Franz Ferdinand
| Fandom | |
|---|---|
| Name: | The Franzdom |
| Abbreviation(s): | |
| Creator: | |
| Date(s): | 2003 - present |
| Medium: | |
| Country of Origin: | UK, later international |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Franz Ferdinand is a Scottish indie rock band formed in 2002 by Alex Kapranos, Nick McCarthy, Bob Hardy, and Paul Thomson. Since the band's inception, the members have encouraged slash of themselves and interacted with fan works. Their fandom is known as the Franzdom and has been active since 2003. Fanfiction about the band is commonly referred to as 'franzfic'
Nick McCarthy left the band in 2016 and Paul Thomson left the band in 2021. New band members Julian Corrie, Dino Bardot, and Audrey Tait are also accepting of RPF surrounding the band.
Fanfiction is written about the new members, but most fanfiction still surrounds the original lineup.
Since their debut in 2003, the band has blurred the lines of fact and fiction. For example, fans throughout the 2000s and early 2010s assumed Nick McCarthy's middle name was Augustine, only for it to be corrected to John in 2010 -- however, the first time this information appeared, it was misspelled as 'Jhon.' This is just one way in which the band and their fans alike blurred the lines between fact and fiction.
Ships
Popular ships include (in descending popularity order):
Nick McCarthy/Alex Kapranos (Nilex)
Bob Hardy/Alex Kapranos (Rolex)
Bob Hardy/Paul Thomson (Bob/Paul, Baul, Bobl)
Nick McCarthy/Paul Thomson (Nick/Paul)
Nick McCarthy/Alex Kapranos/Bob Hardy/Paul Thomson (Franzwich)
Julian Corrie/Alex Kapranos (Julex)
Julian Corrie/Dino Bardot (Julino)
Slacken_Ties
History
Slacken_Ties, by far the most prominent Franzdom space during the band's heyday, was a LiveJournal community that ran from 2004 through 2008. This community was a space for fanfiction, fanart, and general posting surrounding Franz Ferdinand. The community was created by LiveJournal user pygmalism.
The community's popularity reached the band within a year of its creation. In November 2004, ChartAttack writer Sarah Kurchak wrote an article titled Franz Ferdinand Don't Mind Being Coupled With Morrissey In Gay Fan Fiction, in which Kapranos expressed appreciation for the slash being written about himself and his bandmates.
"I think it’s brilliant. It’s really, really funny. And I like that sort of thing cause it means that there’s people who have imagination who are inspired by your personality and the things that you’ve done, so it’s a good thing," he says. "There’s absolutely nothing wrong with fictionalizing a genuine character as long as you make it clear that you are fictionalizing, which I think all that slash stuff does. I think it gets dangerous when people start believing that those things are actually true, and I think for the obvious majority of people that that’s not going to be the case. There are a few people who get crazy obsessed and start imagining they’re having relationships with people that they don’t have relationships with. That sort of thing’s a little bit frightening, but I think that’s very rare."
During a BBC Radio 1 segment, frontman Alex Kapranos was quoted saying "slackening ties for the girls at Slacken_Ties." The clip immediately went viral and became enshrined in Franzdom lore. Additionally, Kapranos has spoken to fans about his support for Slacken_Ties according to a few different fan experiences:
Alex: "Heya there! So I guess you want something signed as well?"
Me: "Actually, I wanted to ask you to sign this at the record store earlier, but it would have been a bit complicate so yeah, would you sign it now?"
Alex: "Yeah, of course. Oh! Is that the shirt with the two boys kissing?"
Me: ::grinning:: "Exactly."
Alex: "I bet you've got something to do with that website, haven't you?"
Me: ::blinks innocently:: "Which website?"
Alex: "Oh. Erm.. nothing. Forget I said anything."
Me: "No, seriously. I'm curious now, what website?"
Alex: "There's a website that has all this kind of things on it. Don't you know it?" - pause - "You should google it!"
Me: "Really? Never heard of it..."
Alex: "It's on something called livejournal..."
Me: ::trying not to laugh:: "Yeah well, everything's on livejournal..."
Alex: "Seriously, you'd love it!" ::waves hand at shirt:: "It's full of that sort of stuff."
Me: "Okay then."
-- LiveJournal user myska_x
In early 2006, NME ran an article about Slacken_Ties and Albion_Fic, the Libertines' fan community, which were closely tied.
Tropes
Slacken_Ties had many well-known, accepted, and perpetuated tropes among its members. Some prominent tropes include:
Franz as Art Students
In real life, Alex and Bob went to the Glasgow School of Art and met later while working at the Mother India, a restaurant in Glasgow. Paul modeled at the school around this time as well. Nick went to a music school nearby. The Slacken_Ties art students trope portrays all four Franz Ferdinand members as art school students at the same time.
The Farmhouse
The farmhouse trope applies to fics written about Franz Ferdinand living together in a farmhouse during the writing and recording process for their second album, You Could Have It So Much Better. These fics take place in 2005.
Notable Works
2010s Franzdom
In the social media era, the members of Franz Ferdinand continue to be interactive with fans, particularly on Twitter and Instagram.
After Nick left the band, Alex began to post cryptic and in some cases offensive subtweets about him and his departure, sparking a new generation of Nilex fics and shippers. Alex and Nick appeared to have reconciled, with Alex posting a photo of him on his personal Instagram in May of 2022. This photo has since been deleted.
I'll Try Anything Once
In 2019, Tumblr blog Find-The-Eyes started a longform fanfiction project called I'll Try Anything Once, after the Strokes song of the same name. This fic chronicles the original lineup of the band as they navigate their first year at the Glasgow School of Art. The fanfiction combines classic and modern Franzdom tropes along with elements of the band members' pasts, seeing Alex as the son of Greek diplomats, Nick as a kleptomaniac music student from Germany, Bob as a closeted gay artist with a golden doodle named Alvy, and Paul as a formerly homeless model. New band members Julian Corrie and Dino Bardot appear as a 15-year-old music school prodigy and a rat breeder who lives in a warehouse respectively. In the fanfiction, Alex and Nick move in together and adopt a cat named Steckrübe, which is German for turnip. The authors of the fic were adamant about not showing the band members, but were aware that it could eventually reach them considering its in-fandom popularity and the level of interaction the band members had with the fandom.
The band members themselves haven't publicly acknowledged the fic, but have interacted with the members of Find-The-Eyes on Twitter. In 2021, upon the release of their single Billy Goodbye, fans noticed a particular lyric that referenced ITAO:
"Auf Wiedersehen, Steckrübe!"
A Genius annotation on the lyric reads:
"“Auf Wiedersehen steckrübe” continues a German influence which has appeared at different points in the bands history, including the songs “Darts of Pleasure”, “Auf Achse” and “Erdbeer Mund”.
Nick McCarthy, who left the band in 2016, grew up near Munich, so this could be a reference to him leaving, especially given the song’s focus about goodbyes and moving on.
Additionally, Steckrübe is the name of Alex and Nick’s fictional cat in I’ll Try Anything Once, a popular Franz Ferdinand fanfiction written in 2019. ITAO explored Franz Ferdinand as art school students and focused on the Chateau, the Glasgow School of Art, and the formation of the band. Alex Kapranos is known to read fanfiction of Franz Ferdinand, so it’s not that far of a stretch to assume that this lyric may be Alex’s way of saying goodbye to the old Franz – the one with Nick, Paul, the Chateau, and the Glasgow School of Art."
The fanfiction and its tropes still impact the modern Franzdom to this day.