Hello there and welcome to Sodejoker on songwriting. Thanks for being with us. I'm Simon,

here with Brian, and joining us for episode 281, our two fifths of a much-love Scottish band,

who first won the hearts and minds of the British listening public back in 2004,

with their anthemic stomper, Take Me Out. Two decades of artful, angular indie rock later, the band's much-anticipated sixth studio album,

The Human Fear, has just dropped, and a few weeks back we got the chance to discuss its

creation with their frontman and keyboardist.

We're delighted to welcome Franz Ferdinand's Alex Capranos and Julian Corey to the show.

Franz Ferdinand formed in 2002 in Glasgow, where Alex

had been knocking around the local music scene for a while, both playing in bands and booking

them. It was while working at the Groucho St Jude Restaurant in the summer of 2000 that he'd struck

up a friendship with his fellow employee, art student Bob Hardy. The pair found a common bond in music, although Bob wasn't

actually a musician at that point. After teaching Bob to play bass, Alex encouraged his pal

to start a band with him. A little later, they encountered original guitarist Nick McCarthy,

with drummer Paul Thompson completing the line-up shortly afterwards. Along with some artist friends,

they took over an abandoned warehouse on the south side of

Glasgow called the Chateau, where they rehearsed and played some of their earliest gigs. After being

ejected from those premises, they set up another rehearsal space in a former jailhouse. The growing

buzz around the band eventually reached London, where they were courted by a number of labels

before plumping for indie label Domino, with which they've remained ever

since.

Debut single Darts of Pleasure dropped in the autumn of 2003, but it was the follow-up that proved

their breakthrough.

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