Franz Ferdinand nearly disbanded

Franz Ferdinand frontman Alex Kapranos almost broke up the chart-topping group two years ago after growing tired of the “routine” and “obligations” of the music industry. The rocker was exhausted and “incredibly miserable” following the release of their 2009 album Tonight: Franz Ferdinand, so he called a meeting with bassist bandmate Bob Hardy to tell him he wanted to call it quits.
Kapranos tells The Observer, “I wanted to split the band up, because in my head it felt like one of those jobs… the ones I had to jack in. I didn’t like the routine and the obligations. And whether those obligations lay with my contemporaries, my peers, my record label, the fans, the audiences – or maybe myself… I felt… It was time to… stop that.”
The singer admits the Take Me Out hitmakers’ sudden rise to fame after releasing their self-titled debut in 2004 was almost too much to handle, adding, “It was exactly the opposite of what I wanted to be as a band… I shouldn’t complain too much – we sold lots and lots of records. But I think the way it accelerated so quickly was probably quite damaging for us.”
Guitarist Nick McCarthy insists he was also in desperate need of a break after so much time on the road: “I just came down heavily with depression, I think. I just thought, ‘I can’t play music any more’, I couldn’t stand it. We’d sucked ourselves dry.”
The Scottish stars are set to release their fourth album, Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action, later this month (Aug13) and Kapranos admits he finally feels comfortable with Franz Ferdinand’s identity.
He says, “When we came to making the new album, we decided that oddness was just us! And we should enjoy that. It should be at the heart of our existence if we want to continue.”