Why Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos loves Hong Kong gigs, plus insight on latest album

Universal fears are the major recurring theme in Scottish art rock band Franz Ferdinand’s 2025 album The Human Fear. But there is nothing fearful about the group’s musical approach as the members get deeply personal and bravely vulnerable.

“‘Hooked’ starts off with the line, ‘I got the fear, got the human fear, that’s all right’,” says Alex Kapranos, the band’s lead vocalist, lead guitarist and primary songwriter, of the track that was inspired by his own experience with parenthood in 2023.

“The song is about facing up to those existential fears that we all have and the things that allow us to cope with them.

“I was talking about becoming a father and how those existential fears didn’t disappear, but they seemed irrelevant when compared with the love I felt for this new creature in my life.”

Kapranos adds that he did not initially write the album with a concept, but instead used a spontaneous approach in which one song influenced the next. However, a common theme soon emerged that threaded through all the songs: one of fear, be it of leaving an institution, leaving a relationship or entering a commitment.

In an exclusive interview with the Post, he recalls: “I was talking to Bob [Hardy, bassist] about this and we realised that even though we all experience these fears, the way we respond to them is individual. That’s how we find our personality and humanity.

“There seemed to be something fascinating about that.”