Since 2004, Glasgow foursome Franz Ferdinand have been hammering out disco-infused indie rock. Not only did they become one of the biggest bands in the world with their massive hit Take Me Out, but they started a new wave revolution, with acts like Maximo Park and Bloc Party following in their footsteps.
But success isn’t an antidote for boredom, so on Tonight: Franz Ferdinand, the group’s third full-length, the band decided to shake things up.
“You’ve got to push yourselves to try new things,” says Alex Kapranos, the band’s lead singer. “If we kept on doing what we have been for the rest of our lives, it would have been boring.”
While not every track is a major departure — No You Girls might be the band’s most infectious dance rocker to date — other songs are nearly unrecognizable. Lucid Dreams, for one, is an eight-minute keyboard driven electro anthem.
“That track was cut down from a 40-minute session,” says Kapranos. “That song has quite a different dynamic to it — it’s much more dance floor. We’d been listening to a lot of mixes, where you build in a slow gradual way and bring the listener up. We’re using different techniques than verse, chorus, verse.”
It’s easy for a band to try new things, but what happens if their fans hate it? Like every musician, Kapranos says he writes for himself, not to sell records, but he did make sure to play his new songs live before releasing them.
“Part of developing a new sound is playing it to the fans,” he explains. “We played a bunch of smaller shows in Glasgow and the States. Doing that helps you know what’s working or what’s not. You can try out the most crazy experimental ideas and sometimes it works.”
Still, some fans may be curious as to what Kapranos was referring to, when in the band’s new bio, he says that the disc is an album “to fling yourself around your room as you psyche yourself for an evening of hedonism.” Don’t worry, Tonight is not an all out techno record, but it does take their disco-friendly tunes to new, ass-shaking heights. That’s thanks to their copious use of synths. “We wanted to go with a dance floor feel,” says Franz’s frontman. “There were a lot of keyboards around the studio and we wanted to use them.
“But we’ve always been interested in this kind of music,” he adds. “This time the bass is really the heart of the record.”
