Franz Ferdinand – The Human Fear Interview

In the two decades since hoovering up Brits and the Mercury Prize with their debut LP, Franz Ferdinand have remained energetic and excitable, in love with the possibilities of what a band should be. Alex Kapranos and Bob Hardy join us in Monterrey to explain pop’s holy grail, trying to emulate Black Sabbath and feeling feline. Just don’t mention snakes…

Franz Ferdinand mainstays Alex Kapranos and Bob Hardy are so in tune with each other that they even share the same phobia. Over two decades since Take Me Out and The Dark Of The Matinée launched the Glasgow-based literate pop powerhouses, the pair have remained in thrall to the possibilities of music.

But, with their sixth album entitled The Human Fear, it’s natural to get darker and ask what they’re scared of. The pair’s responses reveal the Franz Ferdinand hivemind: they’re both terrified of snakes. Hardy’s most vivid childhood memory is of going to Noah’s Ark, an exhibit on Morecambe beach, aged three. “It was a fake zoo, stuffed with models of animals,” shudders the usually amiable bassist.“The floors and walls were both glass, and one room was full of snakes. I lost it and had to be carried out of there. I can’t stand snakes; I can’t look at them.”

Snake Charmer

Nodding sympathetically at his bandmate’s story, Kapranos takes up the theme: “When I see a snake, I freeze uncontrollably.” Often holidaying with his Greek grandfather on the island of Salamis, near Athens, the young Alex walked down to his grandad’s pistachio trees one morning.

“I paused, flip-flop in mid-air, to see a snake underneath my foot,” he grimaces. “It was one of those moments that lasted seconds but feels like hours, me and the snake looking at each other. It realised I wasn’t going to stand on it and left me alone. My grandfather told me: ‘You would have been dead if it had bitten you.’ That freaked me out even more. So, yeah, I’ve got the same fear as Bob.”

The motivating thrill derived from being scared is a theme of The Human Fear, as Kapranos explains: “Overcoming fears can lead to your greatest achievements, like asking someone out on a date. We search out fear to make us feel alive, but The Human Fear isn’t a doomy goth record to make you feel afraid.”

Propulsive Pop

It certainly isn’t, but it is an album to make you feel alive. Franz Ferdinand’s first LP since Always Ascending in 2018, it’s packed with the propulsive pop that’s been their trademark since debut single Darts Of Pleasure in 2003. It’s also the expanded five-piece’s first album with guitarist Dino Bardot and drummer Audrey Tait, while keyboardist Julian Corrie had joined the band for Always Ascending. It follows the departures of Nick McCarthy in 2016 and Paul Thomson five years later.

“I love the dynamic of the band at the moment,” beams Kapranos. “What I love on a record is the sound of five people in a room playing together. When you get a good performance, you’re playing in a way that’s almost telepathic. Bob and I have played together for over 20 years, but we’ve really developed with the other three.”

Hardy likens the current line-up’s relationship to role-playing games, reasoning: “Each character has individual traits that help you along the way. Audrey is a huge fan of pop music, Dino loves 70s prog and Julian brings musical theory and production talents. When it comes together, we create something unique, like we’re a strong gang on a quest.”

Mission Statement

Both great enthusiasts who talk at breakneck speed, the pair seem to have lasted so long together by being as excitable as their music. Kapranos believes it goes back to how Franz Ferdinand began: “Most people start bands by jamming together. Bob and I instead started by talking about what a band should be and what we love about bands. As a listener, that’s how we approach music, too. We all want to understand what’s good about our favourite bands.”

“I’m not particularly musical,” admits Hardy. “What excites me about being in a band is the potential of what it can do. The only reason I play bass is so I can be in a band. That was my entry fee to joining the band: ‘I’ve got to learn to play this? Okay, I’ll do my best.’”

Kapranos laughs at his friend’s admission, continuing: “Bob’s role in Franz Ferdinand is way more important than just playing bass. Anyone can play bass – Bob is proof of that! The ideas to make the band great: that’s something only Bob could have done. So many musicians get caught up in stupid shit, like how loud they are in the mix or how fast they can play a keyboard. Bob and I don’t care who’s playing what, so long as it sounds good in the end.”

That it’s taken so long for The Human Fear to arrive is down to a combination of the pandemic, getting the band’s line-up resolved and promoting 2022’s singles compilation, Hits To The Head. Focusing on their singles proved invaluable, as Hardy reveals: “Playing a hits set boiled down what the essence of Franz Ferdinand is for us. Looking back at our body of work made me quite emotional. We’d been writing songs before the compilation, but they didn’t quite sound like Franz Ferdinand. Going back to the new material, it was: ‘What was it about those past singles that we loved?’ and playing them had made me realise: ‘These are all really fun.’”

Sound Identity

The tour saw Kapranos appreciate the similarities between his own band and his heroes, as he considers: “The holy grail for a band is to retain your identity. If you listen to three seconds of a song, you know it’s them: the Ramones, The Clash, The Kinks. But then you want to do something new, too. I was trying to push these songs in new directions, while always sounding like a Franz Ferdinand song.

“On this album, Hooked and especially Black Eyelashes don’t sound like anything we’ve done but, when people hear it, I’d love to think they immediately know it’s us.”

The gonzo robodance of Hooked seems destined to be a live favourite, echoing Justice and electroclash in its frazzled riff. “I was trying to play the dumbest heavy metal riff I possibly could on a guitar, then put it through a synth,” Kapranos discloses. “I love Black Sabbath and wanted some of that. But for three years, it was just a riff.”

The band’s producer, Mark Ralph, helped turn it into a proper song. Ralph had been the engineer on 2013’s Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action album. He’s since produced a battalion of huge names, including Years And Years, Becky Hill, Rag’n’Bone Man and Jess Glynne.

“Mark is a machine,” raves Hardy. “Even talking to him on Right Thoughts…, Mark had worked on hundreds of records. It was no surprise he became a superstar producer soon after.” Kapranos adds: “Some producers get caught up in the recording process and basically love smelling their own farts.

“Mark is instinctive, he can see the goal of what the album should be and he doesn’t have an ego. Some big elements of this album came from the demos, and Mark wasn’t afraid to leave those in there.”

Love Illumination

Joining Classic Pop over Zoom from their hotel rooms in Monterrey before a show supporting The Killers, Kapranos and Hardy are still seemingly enthusiastic about touring. Before the band, Kapranos was a part-time college lecturer. He remembers: “There was a globe in the lecture room. I’d look at it and daydream: ‘Imagine one day going to Tokyo! Or Los Angeles!’ A year later, the band took off, and I’ve been so lucky to see those places for real. I never take this for granted.”

The frontman now lives in Paris with his wife, French singer Clara Luciani. The couple married in May 2023, four months before their son was born. Asking if Luciani inspired Hooked’s ecstatic line: “I thought I knew what love was – and then I met you” causes the usually erudite singer to get flustered. He tries offering a blancmange of an answer that “There’s a lot of love in all the songs,” before confessing: “I’m not very good at talking about my personal life. It’s easier to talk about in the context of lyrics, but very difficult in normal conversation. Songs communicate things that I can’t in normal conversation, which is one reason I write songs in the first place.”

That’s fair enough, and Kapranos later reveals how becoming a father inspired The Human Fear’s explosive finale, The Birds. A fantastic extended cathartic holler, he says: “The Birds is about overcoming the fear of rejection from society. Having a young child, I’m particularly aware how children suffer from being outcast, thanks to social media. It’s easy to become an outcast, and the song hopefully captures the relief and excitement of being anonymous back in the flock.”

Feline Good

The almost languid Cats’ inspiration was more prosaic, as he laughs: “I enjoyed imagining myself feeling like a cat. I wrote it just after my son was born, when there was no opportunity to prowl the city at night on my own. There’s a certain degree of escapism there.”

That the album achieves Franz Ferdinand’s goal of always sounding like Franz Ferdinand is in part thanks to Alex Kapranos’ vocals. His voice is ever more expressive, yet it’s also instantly familiar. That wasn’t always the case, as it took him several years to feel comfortable behind the mic.

“Working out what my voice was, it was a sudden moment,” he recalls. “Throughout my twenties, I was afraid of singing, because I was afraid of being perceived as not cool. Then one night, I was out with Bob and my then-girlfriend, doing karaoke at a club in Glasgow.”

Singing Be-Bop-A-Lula, Kapranos “totally let rip”. He goes on: “It was the first time I’d let go as a singer. I thought: ‘Oh! That’s how you do it!’ From that moment on, I realised I could enjoy it, rather than feeling self-conscious.”

Surprise Factor

Franz Ferdinand worked with one of the great unselfconscious artists in 2015, when they teamed up with Sparks for a self-titled LP as FFS. “They still have an interest in what’s going on around them,” says Hardy. “We still share the occasional email and they’ll get in touch when they’re in Glasgow.” Kapranos adds: “They showed music is a lifelong vocation and Sparks were inspiring in showing how to be completely driven by their work, so far into their career.”

A second FFS record is unlikely, however, as Hardy notes: “FFS was about the surprise factor. Volume two wouldn’t have the same impact or meaning.” Instead, they’d love to make a record with The Cure or Queen. Or both. Hardy laughs: “I’d love to ask Brian May to do a solo for us, mainly just so I could hang out with Brian May.”

The new album’s first single, Audacious, “has definite influences of both Queen and The Cure,” acknowledges Kapranos. “I read an interview with Robert Smith saying how much he hates Queen. So I’d love to do a song with both Robert Smith and Brian May.”

Persuading Robert Smith to overcome his fear of Queen? That really would be an audacious move.

For more on Franz Ferdinand  and The Human Fear, click here