Franz Ferdinand consists of Alexander Kapranos (vocal, guitar), Nicholas Mccarthy (guitar), Paul Thomson (drums), Robert Hardy (bass).
Franz Ferdinand is a British indie rock band from Glasgow, Scotland. The band's debut self-titled album released in 2004 debuted on the UK album charts at number three, and won the 2004 Mercury Music Prize. So far, the band has released seven singles of which " Take Me Out", " The Dark of the Matinée" and " Do You Want To" were top 10 hits in the UK. They are influenced by 1980s post-punk, garage rock and new wave and are currently exploring the world of hip hop for inspiration on how to improve their production techniques.
In late 2001, singer and guitarist Alex Kapranos and bassist Robert Hardy began playing music together in Glasgow. After meeting Nicholas McCarthy they started to rehearse together at McCarthy's house. McCarthy was classically trained on the piano and double bass but initially played drums. The trio then met up with Paul Thomson who had played drums with Yummy Fur, leading him to swap instruments with McCarthy.
The band started playing at an abandoned warehouse in the Gorbals which they named "the Château". Franz Ferdinand also held rave-like "happenings" combining music and art; Hardy was studying painting at the Glasgow School of Art at the time. When the local police shut the events down, the band found an abandoned Victorian courthouse and played there.
In a 2004 interview with VH1, Alex Kapranos described the sound they were seeking. "On songs like 'Come on Home,' we wanted to sound like Donna Summer and Link Wray mixed together, but it doesn't sound like that at all! We thought we could sound like Prince, too, but what we were really trying to do was take on the attitudes of different bands and combine them in our own way."
