Franz Ferdinand on Capturing "Live Magic" on New Album

After a four-year break, Scotland's dapper indie rock quartet Franz Ferdinand recently returned with their fourth studio album, Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action. The LP is full of the lads' trademark dance rock, which Franz brought to Austin City Limits festival last weekend in Texas.

Backstage at Austin's Zilker Park, bassist Bob Hardy and singer-guitarist Nick McCarthy told Fuse about the band's hiatus and refreshing comeback.

"We just needed a break from each other," explains Hardy. "We'd been in the studio or on the road since the first album [2004's Franz Ferdinand]. It was good to get a bit of space and much-needed time to ourselves." 

For their new LP, the boys maximized the fun factor by recording in London, Scotland, Stockholm and Oslo. "We broke the process down into three-week chunks," Hardy says. "We'd spend a week writing, a week rehearsing, a week recording. That way we never got sick [of it]."

For McCarthy, it was all about recreating the band's fun, spot-on live show on the new album: "Anyone can layer things [in the studio]," says McCarthy, "but we wanted to capture that special thing, that magic between each other. It's just the [sound of the] four of us playing in a room together." 

Franz Ferdinand continue touring in the U.S. through October. Watch the music video for "Right Action" below.