Katherine Kiss Me

Album: Tonight: Franz Ferdinand (2009)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Franz Ferdinand lead singer Alex Kapranos told Uncut magazine February 2008 that this song "started out an acoustic song about a girl I kissed many years ago."
  • This song uses a human skeleton for percussion, which had been bought by Kapranos and guitarist Nick McCarthy from a Glasgow auction as part of an antique skeleton set recovered from a dead doctor's office. Kapranos explained to MTV News: "I remember we were working on a song called 'Kiss Me,' and we wanted to have a real dry, percussive sound in the chorus. And we had this skeleton in a box that just ended up sitting in the corner of the studio, and we all sort of looked at it, and decided to experiment with it. Nick had the hands and was clapping the bones together. [Drummer] Paul [Thomson] was working with the pelvis bone and a femur. We put the teeth in a glass jar and rattled that about. We smacked the ribs together and we got this really weird, f---ed-up kind of a sound that was wicked. I can't think of any records with human bones on it."
  • This song mirrors another track on the Franz Ferdinand: Tonight album "No You Girls." Alex Kapranos explained to Rolling Stone that the two play "on the idea of how we choose to remember events in our life - so one version is the memory and the other is the way it actually happened."

    He told self-titled magazine that on this song, it "is how you would remember the same event if you were recalling it honestly and remembering the awkwardness and how it maybe wasn't as satisfying as you'd hoped."
  • The Tonight: Franz Ferdinand album describes a night out on the town. Kapranos explained to the New Musical Express January 17,2009 that on this song, "Evening's over. Dawn's ripping through the curtains. You kind of wish everything would be normal again. This is the sort of song I'd play to soothe myself at a time like that."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Joan Armatrading

Joan ArmatradingSongwriter Interviews

The revered singer-songwriter talks inspiration and explains why she put a mahout in "Drop the Pilot."

Matt Sorum

Matt SorumSongwriter Interviews

When he joined Guns N' Roses in 1990, Matt helped them craft an orchestral sound; his mezzo fortes and pianissimos are all over "November Rain."

Meshell Ndegeocello

Meshell NdegeocelloSongwriter Interviews

Meshell Ndegeocello talks about recording "Wild Night" with John Mellencamp, and explains why she shied away from the spotlight.

The Truth Is Out There: A History of Alien Songs

The Truth Is Out There: A History of Alien SongsSong Writing

The trail runs from flying saucer songs in the '50s, through Bowie, blink-182 and Katy Perry.

Michael Schenker

Michael SchenkerSongwriter Interviews

The Scorpions and UFO guitarist is also a very prolific songwriter - he explains how he writes with his various groups, and why he was so keen to get out of Germany and into England.

Tom Bailey of Thompson Twins

Tom Bailey of Thompson TwinsSongwriter Interviews

Tom stopped performing Thompson Twins songs in 1987, in part because of their personal nature: "Hold Me Now" came after an argument with his bandmate/girlfriend Alannah Currie.