Alex, who else is in Franz Ferdinand? Can you introduce them please?
Alex: This is Bob
Bob Hardy: I'm Bob.
Alex: And this is Nick.
Nick McCarthy: Hi.
Alex: And this is Paul.
Paul Thomson: Hello there.

Right off the bat Paul, is it true that you are a human guinea pig?
Paul: [laughs] Yes, that’s true.

What does that entail? It was regarding your tail wasn’t it?
Paul: I had my tail removed for medical science. [laughs] No, times were hard and I was lazy. [laughs] I had to pay my rent so I decided to have some fat removed from my backside and whole lot of other things which wasn’t worth 250 pounds, which is what of your Canadian dollars? Two hundred fifty pounds? $500?
Alex: No, not that much.

What did you think, Alex, of your bandmate having to have some flesh taken out? Was that how hard it was in the early days of Franz Ferdinand?
Alex: It was. We were all so incredibly impoverished. I didn’t think too much about it until he showed me the scars and then I couldn’t get the thought out of my head.

Are we allowed to see the scars at all, Paul?
Paul: Certainly not. [looks at camera] What time does this go out? [laughs]

So really, what did it feel like when you got it out? Was it hard to sit down? Did any other people get the flesh taken out? When you signed up for this thing, did you know what was going to get taken out?
Paul: Back off Sigmund, bloody hell. [laughs] Which question ? …

I’m just wondering. You sign up for this thing, were you picked because you were like the “rock guy?” You’d have to get chunks out of your ass. Were there other people that signed up for this experiment?
Paul: Yes, lots of people in Glasgow have signed up for this experiment. I'm the person that was nominated. I wouldn’t do that again. Certainly not.
Alex: The thing is, we needed to get money together for the band to buy instruments and stuff and we thought we’re going to sell Paul’s ass one way or another, so we might as well do it physically.
Paul: I had to stop them from selling it one way... [laughs]

I think it’s just amazing. The band begins and you sell your ass. And now, is it true that you guys are editing The Guardian, the prestigious Guardian newspaper?
Alex: Yeah.

What’s going on there? You’re going to be the editors of The Guardian.
Bob: That is mad isn’t it? They don’t know what they’ve done.

From flesh removal to editing The Guardian, is that how quick things have gone for Franz Ferdinand?
Alex: It is. It’s astonishing really isn’t it? It's astonishing. That’s the truth of it.

Now Alex, looking at your shoes, people seem to be fascinated by your shoes. Kids are fascinated by your shoes aren’t they?
Alex: Yeah, well, if you look we’ve all got some interesting shoes on today. I think I’m wearing my conservative shoes now. I’ll put on my sparkly ones later on. It’s just all part of dressing isn’t it?

You said you’ll never wear Chuck Taylors on stage.
Alex: The what?

Chuck Taylors.
Alex: What’s a Chuck Taylor?

You know, like the Vans, the sport-basketball type shoes.
Nick: I wouldn't wear ones like that. [points to Nardwuar’s New Balance runners]

That's what I was wondering. That's what I was wondering. What do you think about my shoes? How do they stack up for the Franz Ferdinand?
Alex: I don't know. I guess it's just like every other kind of clothing. You use it to express your personality — and you seem to have a lot of personality to express, as do we.

The reason I wear 'em is because I also play in a rock 'n' roll band and I like to jump around a bit. But looking at your shoes, how do they work for jumping around? Looking at your shoes Franz Ferdinand, would we assume that you don't jump around that much onstage?
Alex: Quite the opposite really. We do jump around quite a lot onstage. But what you've got to realize is with shoes like these — they've all got leather soles — you can do a lot of good sliding motions and skids across the stage and splits. It's a different kind of dancing. Instead of the basketball kind of dancing we're doing the more kind of...

James Brown kind of thing?
Alex: Yeah, yeah. We're all going to get those capes as well and fling them off and get Glenn to put them back on again. [laughs]

Now speaking of shoes — Glenn is the guy you make do everything, aren't you?
Alex: That's right.