FRANZ FERDINAND

Setting their own pace in the studio pays off on their latest effort 

Franz Ferdinand closed ranks for the recording of their fourth album, Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action. The Scottish rock band began work on the album a year and a half ago with frontman Alex Kapranos and guitarist and backing vocalist Nick McCarthy meeting in each other’s homes to write songs. “The whole recording process was off and on,” says McCarthy. “We recorded four or five, then stopped, maybe wrote another song or tried playing some of the others, and then recorded again. It was quite a nice way of doing it.”

After an intense two years touring behind 2009’s Tonight, the band chose a more relaxed approach in the studio. “We were doing the opposite of what we did on our last record, which we wrote and recorded in the same room,” says McCarthy. “We were in there for a year and a half and didn’t really want to do that again. It got a bit claustrophobic toward the end. It’s always good to do something completely different next time around anyway.”

They also took a more insular approach, self-producing the album with input from Alexis Taylor and Joe Goddard of Hot Chip, Björn Yttling of Swedish band Peter Bjorn and John, and Norwegian producer Todd Terje. “All in all, we produced it ourselves,” says McCarthy. “While we invited three producers to collaborate, we oversaw the whole record. We invited people along for the ride. We’ve always used a producer, and it’s good to have an outside opinion. But Alex produced a couple of records with four other bands, and I did a few as well. This time we thought, ‘We can do this.’”

The band recorded in McCarthy’s and Kapranos’ respective studios. But producing themselves posed some communication challenges. “You have to be very honest with each other. You have to say if something’s not good,” says McCarthy. “When you’re in a band, you keep the peace sometimes. That’s why we recorded for a few days and then left it again. That way you could look back at things and not get too pressured about recording, and just say, ‘OK, let’s all listen, see what it’s like, and then everyone be really honest.’ And it worked.”

Recording in their own spaces also allowed the group to enjoy additional freedoms, because “then you can just do what the hell you want to do, plug things in wherever you want to without having to go through someone else,” says McCarthy. “‘I want to do this really stupid thing like plug my guitar into the power socket—see what it sounds like.’ When you have to go through someone to do that, you might just say, ‘Oh no, I’m not going to say that.’”

–Amanda Farah