FFS - you would have to have been living in a cave not to see what the letters stand for - is the new partnership between Franz Ferdinand and Sparks. Who would have thought it? And already they have announced the release of their self-titled debut album, for June 8 via Domino.
Produced by Grammy-award winner John Congleton (St Vincent, David Byrne, Anna Calvi) and recorded at London’s RAK Studios, the 12-track record FFS, the album, will be available on CD and download and also as 16-track double vinyl + limited edition double colour vinyl special edition & deluxe CD editions featuring the extra tracks ‘So Many Bridges’, ‘King Of The Song’, ‘Look At Me’ and ‘A Violent Death’. You can pre-order FFS via DomMart and iTunes.
'FFS' Tracklisting
01. Johnny Delusional
02. Call Girl
03. Dictator’s Son
04. Little Guy From The Suburbs
05. Police Encounters
06. Save Me From Myself
07. So Desu Ne
08. The Man Without A Tan
09. Things I Won’t Get
10. The Power Couple
11. Collaborations Don’t Work
12. Piss Off
There are plans for a first single to be released in April, but in the meantime FFS have shared the closing track, ‘Piss Off’, fittingly the first song written for the album and the first song now to be heard in its entirety.
The seed of FFS was sown around the time of Franz’s debut album when word got back to the Maels that the band were big Sparks fans. “We thought ‘Take Me Out’ was very cool, and wouldn’t it be nice to say hello when they came to Los Angeles?” recalls Russell Mael. “We met and decided then it would be great to do something together. We put forward a couple demos, one was ‘Piss Off’. But they got swept up by everything, and it didn’t happen at that time.”
Fast-forward to 2013 when both Sparks and Franz Ferdinand appeared at Coachella. On the day of Sparks’ warm-up show in San Francisco, Kapranos was in the city trying to locate a dentist when he heard a voice behind him: “’Alex, is that you?’ It was Ron and Russell. They invited us down to see them play that night. We said hello after, and everyone agreed that the 10-year gestation period for this idea was long enough ... we should try and make it happen now.”
FFS was recorded during an intense 15-day period in late 2014. “We approached it the way bands do with their first record,” says Kapranos. “We had the songs first, rehearsed them and then recorded it all together, in a room. So no hanging around or fannying about.”
“You can’t chart what is Sparks and what is Franz Ferdinand,” suggests Ron Mael. “I think each band unconsciously relinquished a little of who they were in order to enter new territory.”
FFS also play a handful of UK dates on their European tour this summer, including an appearance at this year’s Edinburgh International Festival.
The dates are as follows:
JUNE
16. Glasgow Arts School (sold out)
19. Montendre Free Music Festival
20. Ruoms Aluna Festival
22. Zagreb, Jarun Inmusic Festival
24. Brussels Ancienne Belgique
26. Paris Bataclan (sold out)
29. London The Troxy
JULY
01. Cologne Gloria
02. Amsterdam Melkweg (sold out)
05. Lyon Transbordeur
07. Genova Goa Boa Festival
08. Zurich Summer Odyssee
10. Trencin Pohoda Festival
11. Barcelona Cruilla Festival
16. Catania Zanne Festival
18. Lisbon Super Bock Super Rock
19. Benicassim Festival
AUGUST
20. Lausanne For Noise Festival
21. Hasselt Pukkelpop Festival
24. Edinburgh Festival Theatre
25. Manchester Albert Hall
SEPTEMBER
12. Berlin Lollapalooza
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