A few questions to Franz Ferdinand's drummer Paul Thomson ahead of their “Vote Yes” gig at Edinburgh's Usher Hall
Knowing Franz Ferdinand drummer Paul Thomson as an extremely sharp mind and having noticed his pro-independence comments on social media, I asked him a few questions:
When did you make up your mind and what swung it for you?
Paul Thomson: I was never an SNP supporter and have never voted for them in the past. In my mind I’d labelled them as nationalists, and to me nationalism can be be a pretty ghastly thing. Borders generally exist to stake the claims of rich landowners, and some folk will wave a flag instead of having a personality of their own. However, I have always considered myself to be Scottish and Scotland has never been fairly represented in parliament, there are more pandas here than there are elected Tory MPs.
You are the only born Scotsman in FF: Did you have to convince the rest of the band to get behind the cause?
PT: Alex and Bob supported independence way before me. Alex has lived in Scotland most of his life, Bob has been here for about 12 years and I can’t see him moving elsewhere, it’s his home. Where each of us was born doesn’t really have anything to do with the debate of whether Scotland should have fiscal autonomy or whatever.
Ahead of the gig at Usher Hall, do you think musicians can convince their audience to vote either way?
PT: I’d like to think so. So far we’ve lost one fan on Facebook, but when I saw they went to an American academy in Dubai I wasn’t that worried. If we didn’t think we could influence people to make the right decision and make Scotland better, then we wouldn’t be doing this show.
Young musicians seem to go almost universally for independence, older Scottish musicians seem less convinced or against (Roddy Frame, Gerry Love, Annie Lennox, er.. Justin Currie) – is there a generational divide? If so, is it because you used to have to move down to London to make it?
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