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He was famous for being switched onto new music, and from the beginning was very supportive of Franz Ferdinand. “We were fortunate enough to meet him several times. Even now, I find it weird talking about him in the past tense. He was a total inspiration, a big part of my life and I had presumed he would live forever. They wanted a comment from me for the eight o’clock news but I said, ‘Sorry, no, I have to assimilate this first.’ Like a lot of people, I was completely shattered that day. “Yeah, it was a terrible way to hear the news.

One of the rudest awakenings Alex has ever had was on Januwhen somebody from the BBC rang up to ask him for his response to David Bowie dying. Of course, Ron and Russell have always believed that they’re geniuses.” Now, of course, they have legendary status, but bands do get somewhat airbrushed out of history. They’d been giants of their era but that stature seemed to diminish for a while. A similar thing happened to Talking Heads in the early 2000s. “Part of my motivation for making that FFS record is that I wanted them to be reappraised, and I think there has been a regeneration of interest in their music.

“No home should be without a copy of Sparks’ Kimono My House, which used to be mentioned in the same breath as Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust, but isn’t anymore,” he rues.

We’re finding from the Apple Music feedback that a lot of people still like listening to tracks one through ten rather than cherry-picking.”Īlways Ascending’s big bang of Sparks isn’t suprising given that Franz recorded and toured an album recently with Ron and Russ under the FFS banner. They’re part of a whole, which is why there are dynamic builds and drops, which are ideal for pharmaceutical exploration. “Another thing I loved about working with Philippe – and this comes from his experience as a DJ – is that he doesn’t think of songs in isolation. “You’re never too old for that sort of carry on, Stuart!” Alex laughs throatily. Talking of which, if I were young and foolhardy I’d probably pop an E listening to the Always Ascending title-track. Philip has that sonic beauty, sure, but he’s also lush and very human, a master of the dancefloor – he comes from that French scene, and is a DJ himself – and brings the party with him.”

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A lot of producers come from an engineering background and see their job purely as sculpting the sound whereas I see their role as being closer to that of a theatre or film director – somebody who knows how to coax the performance out of the artist. “As it should be! You should be performing, there should be humanity and there should be emotion. John Lennon may have provided the spiritual guidance, but sonically Always Ascending bears the hallmarks of Bowie, Byrne, Sparks – more of whom anon – and Cassius’ Philippe Zdar who succeeded in making the recording process fun. I thought I knew pretty much all there is to know about John Lennon, but obviously not…” He had Irish roots, of course, so maybe that’s why he bought himself an island there. I’m not equating Franz Ferdinand with The Beatles, but we’d just lost Nick (McCarthy) from the line-up and were asking those questions about our own identity.”Īsked whether he’s read Kevin Barry’s Beatlebone, which imagines (no pun intended) Lennon visiting the island off the Mayo coast he bought at the height of the Fab Four’s fame, with the intention of turning it into a hippie commune, Alex gasps and says, “That’s amazing! I haven’t, but I will now. He’d just come out of the band he’d been in for a decade and was trying to figure out his place in the world. I’m obsessed with not just the sound of it, but also the period in Lennon’s life that it documents. Despite - or probably because of – that, once I started listening to John Lennon was an incredibly powerful songwriter and performer, but in his personal life… total cunt. It’s not true of any human, although some are much bigger bastards than others. “This idea that they’re pure of motive and being is bollocks. “What I can’t stand is the deification of any artists,” the 45-year-old singer expands. How big a one? That’s for other people to determine!”Īlex Kapranos, who actually gives Dave Grohl a run for his money in the rock ‘n’ roll niceness stakes, is reflecting on how Franz Ferdinand’s new Always Ascending album was recorded under the influence of “well-known cunt” John Lennon’s debut solo offering, Imagine. 'Lots of my favourite artists were cunts.