Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapronas has been talking Bob Dylan, David Bowie and Roxy Music in a bid to try and explain the direction the bands second album may take.

Speaking to XFM minutes before going on stage at their Teenage Cancer Trust Charity concert Kapronas spoke about the influences on the album:

“I’ve been listening to a lot of Dylan recently. I’m getting really into 'Highway 61'. It’s so good. That’s influencing more my lyrical style, than anything. I don’t think we’ll end up sounding like Dylan and The Band, but I just love the rhythm of his lyrics, they’re fantastic. Not the same subject matter, or the same singing style, but definitely the rhythm of his lyrics and listening to people who are adventurous with the rhythm of their words.

“Bowie too we’re listening to a lot of Bowie. A bit of the old glam stuff, but also ‘Low’, ‘Station to Station’ and ‘Heroes’. But also it’s good to listen to those records when thinking about producing records as they're so radical and so adventurous and very inspirational.”

“Listening to those Eno and old Roxy Music records, there’s one thing about them which really appeals to us, which is that records were massively experimental and went to places where music had never gone before and yet it still sounded like pop music, it still sounded like pop music and you could hum it straight away, yet there were sounds you’d never have imagined hearing on a record before.

“At the moment we’re working with Rich Costey. A really cool character and we’ve been sitting around playing a lot of records, talking about music and things that excite us and experimenting. Trying to do different things. Things we never would have tried on our records before.”

Franz Ferdinand went on to play a blistering set at the Royal Albert Hall in the company of Graham Coxon, The Magic Numbers and the Kaiser Chiefs.

Photo By Stuart Antrobus

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