From Europe To Oz: Franz Ferdinand Gear Up For Their First Australian Tour in Seven Years

Scottish rock band Franz Ferdinand return to Australia this November and December, in support of their sixth studio album The Human Fear. Released in January to widespread acclaim, The Human Fear showcases Franz Ferdinand at their most immediate, upbeat and life-affirming. Produced with Mark Ralph, who previously worked with them on their 2013 album Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action, the new album is unashamedly going for the pop-jugular in classic Franz style, as displayed with singles Night Or Day, Audacious and Bar Lonely.

Ever since their beginnings, throwing illegal parties in condemned Glasgow buildings, Franz Ferdinand have been defined by a fresh, unfading, forward-facing outlook, a transgressive art-school perspective, but with a love of a big song and The Human Fear undoubtedly continues in this tradition. This is the first studio album to feature members Audrey Tait and Dino Bardot and sees Julian Corrie step forward to collaborate with Alex Kapranos and Bob Hardy on song writing and creative duties. Recorded at AYR studios in Scotland, the 11-songs on The Human Fear all allude to some deep-set human fears and how overcoming and accepting these fears drives and defines our lives. ​ ​ ​ ​

Franz Ferdinand signed with Domino in 2003 and soon after released their second single Take Me Out, catapulting them onto the international stage and landing the number one spot in the Triple J Hottest 100 (2004). Now, more than two decades into their career, their music continues to resonate worldwide. Both commercially and critically acclaimed, Franz Ferdinand have become one of the UK’s most successful bands, with over ten million albums sold, 2.5 billion streams, fourteen platinum certifications, and a string of prestigious accolades including Brit, Ivor Novello, and Mercury Prize awards, along with multiple Grammy nominations and two ARIA top 10 albums. They’ve sold over six million tickets globally, known for their electrifying live shows, and have headlined major festivals including Reading, Leeds, Primavera, Big Day Out, Splendour In The Grass and Falls Festival. In 2022, they released Hits to the Head, a greatest hits compilation that serves as a powerful reminder of the global appeal and enduring popularity of their music. Bob Hardy talks to Hi Fi Way about the album and returning to Australia.

Great to be talking to you. It sounds like it’s really been a massive year for Franz Ferdinand. Absolutely love the album The Human Fear. Does it feel as if this year has exceeded your expectations this year with how the album has been received?
Yeah, it’s been a really, really great year. I mean, too many incredible gigs and stuff to remember. So many highlights and the record has been really well received. I don’t think we’ve had a dud gig, it’s just all been really fun.

What I really love about this album, and I’m not saying any of the others bad, it’s consistently brilliant the whole way through.
Oh, good. that’s exactly what I want to hear. We’re really happy with it and it was a fun record to make.

Bands don’t generally get bogged down with reviews, but you would have to be pretty pleased with what you’ve been reading about the album?
Yeah, I do try to avoid them because occasionally there’ll be one that you don’t want to read and then it puts you in a bad mood for the week. But yeah, the general reception from and talking to fans who seem really into it, and also it’s been at gigs and seeing people singing along to the new stuff, that has had a big impact.

How tricky is it to keep evolving the Franz Ferdinand sound but still stay authentically Franz Ferdinand?
There are certain things I guess about Franz that that make it sound like Franz Ferdinand. The rhythms obviously very important, the groove and big hooks. I guess lyrics that have some kind of depth that can also be enjoyed very immediately on a surface level. When we were writing the record, one point we made a clear decision and said, look, let’s just try and make this as Franz Ferdinand as possible, you know, just completely unapologetically be ourselves, not try to be anyone else. I think once we did that, it was quite liberating and actually by doing that, it actually enables you to open yourself up to the more esoteric sides of your taste as well. So, there’s a song on the record called Black Eyelashes, which is very Greek sounding, at least it was. I don’t think we would have put something like that on an earlier record, but because we had decided we were going to be ourselves as much as possible, there became a space for it, which is quite an interesting part of the process.

The whole idea of The Human Fear, how did that concept actually start?
We had the record finished and the last song that had lyrics written for it was a song called Hooked, which has the lyric ‘I’ve got the fear, I’ve got the human fear’. We didn’t have a title for the record. When we talking about potential titles, we often go through lyrics and that one just seemed to stand out. Then we we were thinking about the rest of the record and how it could be seen as all the songs were gently to do with huge fears in some way, like the song called The Doctor, which is about the fear of leaving an institution or a song called Night or Day, which is about a fear of committing to a long term relationship. Some of them are quite tangential, but it just seemed like a nice theme across the album. We were thinking about the fear of human fear, not always being a bad thing, like perhaps that fear is something you need to pass through to get to the best things in life. That’s what lets you know that you’re actually living your life to the fullest. If you put yourself in situations where you feel uncomfortable and you have to pass through some kind of fear, anything from like, going on a roller coaster to asking someone out on a date, it’s like, these are things you have to pass through to get to the good stuff. So, when we’re talking about the human fear, I think we’re seeing it as important part of being alive in a positive way.

Creatively, sonically, was it clear in your minds where you wanted to take this album?
Yeah, I think so. We were very much thinking about it as a guitar record. I think lots of big, big riffs and hooks with electronic elements, we’ve always had electronic elements in the band. Julian our keyboardist is an incredible synth guy, we’re using him to to the fullest.

Do you get sick of the pressure of people expecting another Take Me Out?
That song came out twenty one years ago now. I think we just focus on what we’re working on at the time. We’re generally as excited about what we’re working on in the present day as we were about Take Me Out back then.

Were there any particular inspiration or influences that were significant for this album?
With this album particularly, I think our influences remained the same like. Alex and I are huge fans of Queen and we’re also huge Beatles fans. We like electronica such as LCD Soundsystem. It’s difficult to know really, because we don’t sit down when we’re making a record and then listen to some music and think, let’s try and make a record with these influences. I think it’s literally just part of your soul. It’s everything you’ve listened to and enjoyed for your whole life.

Did it come with its challenges? Was it difficult or easier compared to other albums?
It was the most straightforward recording sessions we’ve ever had for an album. We wrote and rehearsed all the songs before we went anywhere near a recording studio, which is not something we’ve always done, but in recent years we’ve learned that’s how we get the best results. So, by doing that, that kind of takes away a lot of the pressure. If you put the work into the writing process and then go into a rehearsal room and rehearse them until they almost become like muscle memory, then you can forget about the actual playing of it. It becomes more about the performance and about the game, the energy of the songs in the studio. That’s our favourite way to work and how we approached this one.

Did you feel that sense of excitement as the songs started to take shape?
Yeah, definitely. There was there was a song called Everydaydreamer on the album and that was one of the first ones to end up in its final arrangement with that kind of very groovy hypnotic bass and drums. When that arrangement of that song arrived, I was very excited from then on because it was like opening a window, now this is the way we need to approach the rest of the record. We had songs that Alex had written on a piano or an acoustic guitar. Then we started approaching songs being knowing this is a good song, but it doesn’t sound like Franz Ferdinand. How would Franz Ferdinand play this? That was a really fun way to approach arranging songs and all very exciting.

Do you feel even more proud of what you’ve achieved now that you’ve had a chance to have the album sit and everyone engage with it and play it live?
I think that making an album that you’re happy with and that people respond well to, the payoff for that is the live shows. We’ve done so many great gigs where the crowds have just been so fantastic that’s where the record has taken us. So yeah, I’m happier than ever with the album and enjoying the shows we’re playing. I’m looking forward to the ones still to come.

Does it set a bit of a blueprint for how you might approach whatever comes next musically when the time’s right?
I think we will still continue trying to be unapologetically Franz Ferdinand. That would be an approach I would like to see us take!

The Australian tour is in November. Are you looking forward to getting back, it feels like it’s been a little while?
It has been a while. It’s been like seven years I think since we were down. Yeah, it’s always an event coming to Australia. It always feels like a special moment, as hard as it’s so far away. But I love arriving in Australia and then going to the hotel, going out for a walk. There’s so much life going on and it’s on the other side of the planet. I love the idea that it’s just always going on, even when we’re usually asleep in Europe. I find it very exciting.

It must be a nice challenge trying to cram all those good songs into a couple of hours?
It’s a nice problem to have. We’ve been playing a lot of festivals over the summer, so I feel like we have mastered that. We’ve got quite a big rotation of songs now, so each gig is a bit different and the new songs are sitting in very nicely with the old stuff. So it’s been fun.

Is there anything uniquely Australian that you look forward to when you come back?
That’s a good question. I don’t know,if it was the pub culture, I would have said like fifteen to twenty years ago. But I don’t really drink anymore, it’s probably a boring answer, but the food, you do have pretty good healthy food options or very high quality. Actually, no, I’m going to go for coffee as well. The coffee culture is a big thing.

What’s next for Franz Ferdinand? Touring takes you up to the end of the year, what’s after that?
Next year we’re doing a European tour in the spring and we’re currently talking about perhaps doing a few more shows here or there next year. Nothing as intense as this year because we want to get on with making new music. So yeah, that’s the rough plan, a bit of touring and then getting our heads around getting back into the swing of writing.

There must be a few other milestones to come as well?
Well, I hope so. Like I didn’t realise it was almost twenty one years since the self-titled came out. Oh yes, probably twenty one! That’s the thing with anniversaries, isn’t it? They keep coming. It’s like, oh, it’s ten years, oh, it’s fifteen years, it’s twenty years, it’s twenty one years! That’s just going to go on forever. That’s a weird thing to think about.

Interview By Rob Lyon

Catch Franz Ferdinand on the following dates, tickets from Frontier Touring…