I can’t regret [the second album] now. We were desperate to get back into the studio. But if we had done that again, it would have been a third record with the same sound as the first two, and we wanted something different. Lyrically and musically, Tonight is very much a nighttime record, but there were no preconceived notions when we started.

“I suppose there’s an irony to the fact that
there are things that come out in lyrics
that I’d never discuss in everyday life.”

It was reported that one potential producer
didn’t want to work with you on Tonight
due to a disagreement about drinking in
the studio.
I think [Cher collaborator] Brian Higgins was
surprised by how much whiskey Nick and I got
through and how undignified our approach to
making our record was. The bands he usually
works with don’t really behave in the same sort
of way. We just wanted to lose our self-aware-
ness. Dan Carey [Hot Chip, Lily Allen] was the
ideal collaborator because he had this mad-
scientist approach to being in the studio. When
we had a ridiculous idea, he’d say, “I love it.”

Speaking of, why did you use human bones
for percussion on “No You Girls”?
We tried maracas, we tried a tambourine;
they seemed a bit obvious. I had bought a box
of bones at an auction for £ 12—the idea that
you can get somebody’s mortal remains for
that price is a little sad—and they were lying
around the studio. One day, I picked up the
pelvis bone and started rattling the collarbone
inside of it. Paul had two shoulder blades, and
Nick had the skeleton’s hands for clapping. We
didn’t have the skull, but we had all the teeth,
so we rattled them around in a glass jar. There
was no voodoo to it. They just happened to
make a good sound.

I write, I have to draw on the essence of what makes me who I am. But to avoid being a celebrity, I feel like I have to say, “Eleanor? Eleanor who?” I suppose there’s an irony to the fact that there are things that will come out in lyrics that I would never, ever discuss in everyday life.

But in Sound Bites, you share stories about losing your virginity and about how the taste of bull’s testicles reminded you of why an ex-girlfriend objected to oral sex. Did you find it easier to be more confessional in that venue? Those are just funny anecdotes. I would tell them to my friends for a laugh if I was out at the pub. They’re not the corners of my soul. I think the reason I’m a bit wary of disclosing too much information about my life is because I had a really horrible experience a couple of years ago. Some crazy stalker fan got access to some really personal details of my life. The idea that there are people who aren’t just satisfied with listening to the music—that they want to suck out the very essence of my soul like some vampire—made me want to withdraw further.

You didn’t become famous until you were 32.
Are you happy it played out this way, or do you
ever wish it happened sooner?
There are benefits to both. I had as hedonistic
a time in my 20s as I probably would have had
if I was a rock star or whatever. And I’m very
pleased that I had the opportunity to live in
the parallel universe we created in Glasgow.
Because if you do think about being famous,
it becomes a burden, and you’re less likely to
try perverse ideas. It’s the perverse ideas, the
unpredictable ideas, that make being in a band
palpably exciting.

A lot of Franz Ferdinand songs seem to be about rituals of flirtation and romance, especially on Tonight. Is that your comfort zone? Far from it—that’s the least comfortable zone to be in. It’s the moment where you’re actually making yourself quite vulnerable in terms of being open to rejection. I am not interested in writing songs that say, “I am definitely in love.” We might be aware of the effect we have on the opposite sex, but we can never truly understand them. I will never know what it’s like to be a woman.

Discography

FRANZ FERDINAND

A GUIDE TO THE GREAT SCOTS

2004

2005

2009

You and Eleanor share a house in Brooklyn,
but it must be hard to spend time together
with your various projects and touring
schedule. On the new song “Live Alone,”
you sing, “I want to live alone because
the greatest love is always ruined by the
bickering.” Is that autobiographical?
I feel like I have to be a bit cold to you now
because I’ve decided I can’t talk about certain
parts of my personal life. Watching celebri-
ties bare it all in tabloids and on TV shows, I
realize that there’s nothing that’s purely theirs
anymore. It’s very difficult for me because I
have this desire to be honest and open. When

Franz Ferdinand
••••••••••
Love ’em and leave ’em—that’s
the motto on this debut, as the
Scotsmen literally bang, swagger,
and stomp at a breakneck pace
through aggressive post-punk
nuggets like “Take Me Out” and
“Darts of Pleasure,” the frantic
vroom of their guitars pausing only
for Kapranos’ husky warble about a
girl named Jacqueline.

You Could Have It So Much Better

••••••••••
A follow-up nearly as good as, if not
all that different from, the first. Caf-
feinated rhythms encourage unholy
behavior on “The Fallen,” while the
Kinks-channeling “Eleanor Put Your
Boots On,” an ode to Kapranos’ Fiery
Furnaces ladyfriend, flutters like
a stomach full of butterflies on the
roller-coaster ride referenced within.

Tonight: Franz Ferdinand
••••••••••
“Let’s get high,” coos Kapranos on
slick first single “Ulysses.” That
line, combined with the disco intro
and dark electronic pulse of the
clavinet, properly announces this
as a weirder, though still distinctly
Franz, concept album: a dance-
off full of sweat and shimmy that
eventually sways to the sound of
collective comedown. P.R.

CHRISTOPHER MORRIS

72 MARCH 2009 / DO WNLOAD NEW MP3s AT SPIN.COM