Franz Ferdinand takes to world stage
 |  Alexander Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand |
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(CNN) -- The group takes its name from the archduke whose assassination helped trigger World War I, but otherwise Franz Ferdinand's jangly guitars, disco inflections and bright art pop don't really owe much to the Austro-Hungarian empire.
The quartet from Glasgow, Scotland, features bassist Bob Hardy, guitarist Nick McCarthy, drummer Paul Thomson and singer-guitarist Alex Kapranos. The four have declared a mission of making music that gets girls dancing.
And the girls should be dancing in June as the band embarks on an American tour.
The Music Room sat down with frontman Kapranos to chat about the band's self-titled debut.
TMR: You guys have had an interesting year so far, kind of breaking out to the world. What have the past few months been like?
KAPRANOS: The last year we have played in different places -- what is most incredible is that we get this warm response from all these different countries that we go to. We go to the States, and people know the lyrics to our songs and want to dance, and the same thing happens in Belgium and Italy. It's amazing.
TMR: How was growing up in Scotland? Did you think that this could happen, what you guys are doing?
KAPRANOS: I think that when you see other Scottish bands having done it before -- like Belle & Sebastian or Teenage Fanclub and Orange Juice -- you know, it gives you encouragement to see that real people, real ordinary people can get it together. And that you don't have to go through some kind of, like a manufactured pop idol, kind of like scenario to actually get together and make music. We're just four friends who got together and wrote songs ourselves, and having seen other people before you encourages you to do it.
TMR: How would you describe your sound?
KAPRANOS: It's frenetic, energetic, you can dance to it and it'll make you cry and laugh.
TMR: Tell me about the album and how it came together.
KAPRANOS: Our first album, called "Franz Ferdinand," has just been released in the United States. We recorded it at the end of the summer last year in Sweden. It's a set of 11 songs which we wrote up until that time. I suppose we were writing right until a few weeks beforehand. These are songs that we spent a long time playing together. We started writing them in the kitchen, and then we took over an abandoned jail, and that's where we lived for a while. And that's how we wrote a lot of our songs and arranged our songs, and then we moved over to Sweden for a month and recorded the record.
TMR: What are some of the highlights for you guys, in terms of songs on the CD?
KAPRANOS: I think we don't have just one particular track. ... It's always changing -- which track that stands out the best. The attitude that we have to recording and writing the songs is that each song would stand up in its own right. ... We are all big fans of the 7-inch single, the idea that a song exists in its own right and doesn't have to be taken within the context of an album. ... That you can listen to it, and it will stand up on its own.
TMR: How different is it for you guys sitting in the studio than performing live?
KAPRANOS: I think there is one difference, and that's when you play live, you get a response from the audience which you don't get in the studio. The studio is great because you are getting the response of the other band members, but I love the edge that you get playing live, the human energy that you get back from all these people. It's totally astonishing. I think it's the most alive you could ever feel through music.
