On the record (deluxe edition): Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos

Franz Ferdinand, Photo by Soren Solkaer Starbird

The snappy-dressing Glasgow boys—Alex Kapranos, Nick McCarthy, Paul Thomson and Bob Hardy—released their thrilling third LP, Tonight, in January. We called Franz Ferdinand frontman Kapranos in his hotel room in Seattle as the band prepared to kick off its U.S. tour. Ever amiable and chatty, the Scotsman turned out to be a big fan of the Midwest—he even adores Benton Harbor. All those trips to Oak Park with his girlfriend, Eleanor Friedberger of the Fiery Furnaces, must be rubbing off. Franz releases Blood, a "dub" version of Tonight, on June 1 via Domino Records. But don't bust out the ganja just yet, these are more like "dance remixes" than Lee Perry treatments. Find more fun facts about Franz Ferdinand in this week's Music section.

TOC: How are you?
Alex Kapranos: It’s a bit chilly in Seattle. I’ve come from Scotland, where it was really sunny and it’s supposed to be cold. I like the winters in Chicago. We went up the east coast of Lake Michigan. It was so beautiful, super super cold, but beautiful. The wind had blown the waves overnight into huge sculptures. I’d never seen that before. I really love the lakes. It’s so different from anything in the U.K.

Well, that lake is the size of Scotland.* {*not quite: Scotland is 30,414 sq mi, Lake Michigan 22,400 sq mi.}
No, we’re not the biggest nation in the world.

You’ve been to Chicago a good deal, I would imagine.
I’ve been quite a lot. My girlfriend [Friedberger] grew up in Oak Park, and her mom still lives there.

Do you come here often?
I do. There are a few places I always stop by in Chicago. Eleanor’s mom’s place, of course. There’s a guitar shop called Midwest Buy and Sell. They sell the most interesting things there. It’s not fancy shop at all. The Midwest is great for guitars. Kalamazoo is where Gibsons are made.

With a published food diary, Sound Bites, you’re known as quite the gourmand. What are your favorite places to eat in Chicago?
I usually eat Eleanor’s mom’s food. She’s a great cook. There’s a great Greek population in Chicago, too.

Nothing specific comes to mind?
There’s a place that Eleanor took me to.… She’ll kill me for not remembering. The hot dogs there are very different from the East Coast. And the pizza, of course. When I was writing, that was the food that I found most fascinating—not the most fanciest restaurants. What everyday people eat. The doughnut shops. Huevos Rancheros in Austin. That says a lot about the city that you’re in.

What’s the equivalent in Scotland?
Fish and chips. I can tell you where the best chippies are in Glasgow.

You were a chef, too, no?
I worked as a cook for a while, yeah. Bob and I started talking about getting a band together while working in a restaurant. Bob had never been in a band before; he had just been in art school, jumping from one bad job to another. I was a pastry chef, and Bob was the KP. We were always the last two in the kitchen. I’d be the guy who had to make the dessert for the last people in the restaurant—the romantic people staring into each other’s eyes into the small hours of the morning. I was waiting to make the dessert, and Bob was waiting to wash up afterwards. We’d sit there, after everyone else had gone home, and pull down the cooking brandy and play records. We’d talk about what we love about music and what we’d love our band to be about. The ideas of Franz Ferdinand were formed in that kitchen.

The band has a clearly defined aesthetic. Ever get sick of the color scheme?
The black and orange and crème seemed to be right, seemed to reflect the music. I think aesthetics are important, especially with the live show.

You can hear percussion from human bones toward the end of “No You Girls.” Did you fashion a xylophone from a ribcage?
There’s a strange rattling sound. It was all over the track, but it got a bit grating. So they just appear at that one moment. I had a clavicle inside a pelvis. Paul had two shoulders he was knocking together. Nick had the hands of the skeleton, held together with fishing line. Dan Carey, our producer, had a jar full of teeth. It’d come from an auction. When businesses go bust, Nick and I go down looking for old instruments. We found this skeleton for 12 quid from a doctor. We’re big fans of using anything that’s lying around.

Like what, for example?
Hitting bits of wood together. Dan has a great new technique. Attach one end of a car battery to the strings of the bridge of an electric guitar, and the other end to a wire brush for drums. Play the strings with the brush. You get the sound of the current hitting the strings. It’s amazing. I love things like that.

It sounds pretty dangerous.
Some of the gear we use is a bit dangerous. A lot of the amplifiers we picked up weren’t in the best of shape. There was an old [Gibson] Kalamazoo I picked up from Midwest Buy & Sell. It sounded amazing, but every time I used it I got an electric shock. That’s 240 volts in the U.K., mind. Eventually I said, I’m going to take this fucking amp apart and see what’s wrong with it. Somebody had blown a fuse, and instead there was a chewing gum wrapper holding two bits together.

Fact checking: Wikipedia claims you like to “craft abstract furniture.”
The things you see on Wiki. It said something about me having a massive back tattoo at one point! Wiki is a funny one. Sometimes I look at that page and think, Who the fuck put that up there? I don’t understand it. Even the things that are supposed to be sensible, like the genre of our band. Obviously someone couldn’t agree which genre we were. One of them was post-punk revival. Post-punk fucking revival? First of all, what a ridiculous sounding genre. Second, it’s something we never ever claimed to be. Who makes up these names? We were being interviewed by someone, and they literally had the Wiki page printed out in front of us. But I’m the same. I use Wiki, too.

So it’s no abstract furniture then.
I used to do a little bit of stuff. My grandfather was a cabinet maker. But I wouldn’t dare compare myself to someone like that who was a real craftsman.

I love the new Super Furry Animals' single, “Inaugural Trams,” with [Franz guitarist] Nick [McCarthy] singing in German. Ever thought of doing an album auf Deutsch?
We did a version of “Tell Us Tonight” that Paul sang in German. I’m sure German will pop up again. It’s funny, because Nick, although he is English, grew up in Germany. I think German is his first language. You can tell. If he’s passed out, or if he’s woken up with a start, he’ll shout at you in German. I’m pretty certain it’s going to make an appearance on an album.

What’s the least fashionable piece of clothing you own?
To be honest, I don’t have an idea of what’s fashionable or unfashionable. I just wear what I like. Though I do have a soft spot for American Little League baseball jerseys. It’s probably because I’m English, coming to America, and it all seems rather exotic to me.

Like us with soccer jerseys.
I wear baseball jerseys and Eleanor has a laugh about them. The thing I love about them is that they always have sponsors on the back, little local companies. It’s always some sort of refuse-disposal company. I’ve got one called Paine Webber. What the fuck does Paine Webber mean? What an amazing word! It sounds like a DC Comics villain.

What do you have planned for the next record?
Nick and I are beginning to write. I’m trying not to talk about it. When we talked about the last record, before we finished recording, certain things got really exaggerated. All of us are pretty enthusiastic, so if we’re trying out an idea, were really tempted to talk about it. But I’ve got a firm rule now: I’m definitely not going to talk about anything until it’s finished. Nick and I are writing songs, but I’m not going to say what they are.

Do you think that pre-album talk ruined the critical assessment of Tonight?
The gossip before a record can really harm it. Some of the reviews I read have said, “Hey, we were expecting an all-out pop record, and this just sounds like Franz Ferdinand to me!” Or, “Hey, we were expecting an African record, and this is more like Franz Ferdinand.” Of course it’s going to sound like Franz Ferdinand, we are Franz Ferdinand! It sounds like a different Franz Ferdinand. Of course you want to progress, but if you try to be a completely different band, it’d be completely insincere, artificial. You have to be proud of who you are. You need to be able to retain your identity.

I’d love to send these critics back to the ’70s. “The Ramones' Rocket to Russia sounds just like Leave Home! Thumbs down.”
It kinda gets me as well. You see reviews for other bands…like the new AC/DC got amazing reviews, which more or less said, “It’s really fantastic! It sounds REALLY like their old ones!” Oh, for fuck’s sake, you’re the same critic that said Franz Ferdinand should have changed.