Creating unique arrangements with Alex Kapranos

Full video available now on mwtm.org/ak-fr...
A sneak peek of Alex Kapranos' 'Songwriting Techniques’ series, in which he shares his philosophy behind making song arrangements more unique and memorable.
We're thrilled to release our first ever series with Alex Kapranos, frontman of the Scottish rock band Franz Ferdinand! We joined the acclaimed musician at Motorbass Studio to explore his diversity of influences and unconventional approaches to songwriting. Alex reveals his most notable inspirations, sourced from music, literature, and visual arts. Referencing original compositions and the work of others, he discusses pertinent elements of effective songs - vocal performance, phrase repetition, wordplay, vulnerability, and more. With his own voice and guitar, he demonstrates how chord progressions, melodies, song key, and arrangement can be altered to evoke certain reactions in the listener. He shares alternative methods of triggering creativity that involve setting restrictions and encouraging non-literal interpretation of lyrics delivered in a certain way. Using Ableton Live and a Novation Launchkey, Alex shows his process of building track foundations, developing melodic ideas, and many other aspects of his songwriting workflow!

[@mixwiththemasters]

Full video available now on mwtm.org/ak-franz-ferdinand

[@pablolparedes]

I could hear this man all day

[@Cyanitecture]

Love hearing him explain how he takes deeply theoretical ideas and applies him to his creative process. Applicable to all forms of creation! Love his music and the depth of ideas that come through. Thanks for this inspiration!!

[@marp7665]

Oh my god now I understand why I felt that your songs where piece put together! Absolutely love your work Alex

[@tabishkuma]

As a huge fan of their music this makes so much sense. Brief Encounters is an encapsulation of his method of music making. He talks about car keys, the instrument arrangements are simple, the chorus is sung almost ordinarily, but it's such a great goddamn song. The song Curious, too. All he's talking about is his curiosity, absolutely nothing else, but the chorus just sticks with you and makes you sing along, especially if you watch a live performance of the song.

[@peterhoeller7811]

He's aging so wonderfully.

[@Smspodcast_]

He’s Greek so obviously

[@literallyaaaaaaa]

Mix with the masters + Alex Kapranos Such a collab! But that guitar though😂

[@benkestokmusic]

very interesting that he thinks outside of the box so much, always good to hear new perspectives like that

[@dr1kk3r]

This video is so inspiring!!!

[@Tahrlezgegos8827]

Wow ! The home of Phillips ZDAR !!! ❤️❤️❤️

[@aerialcombat]

Brilliant, I can see watching this again

[@glutenhead5326]

this might be the best MwtM video yet

[@FlexaJ]

big help 🤘🏻 thank you for this

[@msb8013]

Lately I have been using hand percussion, which helps with production (panning and eq) and overdubbing vocals in lue of editing them in any fashion.

[@VoxJ]

That's a bloody amazing lesson!!

[@filtafacta]

"it's nice melody but it's kinda urgh, that could be more" yeah more in tune for sure! 😂

[@akusemkhal]

Definitely sounds like a wise old man. Damn how time progresses.

[@Rgdonaire_07]

Simply brilliant

[@habacabula]

What a great interview, what a beautiful cultivated mind.

[@PerpetualTwilight88]

Makes so much sense

[@BlurCovers]

fantastic musician!

[@lorenzopasquarella9157]

i m hypnotized!

[@CommeDesFleurs]

Love FF ❤

[@filtafacta]

Tuning issues aside, great interview! Much appreicated 👍🏻

[@ИКАГРИН-ф2з]

Great ideas🎉

[@jackcrook4435]

Im so glad that out of tune guitars don't bother me as much as every other idiot in this comment section.

[@vladrileynavilys]

Hahah thank you! was thinking the same. People grasping on whatever they can to hate, ffs... Who cares the thing isnt tuned perfectly, that's absolutely not the point here, might as well criticize his hair color!

[@sebastian6736]

@@vladrileynavilys I really wasn't looking for something to hate, but as soon as the video started, the out of tune guitar was the first thing that stood out. It really is jarring, and strange that he wouldn't tune it. But it doesn't take away from everything else that he's saying, which is quite insightful.

[@Jaymoudio]

what a lesson!

[@HungryManDJ]

Great performance!

[@jxrx4577]

Get more songwriting and production and I’ll sign up again!

[@MarcABurns]

Francis Bacon is looking good. All things considered. Great video BTW!

[@bastienmalek]

My life goal is to have enough success as a musician to be able to visit Motorbass..

[@JohnSmith-nx2bl]

0:34 Modest mouse Float On is a great song

[@Jaymoudio]

Waoouw!!! I get the picture.

[@bondyunit101]

great video!

[@mayanksoni836]

Great

[@FlexaJ]

I hope You can release a video here for Mixing and mastering track and vocals for difderent genre

[@nicolassayada9982]

Counterpoint!

[@pocouturier]

a clean dave mustain

[@vicesquadpunk]

I’m glad by the second cut he tuned that geetar... It was like hearing a spanner being dragged across someone’s teeth 🤣

[@apurvhellstinger]

Sccotish accent sounds so jolly

[@film.dscotland9314]

Geordie accent.... With a dollop of Scottish.

[@yesthatbrittany1880]

Love Hitchcock.

[@dundee12]

Alex is morphing into Van Morrison

[@TheMuffinMan01]

was this guy in The Departed?

[@MvsG18]

Franz Ferdinand lead guitarrist & singer

[@domjkof5327]

TUNE THE GUITAR!!!

[@BigFatCock0]

He doesn't play it the whole video and it's not crucial to understand what he's saying.

[@ascgazz]

@@BigFatCock0 it’d be fucking nice if a top musician in a top studio with an expensive guitar during a filmed talk was in tune though eh. Hardly rocket science.

[@RayyanKhanRayyanKhan]

@@ascgazz Hes a rockstar mate we don't tune guitars

[@ascgazz]

@@RayyanKhanRayyanKhan I’ve worked with rockstars mate. You’re right, you have guitar techs that DO IT FOR YOU 🤣

[@RayyanKhanRayyanKhan]

@@ascgazz And what's not to be fixed in post-processing anyways 🤣🤣🤣

[@Shwaaahdy]

Im not convinced that guitar was even tuned the second time round, why not just do another take?

[@johnny5805]

Extremely pretentious.

[@Biffinnbridge]

What’s with the new accent? You didn’t sound like that in the 13th note cubicles.

[@FuzzFace80]

I don't trust anyone's opinion who can play a guitar that out of tune

[@archtop]

I'm with you man, I couldn't believe how out of tune and crappy sounding that guitar is.

[@mikesparks3398]

lol, that was what jumped out to me

[@vladrileynavilys]

Really sad to not be able to get anything else out of an 8 mins video full of interesting insights. Who cares? That's not a performance, and there must be 30 seconds of guitar total. So easily distracted...

[@EDGARCACHO]

Guitar is Out of tune 😒

[@fdschuler7863]

Where's the unique arrangement?

[@rolandmdill]

The untuned guitar is so annoying, I really can't take him seriously and all his blabla. Is that what he means with "looking for a different way of doing it"? Him talking about attention to detail and use it to make people feel something is absolutely ridiculous

[@juannauj9631]

Irony here is that you’re criticizing another person lack of care for detail and you spelled “ooking”

[@rolandmdill]

@@juannauj9631 Nothing ironic here. I never claimed to pay that much attention to detail, my argument is valid

[@juannauj9631]

@@rolandmdill oh i’m sorry but IT IS, your comment is veeery IRONIC and that’s all. I never said that your argument was invalidated by that.

[@rolandmdill]

@@juannauj9631 @Juan Nauj You obviously don't know what "irony" means. Alex talking about attention to detail and not even tune his guitar might be irony. What he says and what he does contradict each other, and if he did that intentionally to make a point, that would have been irony. And as I said before, I don't think he did that on purpose; to me it appears like he simply doesn't care, and therefore all his blabla is pretentious and meaningless. Me pointing that out has nothing to do with irony, but as you're easily distracted by a typo I will fix that 😘 (There is irony hidden in this comment, can you find it?)

[@juannauj9631]

@@rolandmdill Wow so by your "logic", the fact that Alex played a guitar out of tune in this video invalidates what he recorded 17 years ago? What a poor and shortsighted conclusion do you choose to take from all this, see ya random dude on youtube.

[@ascgazz]

There are no “unique” arrangements....

[@juannauj9631]

Mmm yeah totally the point here...

[@MvsG18]

Take Me Out... Of tune

[@cabe13x]

Hard to make a musician seriously when he can't tune his guitar.

[@LoudanMusic]

RIP Phillipe Zdar

[@elli.puschel]

This is awsome that all groupmembers must play together that the song is working so good. 😍🤩👌🏾

[@loejewis]

So good

[@ruiluis6264]

Great!