Franz Ferdinand
On a flying visit to our green pastures in the middle of their European tour, Franz Ferdinand stop by just enough time to appear on the front cover of Luxuriant. While he’s here, Alex Kapranos talks to us about human bones, illegal download and their highly expected forthcoming slot at Rock A Field.
The murder of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand started the 1st World War. What started the unstoppable climb of Franz Ferdinand onto the world charts?
I think that bands are only really truly popular because of the music they play. I know it sounds incredibly obvious, but if you’ve got a song that lodges in people’s brains, that says something to them about their lives, that’s what’s going to spread the word about what you do.
Today for you, is it more important to keep the girls dancing or to keep your bank manager smiling?
I don’t think I’ve ever made music to make my bank manager smile. I like to see girls dancing at gigs, I like to see anybody dancing at gigs. If you’re making music to keep your bank manager smiling, I think you should stop…
You’re soon to play at Rock A Field in Luxembourg, what do you hope to find in your dressing room?
I hope to find the rest of my band… We don’t have a very excessive rider, the most we’ll ask for is a bottle of whisky and a couple of beers.
What do you think of the Luxembourg audience?
We played in Luxembourg 3 years ago and despite the weather, they were pretty good. I think it was a real test of the audience, to see if they would still have the excitement to get turned on and they were up for it, totally unphased by the weather.
Since your last album, 4 years have passed, you’ve been collaborating with Girls Aloud, LCD Soundsystem… Do you feel that a new set of influences have come in?
Our influences have always been very wide. The music we made is the product of very different influences, and I’m sure we’ll go in different directions in albums to come.
There have been rumours of the use of human bones on the drums of No You Girls…
Yes, that did happen.
Have you got any side-projects?
I just did a remix of a song by Little Boots. I met Victoria at the NME awards, I liked some of her tunes I’d heard and I thought she was really cool. I’d been thinking about doing some remixing for a while, I was just waiting for a song that I liked by someone that I liked.
Do you still write a food column for the Guardian?
I stopped doing it 3 years ago. Part of the idea was: I’m not a food expert, so I’d rather write like somebody who doesn’t have the vocabulary of a food critic. It was more an excuse to talk about where I was in the world, where I found myself with the band; it was more a tour diary than a food column…
The record sleeve seems to be inspired from 1950s American crime photography, what do you think is the best murder ever photographed?
Easy, the killing of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby. It’s one of the most iconic images of the 20th century, an incredible scene, an amazing photograph. It’s just so powerful, that one image can capture a major moment of history that was going to change events to come, without using any language… I love that photograph.
You made comments in the past saying that you weren’t against illegal downloading, is there a nice website where I can download Tonight for free?
What I said was that I think it’s a mistake to sue kids who download. There’s a difference between saying that I don’t think we should sue people and saying that I support it. We wouldn’t have been able to do what we’ve done without the support of Domino Records, and Domino Records wouldn’t exist if people didn’t buy records.
And you don’t need me to tell you where to download “Tonight” for free, you can easily find it by yourself, but it doesn’t mean that you should do it!
We can hear your music on TV series, on commercials, on video games… Is it the only way left for musicians to live off their music?
I wish there was less of it, but records don’t sell as much as they used to, so musicians are becoming a lot easier about where their music is used. We get asked to put our music on a lot more than we agree to. You have to make sure your moral compass is tuned when you’re asked for these things. When your stomach churns because you’re doing something wrong, you’ve got to acknowledge it and remember how to say no.
Mogwai are not letting anyone use their music for anything. I respect them for it, but for us, I think it’s a little excessive, especially that more and more, especially in the US, these are the only way people have to listen to new music…
What’s a good night out?
Usually a surprise… We actually had a great night out last night in Munich: A couple of drinks, some good tunes with people that you like, it seems pretty simple but these are the perfect ingredients for a good night out.
