Franz Ferdinand have taken time out of the studio to speak about their upcoming third album, scheduled for release this October.

Drummer Paul Thomson says the long-player is “drier and heavier” than their previous two efforts, yet the four piece have consciously set out to make a less frantic record.

He explains: "The thing with the last album, we'd just come straight off a tour and into a studio and it felt like we hadn't even stopped to take a breather.

"That's reflected in the tempo of those songs, we just sort of battered though them.

"This one, we took some time off and then got back together again and started playing. It was like we started learning how to play our instruments again. I think it's comes naturally to play a bit softer now."

In the interview with BBC’s Newsbeat, Thomson said that they’re currently about half-way through recording the album and that they have amicably parted ways with Girls Aloud producer Brian Higgins.

He continued: "We learned a little bit from his methods. We wrote with him for a while and initially we thought we'd work more with him on the album but it didnt really work out.

"We just realised that we're not really a pop group. We're just a band that happens to cross over into the whole pop sphere."

Asked about the album title, Thomson said that nothing is concrete yet, adding: "The album title always comes last, but there's a song called Twilight Omens, there's another one called What You Came For, and Loose Dreams."

"The others are just working titles, inanimate things lying about the studio, like lampshade and armchair."

(by Scott Colothan)