Franz Ferdinand

Natives from Glasgow, UK, the rock band Franz Ferdinand began in the year of 2001. Alex Kapranos contributes as the band’s lead vocalist and guitar player; Paul Thompson as the backup singer and playing on drums; Bob Hardy playing the bass guitar; and Nick McCarthy playing the keyboard and guitar. When coming up with a name for themselves, they chose to name the band after real life figure, Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria. It all started with a racehorse named, Archduke, which then led them into the topic of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

With Franz Ferdinand’s death one of the main factors leading into World War One, they band decided they liked the sound and the alliteration. The song, “All For You, Sophia” was based on Ferdinand’s and his wife’s assassination. However, his wife’s name was actually Sophie, and not Sophia, as the band changed the name for a better sound.



Before obtaining international attention, the rock band played at an abandoned warehouse, which they dubbed, “the Château." There, they would perform a combination of music and art, playing rave-like music. However, local police shut down their events, forcing them to play at an abandoned Victorian Courthouse instead.



As quoted by Kapranos himself, he described the band’s initial goal on sound, saying, “…what we were really trying to do was take on the attitudes of other bands and combine them in our own way.” The band has also been noted to say that they intended to create “music that girls can dance to.” And by 2004, the band had achieved their intention by releasing their first debut, self-titled album. With five singles, they gained higher poll ratings in the UK than in the US. Though, the song, “Take Me Out” climbed its way into the charts in the US, making it their breakthrough song in the states. Later on in 2004, they also released a limited edition of their first album with five bonus songs: “This Fffire”; “Van Tango”; “Shopping For Blood”; “All For You, Sophia”; and “Words So Leisured.”



A year later in October of 2005, Franz Ferdinand released their second album, titled, “You Could Have It So Much Better.” At first, the band was not going to have a title, as they had decided earlier on in the previous years, that their albums would be distinguished by color schemes; though, the band obviously changed their minds. At 41:21 in length, the album got fairly good reviews, with thirteen tracks and a dual-functioning disk: one side DVD and the other CD. They have also released bonus tracks to this album, titled, “Your Diary”; a live version of “Do You Want To”; and lastly, “Fabulously Lazy” with Nick McCarthy doing the lead vocals.



It is speculated that the band’s third album will be released in late 2007 or 2008. Though, Franz Ferdinand had mentioned they would be taking a break in September of 2006, and as of right now, Kapranos is helping to produce the third album for the band, The Cribs.