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"The band's new album drops tomorrow: Right Thoughts, Right Words, Action. In the meantime, listen to the track \"Bullet\"--warning: it will make dance--below. We hit up the band's lead singer Alex Kapranos to explain what makes a right thought, right word, right action. Also, those pesky breakup rumors.\n\n\n\nGQ: How does Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action compare to the band's other albums?\n\n Alex Kapranos: It sounds like us, because it is us and we're not pretending it's not. Something I noticed a while ago is that whenever we cover someone else's song, it sounds like a Franz Ferdinand song. It happened recently when we played with Beck at the Barbican for his Song Reader show, where we played \"Saint Dude\" and \"Leave Your Razors At The Door.\" They're great songs with a recognizable Beck tone to their composition, but when we played them they sounded like...us. I've always been in awe of those guitarists who can play a Jimi Hendrix lick just like Jimi did, then a bit of Sabbath just like Iommi. I can only play like that guy from Franz Ferdinand.\n\nIt's quite different from our previous LPs on every other level though. On our first LP the lyrics tended to be snippets of life around me. I stopped doing that on the second LP, as what surrounded me wasn't particularly inspiring--the inside of a tour bus, and a relentless stream of promotion are dry. The second and third LPs became increasingly insular and defensive. I felt we needed to stop and empty my brain of all the chatter and distraction of what the band had become. This time each song is based around an idea.\n\nEvery LP we try new ideas with the music. This time there are vocal harmonies and counter melodies we couldn't have sung when we started out. There is a lovely string arrangement by Owen Pallet, saxophones and a sitar. Cumbia rhythms and a Turkish pop beat appear, but it all ends up sounding like Franz Ferdinand. The same guys doing something different.\n\nGQ: What's changed?\n\n Alex Kapranos: There were a couple of major differences. We only went into the studio in short bursts after a lot of preparation. Long sessions in one room seem to work for some bands. I don't enjoy them. After a couple of days, it begins to feel stale. I hate tinkering. I prefer spontaneity. At the heart of every song is a band performance and that has to be all four musicians performing simultaneously. That's where your character comes from: how you interact when you are in a room together. Sure you can experiment with the sonics, but if you don't have that at the heart of it, it feels hollow. With the sound I've always been a bit of a contrary sod, so I tend to look around at what surrounds me and do the opposite. I hate the heavily auto-tuned vocals that are the sound of contemporary pop and I was tired of hearing albums from the more esoteric end of music drowned in reverb or glitching with digital interference.\n\nGQ: How'd you settle on the album title? (A lyric from the song \"Right Action.\")\n\n Alex Kapranos: We chose the title after we had completed the LP. We wanted to find something that summed up the mood of the band and the music and Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action captured the positivity we felt. Those lines are a response to the verses of the song \"Right Action,\" which are emotional parados written as postcard messages. Most emotional situations we find ourselves in are conflicting, without an obvious answer for how to deal with them. Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action isn't an answer, it's a response or an approach. It's perfectly succinct and can be applied to any situation we find ourselves in. I only wish I was smart enough to claim credit for coining it myself.\n\nGQ: What makes something a right thought, right word, right action?\n\n Alex Kapranos: You know. That's why we have instincts. Our brains are so complex and the conscious, logical part at the front is the clumsiest.\n\nGQ: What's the deal with those band break-up rumors?\n\n Alex Kapranos: If you feel under obligation to do anything you resent it. If you face up to it, and declare \"I can end this now and not regret it,\" your perception changes radically. Aye, knowing we could instantly break up the band made us appreciate it.\n\nGQ: If you could only play one song from the album for the rest of your life, which would it be?\n\n Alex Kapranos: I'll probably be playing all of them for a few years to come. I won't mind. If it had to be just one, it would be \"Stand On The Horizon,\" as it mentions South Shields and Marsden Rock in the North East of England where I spent a lot of my childhood. If I had to go back anywhere every night, it would be there."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.gq.com/story/gqa-franz-ferdinand-on-right-thoughts-right-words-right-action>