![]() ![]() ![]() We sent it back thinking they have a pretty good sense of humor, which is why they’ve sent this and if they do, they’re going to appreciate this. “We responded with the ‘I ain’t no collaborator’ section of the song. “I remember thinking that was pretty funny,” Kapranos says with a laugh. There’s something immediately appealing about a collaboration that started out with a track called “Piss Off.” Even better, when the amorphous project started to take shape, Ron and Russell put their foot forward with a track called “Collaborations Don’t Work.” The nascent project was shelved, until Kapranos chipped a tooth on tour in South America and decided he’d rather brave the healthcare system in San Francisco. Recording an entire album together would mean sessions and a joint tour, and that was time neither band had. They’d just released their eponymous album, “Take Me Out” was storming the charts, and they were taking home the Mercury Prize, a Grammy nomination, and spots on a cornucopia of best-of lists. That was a busy time in the chronology of Franz Ferdinand, though. They got along well and when they parted, they exchanged the pleasantry, “We should work together sometime,” which sounds a bit like the music world’s equivalent of “We should get lunch sometime.”īut Sparks meant it, and they sent over a demo called “Piss Off,” which Kapranos and bandmates Nick McCarthy, Bob Hardy, and Paul Thomson loved. When they read that the Scottish quartet cited Sparks as an influence-Kapranos had been a fan since he picked up their single “Amateur Hour” at a Glasgow flea market in his early 20s-they arranged to meet up in L.A. When we heard ‘Take Me Out,’ we thought, ‘Aha, this is really fresh.’ To have the ability and desire to challenge the public a bit but also do something that’s striking-we were eagerly impressed.” “You wonder if it’s just you or if you’re losing faith that people can come up with really good pop songs that are unique and not rechanneling the past. ![]() Sparks has released 22 studio albums in its 44 years as a band. “You get jaded after a while if you’ve had a long career,” Russell Mael recalls. The Mael brothers, whose 1974 album Kimono My House set a standard for art rock, took a liking to Franz’s breakthrough single “Take Me Out” when it was released in 2004. Their self-titled debut album is out this week. And so, FFS (Franz Ferdinand + Sparks) was born. The Mael brothers invited the band to their gig that night and the two bands decided to get the ball rolling on a collaborative project they’d kept in the back of their minds for 10 years. He turned and saw Ron and Russell Mael of veteran Los Angeles band Sparks, who, like Franz, were set to play Coachella a few days later. The Franz Ferdinand frontman stopped when he heard familiar voices call out his name. Two years ago, Alex Kapranos was walking up and down a street in San Francisco, looking for a dentist. ![]()
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