing this bizarre old relic of a guitar synthesizer that was made by
Roland in the ‘70s [Note: it’s likely the GR-500 model]. You can switch between
the octaves and oscillator by using your foot. As I’m playing, I switch it and
that’s what gives you that rising sort of feel. It’s a very odd instrument. You
play it like a guitar, but it doesn’t sound anything like a guitar. You don’t
play it like a normal synthesizer. It’s good for forcing you into things you
normally wouldn’t do. Very atmospheric.
Q: There’s
a jaunty sax solo by Terry Edwards at the end of “Feel the Love Go.” I’ve
enjoyed his work with Robyn Hitchcock, Billy Bragg, Madness and others over the
years. How did he end up on the album?
A: He’s
such a great musician. He played with us before when we did ‘Love Illumination’
on Later…with Jools Holland. I’ve played with him a couple times over the last
couple years, doing part of a live show with music from Jim Jarmusch films.
Terry had been part of that. He’s incredible. The best sax player I know. The
stuff he does with PJ Harvey - that’s amazing.
Q: Since
the last Franz Ferdinand album came out, you also completed the FFS and BNQT side
projects. Did they have any effect on how you approached Always Ascending?
A: Singing
with Russell [Mael] on the ‘FFS’ record sort of opened me up to exploring the
lower range of my voice. He’s singing so high that I felt like I didn’t have to
cover those notes. I definitely explored some of the deep part of my range,
which comes through on this record a lot more.
Julian really covers that high end – some of those sweet
high notes you hear on this record - that’s Julian singing. And BNQT? With both
those records, the idea of stepping outside an established creative dynamic of
people and realize you could do something with other people probably was a good
preparation for this record. It made me feel more confident collaborating with
people I hadn’t worked with before. I loved making the BNQT record. I was
fortunate to play live with most of the guys earlier this year. What great
musicians they are. Incredible.
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| photo: David Edwards |
Q: What
has the addition of Julian and Dino brought to the Franz Ferdinand sound? Is
there a renewed sense of excitement now?
A: Yeah!
Julian was an integral part of this record’s sound. He plays [unlike anybody]
I’ve played with before. When we started writing the songs on this record, we
were aiming for something we could only execute with Julian. This idea of
making dance music that you could play live without programming it. He’s like a
human arpeggiator. The kind of stuff you’d normally put to a sequencer to play,
he’ll play on the synthesizer live. That was quite a revolutionary experience.
I love what he does.
Also, his voice and his perspective is different. As for
Dino: he’s the greatest rock star to ever come out of Glasgow. He’s got that
vibe about him. I’m so happy to have both of them in the band…it’s freed me up
as a front man. I feel so comfortable being onstage with them. They’ve just got
everything covered. I know they’ve got it locked in. It allows me space to
perform in a way I haven’t before. I really appreciate that.
Q: You’ve
said that some of the new song lyrics use characters similar to that on Franz Ferdinand; “Huck & Jim” and
“Lois Lane” being two examples. What was the inspiration for the upbeat latter song
with the line “because journalism could change the world”?
A: On
the first album, every song is either about people that we knew or is from
personal experience. That’s the way [bassist] Bob [Hardy] and I were collaborating.
A song like ‘Matinee’ was from our personal experiences. While we were writing
this record, we tried something we hadn’t done before, which is to create
purely fictional characters in the same way you would if you were writing a
short story, a screenplay or novel. You create characters and the situation in
which they collide with each other.
For ‘Lois Lane,’ we sat down and imagined these two people: one’s
essentially an optimist and one’s a pessimist. The guy believes altruism is
selfishness; you’re motivated by the buzz of getting the reward, whereas she is
the optimist who believes journalism can change the world. I’ve known
characters like that in my life. I’ve never had them both summed up in a song
in that particular way. I don’t think I’m either of those particular characters
myself. Neither does Bob. It’s great to make characters believable and feel
that you are in their world. That was new for us.
Q: American
news reporters have sort of been under siege the past few years.
A: Not
just in America - everywhere. Good old investigative journalism has brought
down a president before, maybe it can do it again.
Q: On the dense, synth-laden “Huck & Jim,” you sing, “we’re going to America
and tell them about the NHS.” Britain’s National Health Service has been in the
news quite a bit lately.
A: It
gives me the opportunity these days to tell people about the NHS - why I love
it and how I’m heartbroken by the government we have at the moment that is
trying to dismantle it by the back door. Trying to sell it off surreptitiously
without announcing it. That’s heartbreaking to me because it has literally
saved my life personally on three or four occasions.
It’s not just how I feel about it, [but] the principle that
if you measure a civilization on how it looks after the weak, the sick and the
poor and how it educates people, I believe those are universal rights we all
have no matter what your financial circumstances are personally. We look after ourselves.
Of course, it was particularly pertinent while we were writing that song
because it was a time when the introduction of the Affordable Care Act seemed like
America was moving toward that direction where you look after everybody and
then it was dismantled. It’s under attack.
That kind of small-minded conservatism, the idea that you
don’t care for anybody else and you don’t contribute toward anybody else’s well
being is so disappointing and depressing. Human beings are better than that;
aren’t they? I’d like to think so. Wouldn’t you?
Q: Definitely.
Switching gears, now that the band has been together 15+ years, how do you think
your music has evolved?
A: The
holy grail of what you aim for as an artist or musician is to remain true to
your identity. Your integrity. And yet feel that you’re doing something fresh
and new each time. That’s the goal. I hope when somebody gets this record, they
put the needle on [the vinyl] and within two seconds they know it’s Franz
Ferdinand, but think, ‘wow, that sounds like no Franz Ferdinand I’ve heard
before.’
Whether we get there, that’s not something for me to judge –
that’s for you, the critics, the fans and the casual listeners to judge…I guess
we’re fortunate if we can’t be anything but ourselves. I think it comes partly from
an early laziness.
When I was first learning to play the guitar, I learned a bunch
of chords and tried other people’s songs. Then I realized I didn’t have enough
chords to learn how to play The Smiths or Beatles songs. So, I started writing
my own songs instead. If I hadn’t been that lazy as a 14-year-old, I probably
wouldn’t be doing what I do right now. That’s also a theme I celebrate on ‘Lazy
Boy.’ I like to work hard, but my God, I love being lazy when it is time to be
lazy as well!
“Always Ascending” (official video):
“Feel the Love Go” (official video):
“Take Me Out” (official video):
Franz Ferdinand – U.S.
Tour Dates
April 10 House of Blues – Boston, MA
April 11 9:30 Club – Washington, DC
April 13 The Fillmore – Philadelphia, PA
April 15-16 Brooklyn Steel – Brooklyn, NY
April 27 First Avenue – Minneapolis, MN
April 28 The Truman – Kansas City, MO
April 30 The Rave – Milwaukee, WI
May 2 The Pageant – St. Louis, MO
May 4 Shaky Knees Festival – Atlanta, GA
May 7 House of Blues – Dallas, TX
May 8 White Oak Music Hall – Houston, TX
May 9 Emo’s – Austin, TX
May 11 The Van Buren – Phoenix, AZ
May 12 Observatory – Santa Ana, CA
May 13 North Park @Observatory – San Diego, CA
May 15 The Wiltern – Los Angeles, CA
May 17 Fox Theatre – Oakland, CA
My article originally appeared in the February issue of Rock Cellar Magazine.
