Franz Ferdinand: “We like the challenge of getting people out of their seats”

With their recent album The Human Fear (2025) in tow, Franz Ferdinand are back in Portugal. This time, they are performing at a festival that might leave some fans a bit sceptical: Ageas Cooljazz in Cascais. What is one of the most electrifying bands of recent decades doing at a festival that places seats right in front of the stage and is designed for laid-back music-listening? In an interview with Time Out, the Scottish outfit's bassist, Bob Hardy, reassures us and promises there will be plenty of jumping and dancing at this gig.

The last time I saw you in Portugal was last year at Vodafone Paredes de Coura, in a very high-energy concert. How do you adapt to a festival like Ageas Cooljazz, where the audience is usually seated and expecting calmer sounds? I’m expecting that there will be quite a few people coming to see us who know exactly what to expect from a Franz Ferdinand gig. We hope that core group of fans will pull the rest of the audience along. Sometimes, when we play festivals where people don’t know us that well, or only know one or two tracks from the radio, it takes a bit more work to win them over. But that’s actually a really fun challenge and something we love doing: winning over the crowd. When we play our own headline shows, like we did in Lisbon last year at Aula Magna, everyone goes specifically to see us and have a good time. At a festival, not everyone is there for you, and we enjoy that extra challenge. But we’ve played festivals with the Cool Jazz format before, and there’s something quite fun about watching people abandon their seats.

Would you say that adapting and improvising are the most important aspects for a band on stage? Without a doubt. If you’re a live artist, you have to be able to adapt to any situation. We change the setlist mid-concert if Alex [Kapranos, frontman] feels the crowd needs a bit more energy. We might bring a more popular, energetic song forward. That’s part of the craft, and it’s something you get better at the more you do it. You develop an instinct for reading what each gig needs. Alex thinks very fast. Over the years, I’ve watched his development night after night; he’s become a completely different performer from when we started. I love watching Alex on stage, and he still makes me smile every single night.

Is there any funny story from a time when the audience wasn’t particularly interested in your set? Early on, back in 2004, we were playing a radio festival in the United States, in New Jersey, at a massive arena called Meadowlands, which was rebranded that day as “Metalands”. The line-up included Papa Roach, Korn, Velvet Revolver, and us [laughs]. We had absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the bill. The bands were very sweet backstage and supported us immensely, but I’d say about 98% of the crowd was there for heavy metal and they started throwing coins at us. In the middle of that crowd, there were about three people wearing our T-shirts who really wanted to see us and were giving it their all. We ended up finding the funny side of the experience; it was a bit of a “screw you” to the metal crowd.

There are similar stories in Portugal, like when My Bloody Valentine played at the Rock One festival and fans showed them white handkerchiefs, or when Nickelback performed at a metal festival and the crowd started throwing rocks. At least with you it was just coins. That’s awful. At the time we were just kids and everything felt like a fun adventure. I don’t know how I’d react today, maybe I’d feel differently, but back then we laughed a lot. We never had an experience that bad again.

In last year's concert at Paredes de Coura, and with your latest record The Human Fear (2025), one can sense a certain maturity and growth in the group. How do you manage that evolution while maintaining such high energy after more than 20 years? We’re still a live band with just as much high energy as we’ve always had. Alex is a great frontman; he focuses intensely and gets completely “in the zone” before going on stage. It’s true that over the years, and across different records, we’ve recorded slower or more introspective songs and included them in the set, but we structure our gigs like big builds that head towards an explosive finale. Franz Ferdinand remains a live entity, a high-energy band made for partying. In fact, that gig last year at Paredes de Coura was one of our favourites of the entire year. The crowd was phenomenal, and it happened to be my birthday. It was one of the big highlights of our year.

On your first album, you exploded right away with a global anthem like “Take Me Out”. Did you ever worry about becoming hostages to that success or being a one-hit wonder? When that happened, we were living the madness of our first massive world tour and digesting international success, so we didn’t think about it too much. We benefited from a certain youthful naivety. We just thought: “Right, this is a great song, but we have others and we’re going to write more.” And we still think that way. There’s a real danger if you freeze up thinking about the market context or trying to mechanically write a sequel to a hit. That causes creative paralysis. In the studio, consciously or subconsciously, we never talk about it. We don’t sit down to work on a track thinking about whether it’s going to be the definitive single; we treat every song with the exact same weight and respect. You can’t create thinking about how it’ll be received. You have to do things for yourself and keep moving forward.

It’s important to change and evolve. Not all bands can be like Motörhead, who kept the same structure and sound for decades, always with the same level of success and fans. We don’t work that way; each of our albums has very different dynamics and textures. Having said that, I have massive respect for bands like Motörhead. There’s something fascinating about stepping on stage and saying: “This is what we do and this is what you’re getting.” I find that very interesting, though our path leans more towards mutation.

Speaking of evolution, how do you see the new wave of guitar bands coming out of the UK, like Black Country, New Road or Black Midi? Do you feel there's a Franz Ferdinand influence there? I can’t speak for them or say if they were influenced by us, but I’m genuinely very happy to see guitar music getting attention again. There are a lot of young people picking up instruments and making live music, and that inspires me. In an era so focused on computers and artificial intelligence, it’s comforting to see kids making exciting music with guitars. There was a long trend of isolation, with people shut in their bedrooms producing music alone—and I respect that—but nothing replicates the danger, adrenaline, and emotion of three, four, or five people playing drums and instruments together, live, in a room. It’s impossible to replicate that energy behind a computer.

You’ve been to Portugal countless times over the last two decades. What is your emotional connection to the country? I love Portugal. Portuguese audiences are, genuinely, among the best I’ve ever played for anywhere in the world. It’s been over ten years since the first time we played there, and the reception is still phenomenal—the kind that gives you goosebumps. Plus, it’s a beautiful country. I went on holiday there a few years ago, to Sesimbra, and loved it. The Atlantic coast has a dramatic, wonderful sea, the food is great, and the people are incredible. Portuguese culture reminds me of Scotland’s in some ways. People don't take themselves too seriously and know how to have a good time. I feel at home.

Do you know Cascais, where you'll be playing? I don’t think so, but I’m really looking forward to visiting. I’m also quite excited to see Sintra, which looks like a wonderful place to go on holiday.

To finish, what can the audience actually expect from this reunion at Ageas Cooljazz? They can expect a high-energy rock show. What we love most is when the audience stops being mere spectators and becomes active participants in the party. We’re going to bring songs from our whole career, the big singles, and it’s going to be a beautiful celebration. Even if people are seated, that doesn’t intimidate us. We like the challenge of getting people out of their seats. I’ve never left a party in Portugal disappointed, so I know this one will be no exception.

Parque Marechal Carmona, Praceta Domingos D’Avilez. Avenida da República (Cascais). 25 Jul (Sat) 22.

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