Bob Hardy hadn’t actually listened to Tonight: Franz Ferdinand since the band mixed it in 2009. “I’d forgotten the running order,” he admitted with a laugh. “So it was kind of everything was a surprise as it came. Quite an enjoyable experience.”
For the bass player of Franz Ferdinand, it’s a funny confession—especially when your instrument is plastered across every corner of the record. From the jump of “Ulysses,” Hardy’s bass doesn’t just anchor the song, it drives the whole thing. And he knows it. “We were all bass players at some point—Alex, Nick, Paul—so we never dismiss the bass like some bands do. We lean on it. A good bassline can sit front and center.”
That mindset led to Tonight, a record that leaned away from the angular post-punk sharpness of the Glasgow quartet’s first two albums and toward something sleeker, heavier, and sweatier. It was, at the time, their “dance” record. “I think there’s definitely a connection between Tonight and Always Ascending,” Hardy said of their later disco flirtations. “With both, we locked ourselves in one place with a pile of synthesizers, many of them half-broken. Flying by the seat of our pants, really.”
Not that the songs started in neon and drum machines. Hardy remembers the early sessions in Nick’s flat: “Just piano and acoustic guitars. It wasn’t until we met Dan Carey, who produced the record, that it really started to tilt electronic.” Carey, incidentally, was also responsible for Blood, the full remix album that followed Tonight. “Dan would hang around after hours, a bit drunk, messing with the board. Those remixes came out of him just staying up late and having fun,” Hardy said. “For a while, that was actually my favorite way to listen to the record.”
Like any band hitting album three, there was the looming specter of pressure. By then Franz Ferdinand had exploded with their debut, coasted into their second LP on adrenaline, and then suddenly stopped. “From mid-2003 to the end of 2006 we were either on the road or in a studio. Then we were spat out the back end of the second record. Having a bit of normal life was essential,” Hardy said. The break led to over-ambitious ideas—like building their own studio in Glasgow. “We thought we were making life easy, but in actual fact we made it much harder.”
Still, Hardy looks back on it fondly. The forgotten deep cuts like “Dream Again” are back in their live sets, and he marvels at the strangeness of hearing the original recordings again. “They’ve subtly shifted over the last decade. It was weird going back.”
And while the anniversary passed with less fanfare than it deserved—no sprawling box set or unearthed vaults—Hardy hints there’s still material in the shadows. “There were songs bubbling away that didn’t make it, a few B-sides, some things unfinished. Sometimes they get reworked later.”
For now, Franz Ferdinand remains in that rare space where they can tour two-decade-old singles like “Take Me Out” and also still push their sound forward. Hardy doesn’t sound tired of either. “We just did 20 months straight of touring and it was the most enjoyable run we’ve had in a long time,” he said. “Getting back on the bus doesn’t seem that daunting.”
Turns out the bassline never really stops.
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