Franz Ferdinand + Sparks = FFS

FFS – the unique collaboration between Franz Ferdinand and Sparks - have announced details of the release of their self-titled album on Monday June 8^th 2015 on Domino. Produced by Grammy-award winner John Congleton (St Vincent, David Byrne, Anna Calvi) and recorded at London’s RAK Studios, the tracklisting of the 12-track album is as follows:

1. Johnny Delusional
2. Call Girl
3. Dictator’s Son
4. Little Guy From The Suburbs
5. Police Encounters
6. Save Me From Myself
7. So Desu Ne
8. The Man Without A Tan
9. Things I Won’t Get
10. The Power Couple
11. Collaborations Don’t Work
12. Piss Off

The first single will be released in April – details to follow shortly. In the meantime FFS are slaking fans’ thirst by previewing the album’s closing track ‘Piss Off’, fittingly the first song written for the album and the first song now to be heard in its entirety.

Listen to ‘Piss Off’ HERE. FFS, the album, is 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 iTunes.

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.”

Very much a ‘new’ project, FFS doesn’t truly sound like either band, but a striking and fascinating mutation. “The real motivation was to make something new, not ‘Franz featuring Russell Mael’, or ‘Sparks with Franz Ferdinand backing them,” says Alex Kapranos. “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^th Glasgow Arts School (sold out)
• 19^th Montendre Free Music Festival
• 20^th Ruoms Aluna Festival
• 22^nd Zagreb, Jarun Inmusic Festival
• 24^th Brussels Ancienne Belgique
• 26^th Paris Bataclan (sold out)
• 29^th London The Troxy

JULY

• 1^st Cologne Gloria
• 2^nd Amsterdam Melkweg (sold out)
• 5^th Lyon Transbordeur
• 7^th Genova Goa Boa Festival
• 8^th Zurich Summer Odyssee
• 10^th Trencin Pohoda Festival
• 11^th Barcelona Cruilla Festival
• 16^th Catania Zanne Festival
• 18^th Lisbon Super Bock Super Rock
• 19^th Spain Benicassim Festival

AUGUST

• 20^th Lausanne For Noise Festival
• 21^st Hasselt Pukkelpop Festival
• 24^th Edinburgh Festival Theatre
• 25^th Manchester Albert Hall

SEPTEMBER

• 12^th Berlin Lollapalooza