Grammy-nominated quartet Franz Ferdinand [ tickets ] has been enjoying great acclaim since the January release of its third album, "Tonight: Franz Ferdinand." Recorded at the group's Glasgow headquarters in a once-dilapidated Victorian town hall, the set debuted at No. 9 on The Billboard 200 album chart and has so far spawned the singles "Ulysses" and "No You Girls."

Drummer Paul Thomson, who is joined in the band by singer/guitarist Alex Kapranos, rhythm guitarist/keyboardist Nick McCarthy and bassist Bob Hardy, spoke to LiveDaily about recording in Glasgow, the dance-oriented sound of "Tonight: Franz Ferdinand" and what fans can expect from Franz Ferdinand's live shows.

LiveDaily: Are you looking forward to your US tour?

Paul Thomson: Yeah, yeah. It's a long one. But I'm looking forward to going back over [to the US] again, playing some places we've never played before as well, like Ohio and stuff. I don't understand why we've never been to Ohio before, a bunch of college types and stuff. We're going to Arizona as well. We're going to Tucson and Phoenix. I've been to Tucson before. It's a good town.

Did you record "Tonight" any differently than you did your last couple records?

We didn't record it in a conventional recording studio. We recorded it in an old town hall, like an old building in the south end of Glasgow. We originally thought we'd just use the space to write and rehearse, [but] then we ended up buying a mix console in the States and shipping it over. It was so heavy, we didn't want to move it anywhere else. We decided to use the building there to record. Plus, the sonic acoustic possibilities were endless, what with using different rooms and everything, the different acoustics. The building's atmosphere kind of lent itself to the sound of this record and made it much more interesting than a recording studio. It's much cheaper, as well.

Was it nice to be in Glasgow?

Yes. It was good to be at home. It almost feels like a normal job. You can go back to your own bed at the end of the day. Plus, living on a tour bus for two years previous to that, it's quite nice to have to feel at home while you're recording. You're comfortable, as well.

How do you feel the new album fits in with the catalog?

Live, it fits quite well. We're still gradually integrating some of the songs into the set. We haven't learned to play all of them yet. The biggest thing is, the last couple days, we've been playing a full eight-plus minutes of "Lucid Dreams," with the electronic section at the end, which is going down quite well. Everything slots in quite well with the new material. It affects the older stuff, as well.

Would you say this almost is more dance oriented than rock oriented?

I guess so. It's more sort of dancey. The last one was hard to dance to because it was quite fast, but that was a symptom of us coming off an 18-month tour and just feeling embraced by all these rock cliches of playing faster and lots of guitars, and a big jump ending as well. I could go on forever. There's a lot of guitars on the second record as a result of that. Whereas, with this one, we just wanted to kind of ease up and make it kind of a fun, nighttime record.

I think my favorite song is "Twilight Omens."

It sounds a lot rockier live than it does on the record. But it's good.

How have the other songs changed since you've been playing them live?

Um, "Lucid Dreams" is kind of a mix between the two versions that exist of it. Like, the original version that we streamed on the website, it was on the Madden NFL game. When we finished the record, we ended up extending it to over eight minutes. It's kind of like a mix between the two versions. "What She Came For" is coming together well, as well. They just take on a life of their own every night, different every night.

What was the songwriting process like for "Tonight: Franz Ferdinand"?

The arrangements of the recording were different. We would kind of play endlessly and then go back to the tapes and edit all the best sections out of it and put the songs together that way. We've never really done that before. You can expend as much energy doing nine takes of a fully formed song as you do just playing like the bridge part for 15 minutes and then moving on to the chorus and playing that, and a loop for 15 minutes. You kind of get a better performance that way, as well.

What can we expect from your live show when you come to the United States?

The dynamic we've been going for lately is hitting everyone with the singles first of all. Toward the end are songs that are a bit more unpredictable. We don't even know what's going to happen in the middle. We just kind of go off on one, like "40 Feet" off the first record and stuff like that. It turns into a big improvisation. Outside of the second record was "Lucid Dreams" as well and improvisation in that as well. It's a good show. It peaks and troughs.