“We’d like to have in out in August – that’s the earliest it’ll probably come out. “It’s going really well, we’re doing it in the Scottish countryside somewhere,” Nick reveals. Their second album is due out some time this year. And if you’ve ever seen them live, you’ll know that they are real performers who do put on one hell of a show. You just have to play for the audience, and they’ll excite you!” Nick informs. But because it’s a different audience, a different place, it’s exciting, it’s really cool. Otherwise you’d be sick and tired of it after a week. “It is good because it’s always different, every concert you play – that’s what makes it really great. However, rather than becoming disillusioned about playing the same set of songs day in day out, they assure me they loved every minute of it. 2004 saw trips to the States, France, Australia, and Italy amongst many other far flung lands. The band toured constantly for about a year a half in order to establish themselves. It must be said that all this success has certainly not come cheaply. “It’s some sort of recognition I guess, but it’s not why we started playing music.” “It’s actually quite exciting to go up and stand in front of all the people and say something but otherwise, who cares?” Nick continues. “It’s some sort of recognition I guess, but it’s not why we started playing music,” Paul adds. It also won them countless awards at ceremonies around the globe – it seemed there was rarely a week where the band weren’t picking up awards like ‘Best Breakthrough Video’ or ‘Best Rock Group’. It was one of those songs that was literally everywhere last year, and became the band’s signature tune. One of these songs of which they speak was the massive hit Take Me Out, which almost single handedly propelled them to stardom. Not bad for a bunch of guys with a few songs that people like. ‘What they do’ has earned them half a million album sales in the US to date, three well received tours and a nomination for the Shortlist prize (the American equivalent of the Mercury). “It’s not like we went over and demanded people pay attention to us, we just got on with what we do,” Paul continues. It’s as easy as that I think!” Nick exclaims, trying to sum up their success over there. I guess we’ve got some songs that people like as well. We just went over and played and just had fun and people liked it. “We like playing wherever we play – I think it’s the same in America. Indeed, they’re equally modest about the big impact they’ve made in America. It seems that the massive success and fame that has greeted them is secondary to their main goal of making great music for girls to dance to. This sort of understated response is prominent throughout the rest of the conversation. “I didn’t really care, but when we actually won it was quite a good feeling, and we got to meet Brain Eno as well – that was pretty good,” he continues. “We were ready to leave our seats and then it was us who had to get up!” Nick adds. “We were pretty shocked on the night,” says Paul. – Franz Ferdinand on the follow-up to their all conquering eponymous debut… Perhaps this wasn’t the greatest surprise, considering the huge commercial and critical success the band were enjoying at the time. In September, Franz Ferdinand picked up the coveted Mercury award ahead ofother bands like The Streets, Keane, The Zutons and Snow Patrol. MusicOMH took the opportunity to catch up with guitarist Nick McCarthy and drummer Paul Thomson to reflect on the year gone by, the new album and plans for the future… The band are currently taking time off the road to record album number two in Scotland – aside from one night only at London’s Royal Albert Hall to play a charity gig in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust. That’s not to mention a string of sold out tours in Britain and the States and a series of triumphant festival performances – at Glastonbury and T in The Park to name but two. The Glasgow quartet have shifted well over a million copies of their debut album worldwide since its release in February of that year – a record that earned them the illustrious Mercury Music Prize. ![]() Franz Ferdinand were undoubtedly the success story of 2004.
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