Dec 16 2024 3 mins
Before their set, host Megan Holiday was joined backstage by frontman Alex Kapranos and bassist Bob Hardy of Franz Ferdinand, whose sixth studio album, The Human Fear, is set for release in the new year on January 10. While the title may sound a bit intense, Alex asks us to “think about fear,” and how “all the good things that you have to do in life usually entail overcoming fear in some way. Think of asking somebody out on a date. You know, you've got to overcome the fear of rejection. But whenever you overcome fear, you always feel good. You feel like your heart beats faster, you feel like you're alive, the blood runs hot in your veins. So I feel like the album gives you that kind of energy.”
Taking the stage, Alex says he still feels the nerves, “but you get such a good buzz when you do it, and like all the good things in life require you to overcome fear to get that good buzz to do the good thing.” When it comes to keeping his mental health in check, Alex admits that it’s his “friends that really keep me together. I think we're very lucky being in a band with people who we get on with, people who we trust, and, you know, people who you can open up to as well.”
Listen to the full conversation above.
Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Words by Joe Cingrana, Interview by Megan Holiday