In the run-up to their upcoming best-of collection Hits To The Head, Franz Ferdinand frontman Alex Kapranos discussed the group's new single "Billy Goodbye".
Speaking to NME, Kapranos announced that the track was inspired by celebrating past friendships.
"I've been thinking about the idea of friendship and friendships that I've had all my life," Kapranos told the publication.
“They all affect us all in different ways. Most friendships bring wonderful things to our lives, but not all of them stay the same throughout our lives. They evolve, they change and sometimes friendships end. Sometimes they end badly, but usually they don't. Usually friendships just come to an end.
“Of course you move in a different direction and do something different. I think about who my best friends were when I was eight or 14 years old. They're not necessarily people I'd be best friends with now, but at that age they meant so much to me, they really shaped my life and made me who I was.
“I guess the song is about looking at a friendship and being able to say, 'Ah hey, it's over – but damn it wasn't it good? “Don't forget the best parts”. They were pretty incredible ‘."
Franz Ferdinand's rocker added, “When you hear it there are parts that sound like it's 1973 and then immediately jump to something that couldn't be made until 2021 and then jump back and forth between them all with it it gives a sense of disorientation in time.
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“That's how we listen to music today anyway. It has changed since I was a kid and you bought a seven inch record. That was exactly what was available back then, unless you bought used records.
“Now everything is available to us immediately. We don't really think about music that belongs to a certain time. "
