Franz Ferdinand singer Alex Kapranos fondly recalls the moment he first got exposed to music. As a young boy, he would sit on his father’s shoulders as they danced and spun around the room to the music of Yiannis Markopoulos. The Greek composer’s album, Rizitika, which reinterpreted Cretan music, was one of their favorites to listen to. “Yiannis was playing all this music that essentially was dance music from Crete,” Kapranos recalls. Recently, he decided to give Rizitika another listen and was instantly transported back to those moments of room spinning and his initial reaction to music.
“It was the first music I can ever remember listening to,” he says. “I realized that sensation I had is what I’ve always been chasing after… Even though we’re always trying to do something new with music, you’re always trying to do it in a different way. The sensation and the response that you have to the music is what we’ve all been chasing.” That feeling of exhilaration and euphoria inspired him while writing songs for the band’s latest album, Always Ascending.
“When a band’s been going awhile, you have a couple of choices. You either keep repeating what you’ve done in the past and realize you had a golden era, or you realize you’re still active as a band and [keep] searching for something greater than you’ve ever done before,” Kapranos says. “As a band, it’s nice to play your old songs, but you still have the artistic drive, and you still wanted to do something new,” he continues. “That doesn’t mean you’re afraid of your identity. It’s not that you’re trying to reinvent yourself. You’re just searching for something new.”
Kapranos says French producer Philippe Zdar helped them in that pursuit. The album finds the band trying new things and sonically is one of the most ambitious albums they’ve recorded. “It’s about communication and emotion or emotional communication,” he explains.
That was most evident while writing their new song, “Slow Don’t Kill Me Slow.” “I think that song was the most powerful moment I’ve ever had in the studio,” says Kapranos. “It was late at night. People talk about goosebumps, and that was exactly what was happening. It felt like something special and magical—something that was out of the ordinary. Those are the moments you really search for in your life as an artist and performer.”
The band’s ambitious new chapter is further enhanced by lineup changes. Last year, new members Julian Corrie and Dino Bardot joined the band, changing the band’s dynamic. “Julian’s a real virtuoso; lovely, gentle and intelligent guy, and Dino’s an amazing player but much more of a rock star—a proper, old-school rock star in the band with us,” says Kapranos.
“A band is a combination of personalities, isn’t it? So, you end up making a new personality from the fresh personalities that join the collective. It has widened the sound to something that’s much broader than we’ve done before, and the dynamics are greater.”
He compared it to older and newer versions of a video game franchise like Tomb Raider. “Everything comes out with more detail and a bit cooler, and everything moves smoother,” he says. “It adds a bit more three-dimensionality to it. And I guess that’s what happened with the band. It feels like version two of the band.”
So far, they’ve enjoyed how receptive fans are to their new songs and band members. “The new album seems to be going down pretty well,” says Kapranos. “In fact, it’s one of the best reactions we’ve had to an album.”
While the band is known for their past hits like “Take Me Out,” he admits that he doesn’t want to be just a nostalgia act playing their hits. The band turned 15 last year with little fanfare. “I’m not a great one for anniversaries, nostalgia and celebrations of the past,” Kapranos says. “It’s not something I think a lot about, to be honest.”
On the other hand, he enjoys having a large catalogue to play live. He feels the band still has plenty of room to grow and has yet to fully reach its peak.
“I love the diversity that we can bring to the set now,” he says. “It means every performance we do is different from the one before. It’s good to contrast the new songs in the set with the different older songs every night.”
Franz Ferdinand play The Rave 8 p.m. Monday, April 30 with Priests.
