Franz Ferdinand frontman Alex Kapranos on the trappings of success, their greatest hits compilation and Putin

In the torrid world of rock and roll, success comes in all shapes: for some, copious amounts of drugs, others private islands. In the case of Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos, the mark of accomplishment came not in the form of lavish graces nor gilded gifts. Rather, when that first nice chunk of change arrived in his bank account, Kapranos did the sensible thing. I have paid off his mortgage from him.

Recalling this triumphant moment over the phone from his London home, Kapranos adds that, despite his impressive financial forethought, he had planned on indulging in one particularly garish addition: “I wanted to get a doorbell that played the riff to ‘Take Me Out, ‘” he laughs.

Kapranos never did get around to purchasing his artisanal sonic greeter. However, considering the song’s ubiquity as one of the most popular singles to emerge from the guitar band era of the early aughts among hits like “Mr. Brightside” and “Seven Nation Army,” “Take Me Out” has served essentially the same purpose wherever the frontman has traveled since its release in 2004.

“I’m not complaining,” he laughs at the song’s popularity. Adding with pride that it “negates the idea of ​​a formula for a hit single.”

“It’s this very odd song that does things pop singles shouldn’t do,” he explains. “It’s like you’re living on the outside (of popular culture). You have a crazy idea (for a song) and suddenly, it becomes a huge banger across the world. That’s the best feeling. Your audaciousness allows you to crash the party!”

It serves to reason then that, when Franz Ferdinand set about putting together his first greatest hits compilation, the single would get pride of place. However, in marking the 20th anniversary of the band’s formation in the art school slums of Glasgow, the album also features 19 equally audacious pop enchanters that articulate a career set out in (tongue-in-cheek) purpose of “making music for girls to dance to.”

Thus the appropriately titled “Hits to the Head” features a collection of what Kapranos calls their “best bangers” — chart staples including “This Fire,” “Do You Want To,” “No You Girls,” sit comfortably with the EDM prog of “Lucid Dreams,” the dada horror of “Evil Eye” and the evocative spring of “Always Ascending” — as well as two new songs, “Curious” and “Billy Goodbye.”

Sequenced in chronological order, “Hits To The Head” exposes what makes Franz Ferdinand so alluring. From the onset, the group superimposed effortless melody over deceptively simple songwriting and threw in a barrage of riffs and four-to-the-floor drum beats for good measure. Likewise, their lyricism and aesthetic were tasteful yet never stretched into gaudy. Kapranos, already 30 when the band took off, presented alternatively as louche lothario and music nerd, while references to Nabokov and Joyce earned equal placement alongside “na, na, na” choruses and the mundane goings on of the lives of Kapranos’ Glaswegian buddies .

Of particular note, given world events, was the band’s early inclination to reference the constructivist art movement, both in their artwork and music videos. It’s a point Kapranos cited when the band recently canceled its upcoming shows in Russia and one which he is happy to expand on at length.

“Russian literature, Russian art, Russian filmmaking, the Russian psyche have had a huge impact on our band,” he says. “I find the history of that country fascinating as well. And of course, truly inspirational. However, none of us can possibly tolerate the invasion of a neighboring country by a totalitarian state.”

“When we canceled the shows, I made it clear that I was not holding Russians responsible for this action,” he adds. “I find that it’s really important to them that we have to make clear that this is the action of one autocrat and his cronies around him, which he has put in place. Russia has a long history of czars. That is what Putin feels himself to be the heir to.

“The majority of Russians don’t want war. And certainly the unquestionable majority of our fans, the people who relate to our brand, do not want war. I know why I speak to them. I speak to them on social media. They’re terrified.”

In relating back to the constructivist movement, Kapranos points out that when you look at constructivism and then Soviet propaganda, there’s a distinct transformation. “Lissitzky, Mayakovsky and Rodchenko, they were idealists!” I have exclaims. “When the revolution happened, of course, they got caught up in the idealism and the idea of ​​liberation and all the positivity of that revolution. And you see the influence of it within the propaganda art of the Soviet Union. But I think the end of constructivism is really the end of idealism. And that was the beginning of Stalinism. To that point, I would say that Vladimir Putin looks more to Stalin for inspiration than Mayakovsky.”

It’s in this rant that Kapranos reveals what keeps Franz Ferdinand running. Now eyeing 50, the frontman says he’s never been more eager to embrace “his eccentricities of him.”

Sure, he’s happy to tell you about the time David Bowie brought Lou Reed to see the band play in New York. Or how the characters he’s namechecked in the songs are hanging around in his life of him (“I rang them up last week”!), But there’s still a fire that burns for being an outsider in an insider’s world.

“I find the more you age, the easier it is to be who you are,” he says. “It’s just much easier to not give af—k about what anybody else thinks of who you are, what you are, or why you are. And I love that.”