Franz Ferdinand’s Bob Hardy talks about life as a five piece, Trump and playing Hong Kong

The Franz Ferdinand that will perform in Hong Kong this week will look very different to the band who headlined the city’s Clockenflap festival five years ago. The British indie rockers will return to the city on Friday, performing at Southorn Stadium in Wan Chai during their first Asia tour as a five-piece.

The band, formed in 2002 in Glasgow, Scotland, have become one of the most consistent and enduringly popular British bands of the 21st century since releasing their eponymous Grammy-nominated debut album in 2004.

Subsequent releases saw them gradually shift more towards a dance-rock sound and shed their sharp-suited image for a more kitsch, retro look, leading them to this year’s Always Ascending, which brings the band’s electronic influences to the forefront.

After former guitarist Nick McCarthy announced his departure in 2016, the remaining members – frontman Alex Kapranos, bassist Bob Hardy and drummer Paul Thomson – started writing songs for their fifth studio album, Always Ascending, as a trio. Halfway through, they began to record with Julian Corrie, the English electronic producer better known as Miaoux Miaoux, while Scottish musician and the band’s long-time friend Dino Bardot then rounded out the line-up on guitar when the group was ready to perform live.

According to founding member Hardy, his new bandmates couldn’t be a better fit. “As a three piece we weren’t capable of playing what we were writing,” the 38-year-old says over the phone from his home in London. “When Julian came to the studio for the first time, we played him what we’d been writing and recording. Then we sat down to play a song and immediately it just clicked. He’s an incredible musician who can pick things up very quickly, so it felt incredibly natural, like we’d been playing together for years.”