Photo: David Edwards.
Alex Kapranos of Scotland’s Franz Ferdinand, together with his band of Franz brothers, recently formed what can only be described as a ‘supergroup’, in FFS. Having teamed up with rock legends Sparks, they’ve created an exciting, unpredictable album, titled FFS. Talking at this year’s Lollapalooza Berlin festival with Sosefina Fuamoli, Kapranos shares his experience on creating the album with a few words of wisdom…
How long has it been since you’ve been here?
Last time I was in Berlin… I was here about three or four months ago doing promotion for the album. Last time we played [was] maybe a couple of years ago… I think it was on the last Franz album and we played here in the same spot for the Berlin Festival, which was about two or three years ago, as well.
The sun has come out and hopefully it’s going to stay this temperature…
It’s a nice tail end of summer, beautiful day…!
Definitely! So congratulations on the album. Just off the last few shows I’ve been reading up on and looking up online, the dynamic between not only yourself and the rest of the Franz guys, but as a full collective has seemed to develop more and more.
It’s been great. We got on with Ron and Russell right from the beginning. It’s been cool, the way it’s gone on stage. I guess none of us really knew if it was definitely going to work at any stage, so we approached it with an open mind, ‘Let’s see what happens’. Fortunately, it’s quite good!
Especially with this collaboration, it’s been a long time in the works…
Well, it has and it hasn’t, because we first talked about doing something in 2004; we were originally going to do a split single, that was the original idea. We were going to cover a song that Sparks wrote and they were going to cover a song we wrote. We were going to play “Piss Off” and then we never got around to sending them a song. [Laughs] Then we bumped into each other two years ago, so really this collaboration has been two in the making, but we talked about something 11 years ago.
And I suppose talking about Sparks as an individual kind of entity, as a music fan, what is it about working with these musicians that’s been attractive for you?
I like the music, that’s pretty much it! I think on both sides, we realised we share similar goals in what we want to do with music; we’re not ashamed to admit that we work in the parameters of pop music and really love and enjoy the parameters of pop music but feel that you can stretch those parameters and push them. You don’t have to obey the conventions and formulas of pop music while still enjoying being within pop music. Having said that, our sounds are quite different from each other; the way Russell sings is very different from the way I sing, the way that Ron composes and plays his instruments sounds very different from the way we compose and play. While the general goal are similar, the ingredients are quite different from each other and that’s probably why it worked to the degree that it did.
I know that in the lead up to the record being released I know there was conversation about whether or not, because as you said the ingredients were different, whether they were going to connect well; I think once you get the material and you listen to it you can see how it does begin to click into place and of the clips that you now see online and within the live format shows how it works.
It did come together really well. What was to our benefit in making the music was that we didn’t tell anybody at any point that we were doing it, so we didn’t feel we had any expectations to meet while we were writing, while we were recording, while we were coming up with the idea of what is was going to be. I think that if we announced it first, it wouldn’t have been as good, because we would’ve constantly been worrying what people thought about it. While we were doing this, we knew that if it wasn’t working, we just wouldn’t do it! [Laughs] It’s that simple. It was only when we felt that we had something worthwhile, worth taking to the rest of the world, that we decided to make it public. We didn’t even tell the label, we didn’t the management. Most of my friends didn’t even know until we’d written the whole album.
How easy was it to keep it under wraps?
I’m quite good at keeping a secret. [Laughs]
Was there a specific moment for you, when you’re in the middle of this creative process, was there a moment where you thought, ‘Wow this could actually be something that could take off’?
There was a moment early on where I definitely got excited for the first time, it was for the song “Police Encounters”. Nick and I sent over the music for that to Ron and Russell, and then they sent it back with Russell’s vocal and Ron’s melody over the top. That was the first time I heard something that had elements of both of us in it, but didn’t sound like either of us. It sounded like something new that I hadn’t heard before. That’s when I first got excited and it was at that point I think it certainly drove me on to sort of think, ‘There’s something more that can be done here,’ than just a quirky ‘Oh, those bands have got together’ thing. It felt genuinely like there was something new there, something that hasn’t been done before.
For sure. Bringing the new material into to a live realm. it’s really cool to see with music material anyway, to see where they [the songs] can go once you’re learning them out and you’re playing them out live. In terms of both performing in a headline club type show and a festival setting, what have been some highlights for you?
One of my favourite gigs was in London a few nights ago, we played The Forum in London and I don’t always enjoy London shows. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t, but that was possibly my favourite gig of the tour. You know, when you’re in a band, you feel sometimes you perform well and you do everything well and it’s good, but there are those times where it feels exceptional and you feel like this has gone beyond anything any of us expected to do. While you’re performing in that environment, it feels very effortless and you get the greatest buzz in the world. It’s how I imagine a surfer feels when they get the greatest wave and they’re just gliding along on the top of it, not falling off, not tumbling off into the deep. All that energy and power is perfectly balanced and you’re just sitting there on the crest. Of course, it takes a hell of a lot of effort to get on that crest but when you’re actually on it, it’s pretty astonishing.
Awesome. So, you guys are booking in tour dates now, I know you’re heading to the States, can we see you guys in Australia?
There aren’t any plans for Australia as yet. God, I’d love to go. It’s been a while, I really love playing there. When was the last time I played Australia? Was that when we had The UV Race opening up for us? Maybe it was. Great band, good Australian band. A lot of friends over in Oz as well, it’d be cool to head over.
Well, all the best for everything! It’s been to cool to see that this album has been able to stand on its own.
We just felt that it had to be [about] good songs and that it had to have something to it that was more than just, ‘Oh isn’t that a funny idea,’. [Laughs]
And the fact that I’ve been reading online that people wanted a second album…
Apparently, people do! That’s nuts, I haven’t even thought about that.
If that is something that would be on the horizon, it’s going to be pretty hard to keep that under wraps!
One thing I’ve really enjoyed about doing this project, is that it strengthens the idea that I’ve always felt, that it’s more rewarding to be unpredictable and to take chances and to do things people don’t expect of you. That’s a good lesson for us all.
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FFS is out now through Domino.
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Visit the bands official website http://www.franzferdinand.com/gigs
