Tonlgh
Mark Robertson met Franz Ferdinand at their musical fair in the belly of Govan town hall and found a band energised, rejuvenated and extolling the virtues of a good barney
You’ve basically built an entire studio complex in the bowels of this beautiful old building in Govan?
Bob Hardy, bass Yeah. its a great place. Nick [McCarthy. guitars and keyboards] found it. David MacKenzie the filmmaker has his office down here. There's a great buzz. The building ended up being intrinsic to the recording process.
There’s plenty new ideas on the new album. Did working with producer Dan Carey (Hot Chip, Kylie, CSS) help facilitate those kind of experiments?
24 THE LIST 22 Jan-5 Feb 2009
BH lle'd essentially become like a fifth member of the band for that time.
Paul Thompson, drums Sometimes in the studio you haye a daft idea that the producer will say ‘maybe we'll come back to it~ bttt Dan was like. ‘Yeah. lets do it'. It takes a certain determination to see things through like that. At times it can be frustrating and uncomentional. and there's no telling what the result is going to be like. but I think that‘s where recording becomes e\citing.
After the success of the first two records it seems like the luxury of time has been a huge benefit to you.
AK lt‘s haying time to create a little world that‘s the natural enyironment for its —- like we did at the Chateau before. It's like a childlike desire. you're eight years old. you haye to build a tree house and have this little world that’s yours. Too much time and you get oyer-indulgent. and the process of this record was about a year and a half from start to finish. which is pretty much the time it took from first rehearsals to finishing the first record. We
could time made a record within three months of
finishing touring the second record btit it would have been a pretty tired and uninspired affair.
‘DENYING THAT MUSIC IS AN EVOLUTION IS JUST ST RANGE'
':’s the night
Being away from each other would benefit you then?
AK Yeah. definitely. It's like sharing a flat with someone. or going ottt for a loiig time. You become accustomed to their personalities and if you get too close sometimes the irreleyant nature oyerpowers the parts that attracted yott in the first place. so it's important to liaye a break and appreciate that you can hang otit with your friends making music.
There’s a real sense of energy on the new one, the antithesis of all these bands trying to make ‘important’ music.
AK A lot of bands are trying to be ['3 and with the greatest respect to if. we don't want to be them. I think sometimes bands think about their careers too much. 'l‘hey look at the trajectory of other bands and are like ”()K. we'ye done the cool .\'.lll:-type stuff. w c‘\ e play ed a few arenas. now w liat's the ne\t stage'.’ Uh yeah. [‘2 and Rli.\l right." and I don’t think that you can think like that. It should be "Let's just see what happens". 'l‘hat's the excitement of the adyenture, It‘s a creatiye process. The plan is: don‘t litty e one.