Scottish indie rock gods, Franz Ferdinand, have been quiet for a while; they announced they were working on a new album in February 2010, then they disappeared from the radars and decided to keep a low profile and slow the pace. As guitarist Nick McCarthy told in an interview: “We used to think, what’s wrong with recording an album a year? Then it was, ‘Oh no. We’re changing the system a bit’. These days people write an album for a year and tour for two years. It takes forever“.

At the moment Franz Ferdinand’s new album is set to be released sometimes in 2012, but there’s no date yet. Sure thing is the band will make its live comeback – they haven’t played a gig in two years – this summer with dates at Primavera Sound (set for May 30-June 3), Field Day (taking place June 2) and Poland’s Open’er Festival.

In the meantime, McCarthy kept himself busy working on his project called Box Codax with his wife Manuela Gernedel and German poet/lyricist Alexander Ragnew. It’s a genuine art-rock project which released a really special split single with Martin Creed: a white 12″ vinyl, limited to just 100 copies – and at a cost of £100.