Franz explain African album rumours

Franz Ferdinand have said that rumours about their new LP being influenced by African music were "exaggerated".

Frontman Alex Kapranos said differing reports about Tonight: Franz Ferdinand's sound stemmed from their attempts to avoid press interviews during recording.

"When were writing the album we tried to avoid speaking to the press," he said. "When you are not in the public eye and you force yourself out there, it feels like you are hyping something that doesn't exist. So we tried to do as few interviews as possible.

"The problem then was people blew things up when we did speak to the media. We did the Africa Express show last year with Damon Albarn. Afterwards we chatted to some guy from the Independent who asked if we liked African music.

"We said, ‘Yes, of course we do’ and then through a series of Chinese whispers, also known as the internet, it became ‘Franz Ferdinand are making an African album'.”

Drummer Paul Thomson commented: "The [African] influence is so minimal. It was something we were excited about at that time and still are, but it just represents a fraction of our sound."

Kapranos added: "Sometimes you have these influences which are thrust upon you. When we first started, we were labelled a post-punk band and everyone said we were influenced by Gang Of Four, but we never really were. Things like that get very confused."