Gigwise Meets Franz Ferdinand

“We did a David Bowie cover for Radio 1 with Girls Aloud and Brian Higgins and it went really well so we went down to his studio to do some work with Xenomania. It never really got going with them though to be honest, in the end we didn’t end up recording anything with them.” Bob Hardy is talking about the recording process of his band Franz Ferdinand’s new album, ‘Tonight: Franz Ferdinand’, and it’s much talked about waiting time and various false starts. Chief amongst the publicised experiments was the work with Xenomania, better known as the brains behind the acts such as Girls Aloud and Gabriella Cilmi. “The way Xenomania work is that there is a group of them and one of them will do the melodies and one will do the lyrics and then someone on beats and keyboards so it’s very similar to how we work. In a way they’re a band on their own and we didn’t need their expertise as we have our own.”

That is under no doubt as the band have emerged from a three and a half year break with a new album and a fantastic return to form. Following the breakthrough hit of the bands self titled debut album in 2004, Franz Ferdinand came back immediately in 2006 with ‘You Could Have It So Much Better’ and the rush showed in the albums quality. The band have gone on record as saying that the second album is not their finest work and that they would be taking their time with album number three.  “We finished touring the second album in September 2006 and decided to have a break from each other because by that point we’d been together 24/7 in one way or another since 2003," explains Bob. "So we had been in this bubble for three years and needed a few months off. Then in about February 2007 we got back together and started writing and recording. We finished up in September 2008, a year and a half later, which is about the same gestation period of the first album.”

Following the time spent with Xenomania, Franz Ferdinand hooked up with Dan Carey (Hot Chip, CSS) and began the ‘Tonight:’ sessions. “Dan left us on our own a lot and he fitted into the band dynamic really well. The songs were already written by the time we started with him, he was much more focused on the sonics of the album than shaping and moulding it.”

‘Tonight:’ sees Franz Ferdinand moving into a much more dance and electronic inspired environment, the band have always made music to dance to but never before has it been so ostensibly geared towards the Berlin influenced dance music. Bob says, “The second record was a rock record really, very loud and fast and we didn’t want that again. So things slowed down and became more syncopated and dancier. It was the direction we wanted to move in and I feel proud of the album that we have made.” Is there a song you are particularly keen on? “I really enjoy ‘Lucid Dreams’ that’s sort of an epic eight minute long track with an electronic decoda running through it. “