Franz Ferdinand return with ‘Audacious’ and tell us about new album ‘The Human Fear’
Franz Ferdinand have returned with their bold new single ‘Audacious’ and announced details of their long-awaited sixth album ‘The Human Fear’ along with UK and European tour dates. Check everything out below, along with our interview with frontman Alex Kapranos.
Read More: Franz Ferdinand on their greatest hits and new line-up
Their first studio album since 2018’s acclaimed and dance-driven ‘Always Ascending’, ‘The Human Fear’ will arrive on January 10, 2025. Produced by Mark Ralph (who previously worked with the Scottish Mercury Prize-winners on 2013’s ‘Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action’), the album comes with launch single ‘Audacious’: a life-affirming glam-rock stomper that speaks of the band’s confidence at the DNA of the new record.
“In some ways, it is more audacious musically than some of the things we might have done in the past,” Kapranos told NME. “The verses are very dry and kind of lo-fi, then it hits with the chorus. The song is a contrast between the two: the verses are quite introspective and stark, where the choruses are an overtly audacious response to that – both musically and lyrically.”
Could the chorus of “Don’t stop feeling audacious – there’s no one to save us, so just carry on” be considered the band’s manifesto in 2024? To be as shamelessly fabulous and Franz-y as possible?
“I think that’s a pretty good attitude to have!” replied Kapranos. “It’s true: if you are going to make music, then there’s no point in shying away from your identity or being embarrassed by who you are. You need to embrace it with all the audacity you can possibly have.
“I’d say that’s probably my attitude. That’s how I feel about my favourite bands when they’re at their absolute best, their most extremely ‘them’. That’s how I feel at the moment. I feel really good about being in Franz Ferdinand and really good about putting music into the world. I love being in this band.”
Check out our full interview below, where Kapranos also told NME about how Franz have become the ultimate version of themselves, how pop music is growing “stale” and the talent he sees feeding people’s “genuine desire for the rawness and the depth you can only get from a band”.
NME: Hello Alex. So you’re no longer stuck at the side of the road at the mercy of the RAC?
Alex Kapranos: “I’m over in Paris at the moment. But it was 15 fucking hours in the end! The guys that came were lovely, it was just a lot of being fannied about.”
And now you’re back with new music at last!
“It feels great to be putting a single out after a wee while, but this is also the beginnings of a new album. That’s a big milestone in Franz Ferdinand history.”
Johnny Marr once told me about when he was in the studio with Hans Zimmer and was trying to be clever and Zimmer just shouted at him: “BE JOHNNY FUCKING MARR”. Did you guys have similar conversations about being pure Franz?
“That’s great, because someone like Johnny probably doesn’t notice what a legend he actually is. I know he’s always pushing himself to do new things, and being yourself doesn’t preclude innovation. You can still look for new things that you haven’t done before; new ideas, new sentiments, new feelings to communicate to the world.
“Lyrically, this is something we’ve not done in a song before. Musically, there are things that haven’t happened in Franz Ferdinand songs before – but I love that at the same time you’re thinking, ‘Damn, that’s unmistakably Franz Ferdinand’. To me, that’s the Holy Grail: do something new but absolutely be unquestionably yourself.”
What moments of the album really raise an eyebrow?
“I’m not going to give away too much now because there’s still a bit of time before the album comes out, but I will say this is not the only sound that you’re going to get on the album – quite extremely far from it in some cases.
“I don’t think there’s a single song that you’ll hear on the album and won’t think, ‘Oh, is that Franz Ferdinand?’ At the same time, there will be thinking, ‘Oh, did they really do that?’ That’s not to say I start rapping or anything like that.”
Can you rap?
“I thought about this the other day! When Justice were first coming out, we asked them to do a remix for ‘The Fallen’ from our second album [‘You Could Have It So Much Better‘, 2005]. It’s one of my favourite remixes ever. They were so skilled at chopping up my vocals that they made it sound like I could rap! It was genius.”
How does it feel to be returning now at a time when there seems to be a real hunger for a band with the energy and legacy of Franz Ferdinand?
“Of course things go in and out of fashion, don’t they? At the moment there seems to be a hunger for good band that can play; that have a rawness and complexity to them. It’s the human energy that you only get from a set of people standing on stage and exchanging that between them.
“A very good example of that are English Teacher – who obviously just won the Mercury Prize. I saw them play a couple of months ago and I absolutely fucking loved them. Fontaines D.C. are another great band. Sprints had that when I saw them as well: they’re so much more than the sum of their parts. Something magical is happening when those people play together. No matter how sophisticated your pop production on Ableton is, you’re never going to quite capture that special thing that happens when people play together.
“A lot of great stuff has happened in pop over the last 10 or 15 years or so, but it’s getting a bit stale. People are feeling that. I feel there’s a genuine desire for the rawness and the depth you can only get from a band.”
It’s 20 years since you won the Mercury Prize with your debut album. You could say there’s a spiritual lineage between Franz Ferdinand and English Teacher…
“I can see that, because they’re a band who are essentially playing in a rock format, but don’t feel restricted by the conventions of that. Bands can go one of two ways: one where they have to be traditional – and that’s a fine, a band like Oasis seeing a tradition that goes back to the early ‘60s and staying very much within the bounds of it – but then the other side – and I’d put bands like us, Interpol, Bloc Party, English Teacher, Fontaines D.C., The Fall – are bands that understand those conventions but want to push it into something else.”
What is ‘The Human Fear’ and have you overcome it?
“We all have fears in our lives, and those fears are kind of a clue to understanding who we are – how we respond to them, how we overcome them (if we overcome them, because sometimes we don’t). The greatest moments in your life usually involve overcoming some kind of fear. Sometimes it’s a paralysing fear, but when it’s overcome, my god, it’s the greatest buzz in the world!
“Say you’re asking your partner out for the first time; that’s terrifying. Or moving to a new town and not knowing anybody. On the album, I’m talking about different fears that I’ve seen in other people: fear of social isolation, fear of leaving an institution, fear of leaving or staying in a relationship. It wasn’t like a clinical analysis when writing the songs, I only realised that after.”
How is the chemistry of this current Franz 3.0 line-up?
“I’ve just been in the studio with the band and it’s amazing. We’re doing a bunch of shows around Scotland in a couple of weeks, and it’s a year since we lost toured. We’re almost scratching at our skin, desperate to get out there and play. Mainly because we’ve been sitting on these songs for a bit and want people to hear them. It feels special in the rehearsal room.”
Did that new compulsion come from your greatest hits album and tour? We once interviewed Placebo and they said that after they never wanted to play the hits again…
“That’s quite common! It’s an interesting set of emotions when you play a tour like that. Part of it is that you become sharper than you ever will, and the other thing is because you’re playing the cream of everything you’ve done, you understand exactly what the essence of the band is and what makes the band good.
“That’s quite informative for the record we’ve just done. We went into the studio knowing exactly what makes Franz Ferdinand good. There was no fannying about. Having said that, it did feel like we drew a line under the past and paid your respects. There’s a relief when you do that. Those songs will still be played in the set, but now there’s a freedom from the past and a release into the future.”
Franz Ferdinand release ‘The Human Fear’ on January 10, 2025, via Domino. Pre-order it here, and check out the full tracklist below.
1. ‘Audacious’
2. ‘Everyday Dreamer’
3. ‘The Doctor’
4. ‘Hooked’
5. ‘Build It Up’
6. ‘Night Or Day’
7. ‘Tell Me I Should Stay’
8. ‘Cats’
9. ‘Black Eyelashes’
10. ‘Bar Lonely’
11. ‘The Birds’
The band have also announced a run of UK and European shows for early 2025. Tickets for the UK dates go on pre-sale at 10am on Thursday September 19 here and general sale at 10am on Friday September 20 here. Check out the band’s full upcoming tour dates below.
SEPTEMBER 2024
26 – Spa Pavilion – STRATHPEFFER
27 – Albert Halls – STIRLING
28 – The Venue – DUMFRIES
OCTOBER 2024
3 – Estadio 3 de Marzo – GUADALAJARA *
5 – Foro Sol – MEXICO CITY *
6 – For Sol – MEXICO CITY *
9 – Estadio Banorte – MONTERREY *
10 – Fronton – MEXICO CITY
12 – Festival Pulso – QUERTARO, MEXICO
NOVEMBER 2024
7 – Anfiteatro del Parque – LIMA
9 – Fauna Primavera – SANTIAGO
12 – Estadio Obras – BUENOS AIRES
14 – Tokio Marine Hall – SÃO PAULO
16 – Chamorro City Hall – BOGOTA
17 – Orquideorama – MEDELLIN
FEBRUARY 2025
14 – Aula Magna – LISBON
15 – Sala Pelican – A CORUNA
17 – La Riviera – MADRID
18 – Razzmatazz – BARCELONA
20 – Fabrique – MILAN
21 – X-Tra – ZURICH
22 – Muffathalle – MUNICH
24 – Huxleys – BERLIN
25 – Progresja – WARSAW
27 – La Cigale – PARIS
28 – Kantine – COLOGNE
MARCH 2025
1 – De Roma – ANTWERP
3 – Paradiso – AMSTERDAM
5 – Shepherds Bush Empire – LONDON
7 – Barrowlands – GLASGOW
*with The Killers
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Andrew Trendell
NME
