Oh the glamour. In a windowless, low-ceilinged practice room, in a squat industrial unit on a grimy trading estate in Glasgow, Franz Ferdinand are preparing for their comeback. For the remaining founding members, singer/guitarist Alex Kapranos and bass player Bob Hardy, that means, as ever – no matter the dinginess of their environs – dress trousers and smart shoes.
The band are trying to find their footing on new songs from their upcoming sixth album The Human Fear . “We’ll work out what happens,” says Kapranos, leading the room in the gloom, the buckles on his kilt jacket just about visible in the shadow. He turns to guitarists Julian Corrie (who joined in 2017), Dino Bardot (also 2017) and drummer Audrey Tait (2021).
“See you at the end!” From there, they launch into a succession of songs that remind you of Franz Ferdinand’s power-pop-meet-art-rock brilliance: “Night or Day” (10CC meets Night at the Opera-era Queen); “Hooked” (Elvis fronting LCD Soundsystem, with a gurgling cameo from Kapranos’s infant son); and new single “Audacious” (vintage Franz, channelling 2004 breakthrough second single “Take Me Out”). It’s about “getting the songs sounding as dynamic and exciting as they do on the record”, explains the frontman. Job done.
The Scottish outfit might now only feature half their original line-up , but they’ve kept faith in the power of a guitar band, as signalled by Kapranos’s spoken-word intro to “Audacious”: “Right, h.