  Franz Ferdinand's (left to right) Alex Kapranos, Paul Thomson, Robert Hardy and Nicholas McCarthy are in the middle of their North American tour.
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The lads of Franz Ferdinand couldn't have it much better than they do now.
The Scottish dance-rockers hit the top 10 earlier this year with their critically acclaimed party-down third album Tonight.
They've spent the past few weeks touring arenas with pop-punks Green Day.
They're heading back up to Canada this week for a string of festival and theatre dates -- including the Virgin Music fest at the Molson Amphitheatre. And when frontman Alex Kapranos called me last week, he and his Glaswegian bandmates -- bassist Bob Hardy, guitarist Nick McCarthy and drummer Paul Thomson -- were chilling in a luxury hotel in Las Vegas. Here's what the 37-year-old multi-talented singer-guitarist had to say about gambling, Green Day, gardening and grub.
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I'm surprised you called. I would think you'd have better things to do than talk to reporters.
I've just been down and had a look at the sharks. We're staying in this huge monstrous gold building -- the Mandalay Beach or something -- and it's got an aquarium full of sharks. So that's what I was doing.
Not blowing your money at the tables?
I'm not really into gambling. Well, not in casinos. I love playing poker with my pals. But the most fun I get in casinos is walking through and not gambling; raising a figurative middle finger and saying 'I'm not a sucker.'
How is the Green Day tour going? It seems like an odd match.
Before we went on tour, I was a bit curious as to how their audience would react. But they're not as much of a hardcore punk audience as I'd imagined. It was Tre (Cool) who asked us to come on the tour, and he said, 'Nah, they're going to love you.' And sure enough, the audiences have been great. They're well up for us.
Up here you'll be doing festivals and theatres. Any preference?
I like all of them. I like doing a little sweaty venue in the cellar of a bar with a vocal PA and 100 people. And I like standing onstage in front of 100,000 people at a festival. They both give you an intense buzz. But I do love good theatres. When we came up to Canada before with Death Cab for Cutie, we did quite a few theatres and they were really cool venues.
Tonight is very dance-oriented. What made you head in that direction?
We didn't sit down and say, 'Right, we're going to make a record like this.' We just wrote songs and jammed ideas. And when we started off, there were a few different ideas. Some of it was much more rockish and majestic. But we ditched that and decided we wanted to do this more bass-guitar-led record, with the synthesizer more prominent than it was on our second record You Could Have It So Much Better.
Why didn't you go with the rock majesty? That sounds pretty awesome.
Well, maybe we'll go with that on the next one. We're fans of guitars and we're fans of the beat as well. That's always been the mixture that's made up our band.
You strike me as something of a Renaissance man, dabbling in a million pursuits and hobbies. Let's go through some. You worked as a chef.
Years ago Bob and I worked in the same kitchen just as we were getting Franz Ferdinand together. We were both pastry chefs, so we were always the last to leave the kitchen. You know that last couple in the restaurant who are having that romantic night out and taking ages to order their dessert? We'd be stuck in the kitchen waiting for them, drinking cooking brandy and talking about what our band would be like. That's where a lot of our ideas came from.
Are you insanely picky about food? Are you always looking for the best restaurant in every town?
I'm the opposite of a food snob. I don't go for the poshest restaurant. Often the best places to eat are the street vendors or the little places you wouldn't find anywhere else. For example, in Montreal, it would be a place like Schwartz's Deli: Where else are you going to find a place like that?
I understand you're also a carpenter who makes abstract furniture.
Is that how it's being described? I haven't really heard that. (Laughs) My grandfather was a carpenter. I wish I could have been a carpenter like him. He showed me a few things.
And you're into gardening.
I do love, when I'm in Scotland, growing my own food. I'll plant potatoes and carrots and I've grown tomato plants -- simple things. To say I'm a gardener is an exaggeration. I just like sticking things in the ground and watching them grow.
So if this rock thing doesn't pan out, you can grow your own food, cook it and serve it in your own restaurant on tables and chairs you built yourself.
Maybe, maybe. (Laughs)
And maybe it would last for a couple of months. But I know I would end up back on the road again before too long.
