Consequence of Sound has reported, after 14 amazing years performing with his group, keyboardist and guitarist Nick McCarthy of Scottish rock band Franz Ferdinand, has announced that he will be quitting the band. The group was poised to start working on a new studio album, but now Alex Kapranos (vocals/guitar/keyboard), Bob Hardy (Bass), and Paul Thompson (Drums) will have to do it without their longtime backing vocalist whose been with them since they formed in 2002.
The group’s last album Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action was released in late 2013, trying to make it become the belated soundtrack of the summer. Most Recently, the band had just come off their 2015 FFS “Supergroup” tour that they performed with Sparks. The tour was a huge success that took them all over the US, performing at some incredible venues such as The Ogden in Denver, CO, The Observatory in Santa Ana, CA, and plenty other large stages.
McCarthy stated that the reason he is choosing to leave the band was to focus on his family more. Tour can be very time consuming and to those who have children it becomes tougher as time goes on. Franz Ferdinand provided a statement claiming “When we record and tour, it takes a long, full-time commitment lasting a minimum of a year and a half, most of which is spent away from home. Nick has a young family and does not want to be away from them for such a long period,” and continued on to provide hope saying that Nick’s departure might not “necessarily be a permanent situation.”.
When asked what the 41-year old guitarist would do during his time off from the band, McCarthy said that he intends to “concentrate on production and writing some completely different things for a bit.”
The band released the statement via their twitter account with a full letter explaining the situation.
14 years providing his signature rhythmic guitar notes, it will be difficult for the Glasgow based rock group to find a replacement as they soon begin recording a brand new LP. We can only hope that they will do their due diligence in order to replace such a core member.
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