About Franz Ferdinand
Franz Ferdinand are a Scottish rock band formed in Glasgow in 2002. Their original line-up was composed of Alex Kapranos , Nick McCarthy , Bob Hardy and Paul Thomson . Julian Corrie and Dino Bardot joined the band in 2017 after McCarthy left during the previous year, and Audrey Tait joined the band after Thomson left in 2021. The band are one of the more popular post-punk revival bands, garnering multiple UK top 20 hits. They have been nominated for several Grammy Awards and have received two Brit Awards—winning one for Best British Group—as well as one NME Award.
The band's first single, "Darts of Pleasure", just missed out on the Top 40 of the UK Singles Chart, peaking at number 44. Their second single, "Take Me Out", proved their big commercial breakthrough, peaking at number three. "Take Me Out" charted in several other countries and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal; it became the band's signature song. Their self-titled debut studio album won the 2004 Mercury Prize and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Album.
In 2005, the band released their second studio album, You Could Have It So Much Better, produced by Rich Costey. It peaked within the top-ten in multiple countries and earned Grammy-nominations for Best Alternative Album and for one of the singles, "Do You Want To". The band's third studio album, Tonight: Franz Ferdinand, was released in January 2009; by then the band had shifted from a post-punk-focused sound to a more dance-oriented sound. A remix album of Tonight, titled Blood, was released in July 2009.
Four years after the release of Tonight, the band released their fourth studio album, Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action, in August 2013. In 2015, Franz Ferdinand and American rock band Sparks formed the supergroup FFS and released a one-off self-titled album in June 2015. The band underwent multiple lineup changes following FFS, beginning with McCarthy's departure in 2016. After acquiring Corrie and Bardot, the band released their fifth studio album Always Ascending in February 2018. Thomson departed in 2021 and was replaced by Tait. The band's sixth studio album, The Human Fear, is scheduled for release in 2025.
The band's members played in various bands during the 1990s, including The Karelia, Yummy Fur, 10p Invaders, and Embryo. Alex Kapranos and Paul Thomson met at a party and began a close friendship and played together in Yummy Fur, and subsequently teamed up to write songs. Around the same time, Kapranos taught his friend Bob Hardy how to play bass after being given a bass guitar by Mick Cooke of Belle & Sebastian. Kapranos met rhythm guitarist Nick McCarthy, who had returned to Scotland after studying jazz bass in Germany, in 2001.
Once the members came together, they settled on the name Franz Ferdinand for their band. The name was originally inspired by a racehorse called Archduke Ferdinand. After seeing the horse win the Northumberland Plate in 2001, the band began to discuss Archduke Franz Ferdinand and thought it would be a good band name because of the alliteration of the name and the implications of the Archduke's death: his assassination was a significant factor in the lead-up to World War I. In an interview, Hardy recollected that "mainly we just liked the way it sounded. We liked the alliteration." Kapranos continued, saying "he was an incredible figure as well. His life, or at least the ending of it, was the catalyst for the complete transformation of the world and that is what we want our music to be. But I don't want to over-intellectualise the name thing. Basically a name should just sound good ... like music." Thomson concluded, saying "I like the idea that, if we become popular, maybe the words Franz Ferdinand will make people think of the band instead of the historical figure."
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