Franz Ferdinand Biography
Summary
"Franz Ferdinand" are an award winning rock band, from Glasgow, Scotland. Formed in 2001 and named after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, the band consists of Alex Kapranos on lead vocals and guitar, Bob Hardy on bass guitar, Nick McCarthy on rhythm guitar, keyboards, and backing vocals, and Paul Thomson on drums, percussion, and backing vocals.
Despite the poor charting of first single 'Darts of Pleasure', the band saw chart success with its debut self-titled album (released in 2004) which debuted on the UK album charts at number three and won the 2004 Mercury Music Prize and two BRIT Awards in 2005 for "Best British Group" and "Best British Rock Act". From the album, three top ten singles were released, the smash hit and critically acclaimed 'Take Me Out', 'The Dark of the Matinée', followed by a top 20 hit 'Michael'.
The band's second album, "You Could Have It So Much Better", charted at #1 in the UK, giving birth to top ten hit 'Do You Want To' and other hits such as 'Walk Away' and 'The Fallen'.
History
Alex Kapranos was born "Alexander Paul Kapranos Huntley" on 20 March 1972 in Almondsbury, Gloucestershire, son of a Greek father who had been adopted by a British family named 'Huntley'. He had lived in Greece until he was two, when his mother decided the heat was unbearable. The family moved to the north-east of England. Such a switch in climate caused Alex to become asthmatic.
Alex worked in every detestable job that he could find, despite liking the delivery boy job for "Mother India's" café. He got a free meal, which left him with a curry habit. Alex had many jobs but the big deal with the dead end jobs was not so much the poor pay as how it curtailed his involvement in Glasgow's thriving underground music scene. He began working as a promoter for the downmarket 13th Note Club. Alex ran two club nights per week: The Kazoo Club and the 99p Club. The latter was named such because, Alex would charge a pound per person as an entrance fee. He recalls 'The idea was the bands would come down for a bit of beer and people wouldn't have to pay and we'd give 'em amps and stuff to play with... It was a good scene?.
Alex was now a talented musician, teaching himself how to play the guitar and the Bass, joined in with many bands at the 13th Note. He played with groups such as the 10p Invaders and the Amphetameanies. He appeared on Glasgow group Quinn.
He formed his first band in 1996 as the lead singer, going under the name "Alex Huntley". The band were named "The Blisters" but renamed themselves as The Karelia. They were made up of Alex Huntley on vocals, guitar, bouzouki and banjolele, Glen Thomson on bass guitar and percussion, Alan Wylie on trumpet, and Thom Falls on. they released their only album, "Divorce at High Noon" in 1997. Their musical style was an off the wall mix of rock and jazz trumpet with unusual lyrics
Other members of the group included Franz Ferdinand tour manager Glen Thomson, the project collapsed as their label "Roadrunner Records". Alex then joined the "Yummy Fur", named after the Canadian comic book, in 1998.
The Yummy Fur were already a well established Glaswegian cult band before Alex had joined, he once again used the adopted name of Huntley. The band were described as 'pop-punk groovy din' by (Twee Kitten.com) and compared to The Fall by the NME.
Since 1997 the drummer of the group was one Paul Thomson, described by band mates as 'the best drummer in Glasgow'. With before Alex playing bass or guitar, he and Paul developed a musical understanding that would become the cornerstone of Franz Ferdinand.
Paul Robert Thomson was born in Duddingston, Edinburgh on 15 September 1976 making him the second-to-youngest member of the band. He choked on a button as a child and retains an irrational fear for flat and round objects, except for coins. He studied Environmental Art at the Glasgow School of Art, obtaining a Ph.D, although his main interest was always music.
Sometime around the end of 2001, Bob Hardy was sitting in Alex's kitchen in Glasgow. Alex had just been given a bass by his friend Mick, on the condition that he did 'something useful' with it. So he asked Bob if he'd like to learn how to play it. 'Do you want to learn to play the bass then, Bob?', to which he replied, 'No, I'm an artist, not a musician.' Alex responded, saying, 'It's the same thing', which eventually led to them play music together.
Alex met co-guitarist Nick McCarthy at a party in Jo and Celias' kitchen. Alex went with his own drink, as was tradition in that particular place, whereas Nick (who was dressed up as a young Adam Ant) had a different idea: to try and steal other people's drinks without getting caught. Nick tried to steal Alex's vodka, but he was caught and a fight broke out.
But this quarrel cooled when the two began to discuss music. When Alex asked if he knew how to play the drums, McCarthy said that he could. However, when they met up in Nick's South Side mansion, Kapranos found Nick's answer to be a blatant lie. '...when he said he could play the drums what he meant was that he could hit them but in no coherent order'. Yet Kapranos noticed he was feasible at the guitar, and thus they began to rehearse together at McCarthy's house.
McCarthy was classically trained on the piano and double bass but initially played drums. The trio then met up with Paul Thomson who had played drums with Yummy Fur. Thomson originally was going to play guitar because he wanted to try something other than drums. However, because Alex and Bob were aware of how awful Nick was at playing it was decided that Paul would take over on drums, with Nick taking lead guitar. Thomson was described by Kapranos as the best drummer in Glasgow, but refers to how Paul wanted to be seen by the audience, hence refusing to use rack toms, However, by late 2005 Paul was using rack toms.
Nick and Alex decided that they needed somewhere bigger than Nick's home to play music in. Hunting for property, they went for a walk along the disused railway line that crosses over Paddy's market and the Clyde. They discovered two things: that the line wasn't disused after all, and a huge abandoned art-deco warehouse that overlooked the Clyde. They tracked down the landlord, and they persuaded him to give them the keys to the 6th floor. They were successful, eventually naming their new residence 'the Château', and they made it their home.
After evicting the pigeons and fixing the windows, they found an electrician who managed to wire the building in a way that left the electricity board innocent of the knowledge that they were supplying the power. At one point in its history, the warehouse had stored sports equipment. In fact the band held a Sports and Leisure night: rowing machines strapped to trolleys were raced, vibra-belts wobbled, weights were lifted and rifles were shot from the saddle of a rocking horse. It was also here where the band held rave-like 'happenings' combining music and art; Hardy was studying painting at the Glasgow School of Art at the time.
Eventually, though, the police went driving around the block, trying to find a way into where the noise was coming from. After some weeks, they found their way in and shut the events down because of the band running an illegal bar and contravening various health and safety, fire hazard and noise abatement legislation. Alex took most of the blame because he was the only one who didn't run away. When he was talking to the police down at the cells, they said that they had been looking for the place for a month.
'The Château' was now marked territory and could no longer be used as a centre of noise. So the band played shows in other places. Lucy McKenzie, a Glasgow artist, held nights in her Flourish Studios. These were similar to 'the Château', but a little quieter. Stereo, a bar with a rare and supportive attitude was also a haunt. The Château was never abandoned, but another place, equally as magnificent was found.
On Tobago Street there is a Victorian courtroom and gaol. When McCarthy discovered it, it had been abandoned for over 30 years. It was ideal for the band.
In April 2003, the band put up a gig in the Glasgow School of Art that was intended as a sign of gratitude towards their fans rather than anything else. Alex remembers, 'we were expecting it just to be another gig at the art school, then we saw the guest list and there were about forty labels on it. There was a guy holding up a mobile phone to the stage while we were playing. We arranged to meet some of these guys and it felt like some daft "Carry On" film, or a "Terry and June" episode. You had to keep them separate. They were all giving each other dirty looks. One asked us to sign on the night and I never thought that would happen.' Paul said, 'We hadn't really thought of record label deals at the time, we were just doing for the fun and sheer excitement. All of us with the exception of Bob played in a band before and Alex was the only one who had experience of the music industry I guess. It was a bad experience for him so the driving for him was to do something completely different'.
Bob didn't even seem interested, 'No, God no I didn't wanna be in a band, no... it's a bit cliché in art school, you join a band or whatever, but my main idea would be being in this band would be a bit of fun playing with the 7' and stuff'.
In May 2003, the band signed to Lawrence Bell's small but respected independant label, Domino, Alex said 'Lawrence had a totally different attitude from the other labels. He never said he'd buy us some big fancy meal - he cooked us dinner instead. We liked him and his deals. He has real enthusiasm and genuine love for music.'
Paul Thomson said, 'Someone from a record company in London, had come to the Château show, but he left during the first band, I think he thought the building was gonna collapse'.
Alex said, 'Most of the record companies couldn't give a shit when they first heard us to be honest, I remember we did a gig down in London in a place called 'Cherry Jam', it was awful 'cause when you play to a crowd of thse people they don't care they don't want to jump around they're not there to enjoy the music, terrible terrible night. I remember there was this one guy who told us that we had the potential to be wonderful if he got his marketing department on to us and if we reconsidered the way we played and all this bullshit'. 'But the next day we played in the Art House, Lawrence said that he liked what we're doing and what we sound like, can I put your records out'.
Lawrence said, 'We've just signed a band called Franz Ferdinand from Glasgow; I think they're going to do really well, they are really charismatic, the guitarist was wearing a cape and the drummer was wearing a sailor's outfit, this was immediately teh best band in the world'.
In a 2004 interview with VH1, Alex Kapranos described the sound they were seeking. 'On songs like 'Come on Home,' we wanted to sound like Donna Summer and Link Wray mixed together, but it doesn't sound like that at all! We thought we could sound like Prince, too, but what we were really trying to do was take on the attitudes of different bands and combine them in our own way.'
The band had recorded an EP worth of material which they intended to release themselves. However, the band's reputation was spreading rapidly, and Domino Records offered them a contract to release an EP called "Darts of Pleasure" in the latter part of 2003. The band developed its reputation further by supporting Hot Hot Heat and Interpol. NME editor Connor McNicholas said, 'My first contact with Franz Ferdinand was when someone was playing the "Darts of Pleasure" demos, in the NME office, and it was genuinely and it was genuinely one of those moments when a track goes on and I come bundling out of my office saying 'what the hell is this because this is amazing' it was therefore no surprise the band won the 'Phillip Hall Radar Award' at the NME Awards of 2004 (announced in late 2003). Furthermore, the NME described the band as "The Next Big Thing" and featured the band on the front cover describing them as "The Band That Will Change Your Life".
The band soon signed onto a contract with Sony Music Japan in Japan and Epic Records in 2004 for the United States.
Debut album and mainstream success
Franz played the Carling stage in 2003 alongside bands such as Razorlight and Keane. Alex came onto the stage and sang "I am the new Scottish gentry" "the first line from b-side Shopping for Blood", and the crowd erupted into excitement. The band then performed Take Me Out, Alex was astonished at the reaction it got, 'You could tell there was some sort of buzz. We were playing in a tent and it was crammed, the single wasn't even out yet...'. Afterwards, Dotmusic (now Yahoo! Music) remarked, 'With their thermometer currently as hot as Jay Z with MDMA goggles, eyeing Beyonce's almost illegal booty cut-down denims, the word on this Glaswegian four piece. Indeed, Dot Music finds itself in an almost partisan tent, buzzing with... anticipation.' 'Franz Ferdinand do little new and are surfing on the New Wave 20 years late'
Darts of Pleasure was then released on 8 September 2003 as an EP, the cover art was designed by Paul, who according to Alex 'had too much time on his hands'. With the release, Franz were acclaimed as 'the saviours of rock and roll' John Peel gave them airtime, however, it only reached #43 in the UK chart, nonetheless, the band were still chuffed, 'we couldn't believe we were in the UK top 50'.
The band moved to Tambourine Studios in Malmö, Sweden with Cardigans producer Tore Johansson and started to record their debut album, and planning their next single, the single that would change everything. In January, Franz Ferdinand's single Take Me Out would propel them into the charts with a pop consciousness that no guitar band had done for years. The lyrics could have been a metaphor for two people exchanging glances across a dancefloor, however, it could have been a straightforward reference to the thought of two snipers, each trying to take each other out. Alex however cancelled out any attempts of clever lyrics, 'The music we hate is that of earnest boys making complicated music for other earnest boys. there's nothing finer than seeing people dancing to your song; so we make music easy to dance to'.
Take Me Out eventually reached #3 in the charts, it was a single 'made for the radio' and dominated airwaves in that time. It appealed to a wide audience and it is claimed that it helped indie fans and pop fans comprehend each other.
Franz Ferdinand have been quoted as saying they wanted to make 'music that girls can dance to.' (... more) This was combined with their art school background on their self-titled debut released in early 2004. It debuted at number 3 in the UK Albums Chart in February 2004 and at number 12 in the Australian album charts in April 2004. While the album had only reached the lowest levels of the Billboard 200 album charts in the US as of early 2004, it reached the top 5 of the indie rock chart and the Heatseeker chart for debut artists. After a couple of North American tours and heavy rotation of the 'Take Me Out' video on MTV, the album eventually reached No. 32 on the Billboard 200 later in 2004 and has been certified platinum in the US for sales exceeding 1,000,000. Five singles were released from the album, namely:
'Darts of Pleasure' placed on the UK Singles Chart prior to being a particularly successful band;
'Take Me Out' was the breakthrough single and reached the #3 on the UK charts, #66 on the Billboard Hot 100, and #3 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. It also made the top 10 of the Irish and Canadian charts and the top 40 in a composite European chart as well as being voted number one in the Australian Triple J Hottest 100 for 2004 (more than doubling the votes for the song which received second place). It is also a song option for the videogame 'Guitar Hero'.
'The Dark of the Matinée' or 'Matinée' reached #8 in the UK singles charts and the top 30 on the World Modern Rock Charts (a composite chart of US, German, UK, Swedish, Finnish, Canadian and Australian modern rock charts); and
'Michael' reached the #17 on the UK singles charts. A large amount of the single's sales were not counted, as they were not released in the correct format.
'This Fire' was released in North America in November 2004, and was a download-only single in the UK. It reached #17 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, and reached #8 on the UK download chart.
The song 'Michael' was the first in a trend among newer bands to write songs with lyrics reflecting a more fluid sexuality. 'Michael' is a frenzied dance/rock song based on a private joke among the band about a friend of theirs who got drunk and was dancing unabashedly at a club.
The "Franz Ferdinand" album received a generally strong positive response from critics. The "New Musical Express" said that the band was the latest in the line of art school rock bands featuring Duran Duran, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Roxy Music, the Sex Pistols, Wire, Travis and Blur. It rated the album as 9 out of 10 and said: 'This album is the latest and most intoxicating example of the wonderful pushing its way up between the ugly slabs of Pop Idol, nu metal and Britons aping American bands. What these blossoming bands have in common is the absolute conviction that rock 'n' roll is more than a career option.'
The BBC's review of the album said: 'At only 38 minutes long "Franz Ferdinand" may not be a particularly long album, but it is a masterpiece of funky, punky, suave cool from the first track to the last.' The All Music Guide rated the album as four out of five stars and said "Franz Ferdinand" ends up being rewarding in different ways than the band's previous work was, but it's apparent that they're still one of the more exciting groups to come out of the garage-rock / post-punk revival.'
On September 7, 2004 the album was awarded the 2004 Mercury Music Prize. "Take Me Out" gained first place in the Australian Triple J Hottest 100 for 2004, winning more than twice the votes of the second-place entry. Franz Ferdinand proceeded to win an Ivor Novello Award in 2004 and two BRIT Awards in 2005. The avant-garde music video for "Take Me Out" earned them a Breakthrough Video MTV Award.
The NME named Franz Ferdinand the best album of 2004 (... more) , and also placed it 38th on their "100 Best Albums of All Time" list (... more) .
In February 2005, Franz had become so successful that hardcore fans began to exchange originals of Divorce at High Noon for £50-£100. Because of this, the album was re-released under Roadrunner Records. It featured all of the previous album and the following bonus tracks:
'Divorce At High Noon' (French Version)
'Love's A Cliché' (Single Version)
The re-release also featured the video for 'Love's A Cliché', however, Alex was not impressed, he said 'those people got rid of us when we really needed them, now they're just trying to cash in on my newly found fame, I'd rather people downloaded the album than buy it from those fuckers'
"You Could Have It So Much Better"
The band spent much of 2005 in the studio in Scotland working on their follow-up album, "You Could Have It So Much Better", which was released on 3 October 2005. Throughout the recording process, the band had intended to leave the album self-titled like their debut, but they changed it to "You Could Have It So Much Better...With Franz Ferdinand" before settling on the current title. The first live performance of their new music came as the band headlined at the V Festival in August 2005.
After the ecstatic reception of their debut, some reviews towards the new album became more polarized, with some complaints that the recording was rushed. However, it generally was critically acclaimed and seen as an album equal to, or better than their first by most critics, including the NME. It entered the UK Album Charts at Number 1 and the US charts at Number 8.
The album is less associated with art music and dance, with the band taking a more raw, indie-rock-style approach. This stylistic change was reflected in more lively live shows, featuring band members jumping off the drum kit, smashing guitars and rolling around on stage.
On the tour that followed the album release, Franz broke the record for the longest run at the Alexandra Palace, North London, by playing 4 sold out nights during November-December 2005.
To support the album, four singles have been released. Included in that set is a double A-side single that contained a video-clip only single as well (both the AA-side 'L. Wells' and the video-clip 'Jeremy Fraser' are not featured on the album, recorded in early 2006 during the band's tour of Australia in support of the album). Also included is another video-clip-only single called 'Wine In the Afternoon' which is the B-side to Eleanor Put Your Boots On, and was also not featured on the album, but recorded on tour in Michigan. 'Do You Want To' made it to number 4, while 'Walk Away' and 'The Fallen' / 'L. Wells' entered the top 15 of the UK Singles Chart. The 4th and final single from the second album, 'Eleanor Put Your Boots On' peaked at number 30.
Next album
According to NME in 2005, the band had no intentions to stop and continued to record at a relentless pace. It was actually in January of 2006 when the band began new recording sessions, coinciding with some dates in Australia and New Zealand: 'Then we'll see how many songs we've got together but we're talking about going into the studio at the end of January.' Kapranos explained. 'We're popping over to Australia and New Zealand at the end of January as well, as you do. It's brilliant, I'm looking forward to that. We get to miss the Scottish winter, which is not a bad thing at all.'
The band revealed in early September 2006 that they were going to take a break after headlining the Carling Weekend and playing two shows in Brazil.
During his break, Alex Kapranos involved himself in various activities such as book writing. His book is called, "Sound Bites: Eating on Tour with Franz Ferdinand" and in August 2006 Alex and Nick managed to find time to appear at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, and took part in a songwriting session for the festival.
Alex also produced The Cribs' third album, Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever along with their single only track Don't You Wanna Be Relevant?.
As of March 8, 2006, the band finally began meeting to work on their third album and March 13, 2007, Alex Kapranos and Nick McCarthy spoke exclusively to Xfm about their next album. Alex had this to say regarding the next album.
On February 14, 2007, Bonnaroo released the initial 2007 lineup, which included Franz Ferdinand, the two confirmed that this would be the only festival they'll perform in that year, despite initial plans to not perform live at all that year. In the same interview held with XFM discussing the next album, Alex said this to XFM.
Despite what he what he said, on September 22nd Franz Ferdinand actually not only played a UK festival, they headlined at Loopallu, a festival which at the time was in its third year, held in the village of Ullapool in the north west Highlands. They played a mix of old and new tracks in a tent by the side of Loch Broom.
it was in December, 2006 that the actual band members took control of their own MySpace page, they used it as an advantage to upload video updates and on March 26, 2007, a video of them recording an instrumental song dubbed "Flight of the Galvatron" was uploaded. On May 9, 2007, Alex updated the band's MySpace blog with brief mentions of two songs, entitled "A New Thrill" and "English Goodbye". Alex clarifies, 'The latter is about the expression 'saying an English goodbye', not a call for Scottish independence.' The band actually debuted the two songs in Spring 2007 in a live show in Glasgow. In addition, they played 'Favourite Lie,' ';Turn It On,' and 'Anyone In Love'. On May 30, 2007, Rock'n Coke Festival in Istanbul released the lineup, which included Franz Ferdinand.
Alex Kapranos once again updated the bands MySpace blog to inform that at the "Hey You Get Off My Pavement" show, that they were playing in front of Glasgow's Mono featured three brand new songs. Their working titles were 'Live Alone,' 'Kathrine Kiss Me,' and 'Ulysses.'
At The Edinburgh International Film Festival on August 15, 2007, (the premiere of the movie Hallam Foe) Nick and Alex performed a short acoustic set. They performed a new song entitled 'Kathrine Kiss Me' along with 'Hallam Foe, Dandelion Blow' and crowd favorites, 'Dark of the Matinee' and 'Jacqueline.'
In late August 2007, the (Official Site) was simply a black background with 'Not Yet' in grey letters at the bottom right. This has prompted plenty of speculation that the third album would be coming soon and some also believed that 'Not Yet' may indeed have turned out to be the title of the third album, however as of October 22nd, FranzFerdinand.co.uk took off the words Not Yet and featured instead an image of the band against a brick wall in black and white. The website was still titled 'Not Yet'.
In an interview with the Sunday Mail on September 9 2007, Alex spoke of the bands cover of David Bowie's 'Sound and Vision' for the "Radio 1: Established 1967" compilation album.
Alex also implied that the band was working with Xenomania on the new album, as Alex is a fan of their work with Girls Aloud.
Franz re recorded the track Brown Onions for David Shringley's compilation album 'Worried Noodles'.The band kept instrumentation identical but used lyrics written by Shringley which include the consistent repetition of the word 'No' and occasionally 'No brains, no teeth, no legs, no eyes...'. Hot Chip a band who, it is reported are a favourite of Franz Ferdinand also performed their own version of 'No' on the same album.
Usage in the media
Games
'Take Me Out' was featured in the EA Sports video games, "Madden NFL 2005" and "NHL 2005", Codemasters Club Football 2005, and Guitar Hero by Harmonix.
Sony's "Singstar" karaoke Series on the Playstation 2 featured 'Take Me Out' on the 'Party' collection and 'Do You Want To' was included in the 'Rocks' collection.
'Do You Want To' is included in the lineup of licensed songs in "Konami"s "Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA" for the Playstation 2.
'Michael' was featured in "Gran Turismo 4" on the Playstation 2.
'Tell Her Tonight' was featured in "FIFA 2005".
'This Fire' was in "Burnout 3: Takedown", made by EA Games and Criterion Games.
Campaigns
During the 2005 general election campaign, the band, who feel strongly about environmental issues, donated "This Fire" as the background music for the election broadcasts by the three UK Green parties. The TV broadcasts, directed by Alex Cox and produced by Kim Ryan, were screened on 28 April, 2005 across all UK terrestrial channels.
"Take Me Out" was used in an ad campaign for Sony's PlayStation Portable game system (PSP). "Do You Want To" was used in an ad campaign for Sony's Walkman players (in Japan).
'Do You Want To' is used in a commercial for L'Oreal Vive Pro shampoo and conditioner
Part of '40 Feet' is used in the TV trailer for the movie 'A Good Year'
Previews
"This Boy" is used in German previews for the TV series "Jimmy Neutron".
The intro of '40' ' was used in the Dutch previews for the TV series 'Catscratch'
Part of the song "I'm Your Villain" was used in a preview for the 2006 film 'The Guardian'.
"Do You Want To" was used in a preview for the 2007 film 'Good Luck Chuck.'
'Do You Want To' was also used to promote the films 'Fun with Dick and Jane' and 'Daddy Day Camp'.
The beginning of '40' ' was also used in a television commercial for the film 'In Good Company' in 2004 and also for the film 'A Good Year' in 2006.
'Take Me Out`` was featured in the preview of the movie Madagascar.
Television
The song 'Come on Home' features on 'Almost: Round Three' , a skateboarding video by Almost Skateboarding Company and played in Cooper Wilt's part. And also features on 'Live 8' DVD, the follow up to 'Live Aid'. Music from the song is played at the beginning of the DVD, during the explanation of what Live 8 was. Also, the intro was used in Brazilian MTV Travel show "Mochilão MTV"opening. The keyboard solo and intro were also used in Sky One science program 'Brainiac'.
The song 'Take Me Out' is used as the theme music for Australian Television Program 'Any Given Sunday.' In Australia it is also used on Channel Ten's Sports Tonight. The song is also used on Eurosport channel, when it advertises Eurosport 2 and was included on the kid-oriented album "Kidz Bop 8", and the TV show "Video Mods".
'Do You Want To' was also used in the second episode of the third season of the series "The O.C.", in an episode of "Malcolm in the Middle", on "CSI" and as the ending theme music to the "Paradise Kiss" anime television series.
'The Fallen' is in the episode Party girl of Without a trace and on "The Real Hustle".
The song 'Darts of Pleasure' appeared briefly in an episode of "Entourage".
The song '40' ' appears in the BBC documentary 'Teenagers hooked on porn'.
The song 'Walk Away' is used as the main riff for the Fashion T.V. Theme song.
Film
"Hallam Foe Dandelion Blow" was written specifically for the upcoming film "Hallam Foe", other Domino artists contributed music as well. Hallam Foe premiered at the Berlin Film Festival on the February 16 2007 and competed for the Golden Bear for Best Motion Picture. The film won the Silver Bear for Best Music.
Other
"Take Me Out" is featured in 'Weird Al' Yankovic's "Polkarama!" from his 2006 album, 'Straight Outta Lynwood,' as the second song in the polka-themed medley.
The main riff to 'Take Me Out' is often sampled during Gym Class Heroes concerts to various songs.
'The Fallen' was used as the theme song for the internet meme Smash Our Stuff series (SmashMyWii, SmashMyPS3, SmashMyiPod, etc).
During Fright Fest at Six Flags Great Adventure, the fire breathing show 'Toarch' used 'This Fire' as one of its main songs.
Collaborations
Franz Ferdinand covered the LCD Soundsystem song "All My Friends" which appeared as a B-side on the single. They have also made covers of "Sexy Boy" by Air and "It Won't Be Long" by The Beatles. They have also done a few covers for BBC Radio One, including Pulp's popular single "Mis-Shapes", Gwen Stefani's top 5 hit "What You Waiting For?" and a cover of David Bowie's song Sound And Vision for a compilation disc marking the 40th anniversary of BBC Radio One along with other leading artists.
Concerning the Sound and Vision cover, in an interview with the Sunday Mail on September 9 2007, Alex implied that the band were working with Xenomania on the new album, as Alex is a fan of their work with Girls Aloud. As a result, Franz Ferdinand collaborated with Girls Aloud on their cover of David Bowie's 'Sound and Vision' for the forthcoming "Radio 1: Established 1967" album.
Franz Ferdinand have had remixes by major electronic artists Daft Punk, Hot Chip, Justice, and Erol Alkan.
Franz Ferdinand recorded a cover of The Fire Engines song Get Up and Use Me. In return, the Fire Engines recorded a cover of Jacqueline.
Alex Kapranos produced the 3rd The Cribs album in Vancouver in November/December 2006.
The band performed played and recorded with Jane Birkin, covering the Gainsbourg song 'Sorry Angel'.
Kapranos sang on the Handsome Boy Modelling School track 'World's Gone Mad,' and provides backing vocals on the song 'Jarhand' by Immaculate Machine.
In early 2005, Kanye West declared Franz Ferdinand to be his favourite band, and coined the term white crunk to describe the band's gritty drum sounds. West and the band met at the 2005 MTV Europe Music Awards, where they sat down together to share praise and advice. West feels that the white crunk vibe has affected his new work, and is best exemplified on the track 'Diamonds from Sierra Leone', from his 2005 album "Late Registration". The band itself is also greatly influenced by Kanye and sought advice from him on how to improve production for their 2005 album "You Could Have It So Much Better".
Rapper Snoop Dogg has also declared an admiration for the band, and famously expressed interest in collaborating with the group, though he could not remember the band's name at the time. He stated:
'I'm working on an album that I plan to do with a lot of European artists,' he revealed. 'I wanna do something with the people that sang 'Take Me Out'.'
In response, Kapranos playfully replied, 'Someone told me the guy who does 'Drop It Like It's Hot' wants to collaborate with us... That's great. I love that song and like his style.'
In 2006, Franz Ferdinand, Death Cab for Cutie and The Cribs went on a joint-headline tour, primarily of shows at universities.
Andy Knowles has served as a live support member of the band, as an auxiliary keyboardist and second drummer. Knowles has not appeared on an album, but drums on 'Brown Onions,' an instrumental B-side on The Fallen / L. Wells double A-Side single. He is also seen briefly in the video for Walk Away.
At the 2006 Reading Festival, Madness drummer Daniel Woodgate (Woody) appeared with the band on stage and played on the song 'Outsiders'. When they performed the song on the Jools Holland show, Jamie Hince of The Kills, Ross Jarman of The Cribs and Kieran Hebden joined them as drummers.
Last October 8 of 2006 Nick McCarthy did a special appearance at a concert for the Mexican band Zoé at the Palacio de los Deportes, where he performed 'Human Space Volt'.
At the 2005 Grammies, the band performed Take Me Out as a live medley with Los Lonely Boys, Maroon 5, Black Eyed Peas and Gwen Stefani.
The band met Gorillaz in December 2005, and interviewed each other for a feature in "Observer Music Monthly".
The band is also working on an album of Sparks covers, collaborating with the group on the recordings.
Name
The name of the band was originally inspired by a racehorse called The Archduke. After seeing the horse run on television the band began to discuss Archduke Franz Ferdinand and thought it would be a good band name because of the sound of the name and the implications of the Archduke's death (his assassination was the most significant of many factors which led to World War I). They discussed it in a very early interview with the Scottish magazine "Is This Music?"
'Mainly we just liked the way it sounded,' says Bob. 'We liked the alliteration.' 'He was an incredible figure as well,' continues Alex. 'His life, or at least the ending of it, was the catalyst for the complete transformation of the world ... he was a pivot for history. But I don't want to over-intellectualise the name thing. Basically a name should just sound good ... like music.' Paul has a much grander notion. 'I like the idea that, if we become popular, maybe the words Franz Ferdinand will make people think of the band instead of the historical figure.'
The song 'Take Me Out', on the band's first album, was the second single to be released by the band. The single release of 'Take Me Out' came with the B side, 'All For You Sophia', based on the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and his wife, whose name was Sophie, not Sophia. The band changed the name Sophie to Sophia to give the song a better ring to it.
Art
The band is notable for its use of Russian avant-garde imagery in album and single covers. Examples include 'You Could Have It So Much Better' which references a 1924 portrait of Lilya Brik by Alexander Rodchenko, 'Take Me Out', which references "One-Sixth Part of the World" also by Alexander Rodchenko, 'This Fire', which references "Beat the white with the Red wedge" by El Lissitzky and 'Michael', with single art based on "A Proun" by Lissitzky.
The avant-garde music video for "Take Me Out", directed by Jonas Odell, was inspired by Dadaism, Busby Berkeley choreographies and Russian constructivist design. The lyrics of "Do You Want To" make reference to parties at the 'trendy' Glasgow art gallery Transmission and the video includes a satire of the work of contemporary artist Vanessa Beecroft.
Also, in 'Outsiders', the lyrics 'In seventeen years will you still be Camille, Lee Miller, Gala or whatever' are a reference to the lovers of the artists Auguste Rodin, Man Ray and Salvador Dalí.
Equipment
They own an Ackuset, a Swedish sound mixer, and used it on "You Could Have It So Much Better". Not much is known about it except that it's rather old, sometimes malfunctions, and is one of only seven units in the world. Of the seven, only three are functional.
Nick McCarthy owns two 1959 Hagstrom p46 Deluxe Guitars, one of the rarest and most prized Hagstrom models, one red and another a blue sparkle. The red model McCarthy used primarily on the band's tour for their first album, but still could be seen while the band was promoting "You Could Have It So Much Better" (YCHISMB). The blue guitar can be seen on the video for "The Dark of the Matinée". The elusive blue model can also be spotted being played by Alex Kapranos during a performance of "This Fire" on the "Franz Ferdinand Live" DVD, as well a few other performances. On the "You Could Have It So Much Better" tour, Nick was usually seen playing a brown and white Epiphone Wilshire. On the shows road testing new songs for the third album, Nick has been playing a Les Paul Junior although in most of the new songs he has been playing keyboards.
References
Hiatt, Brian (2005). ('Hot Scots - Franz Ferdinand get rock fans dancing again') "Rolling Stone" (accessed June 16, 2006)
External links
(Franz Ferdinand's official website)
(Franz Ferdinand's official website) , from Sony-BMG
(The New Scottish Gentry) Image Archive]nah:Franz Ferdinand (tlacu?caliztli)sco:Franz Ferdinand (baund)
Credit
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article about Franz Ferdinand.
