Former Franz Ferdinand guitarist Nick McCarthy has shared a track from his new band Manuela.

McCarthy parted ways with the group last week, citing family commitments and his desire to work on “some completely different things for a bit”. Manuela consists of McCarthy and his wife, singer Manuela Gernedel.

The group’s first track ‘Cracks In The Concrete’ was recorded in McCarthy’s Sausage In Hackney studio and co-produced by Sebastion Kellig.


Hear ‘Cracks In The Concrete’ below via Stereogum.

Gernedel says of the song: “Lyrically ‘Cracks In The Concrete’, like much of the album, is skipping back and forth between a narration and internal monologue. The line ‘cracks in the concrete’ was partly inspired by the French phrase ‘sous les páves, la plage!’ which came up during the student revolts there in May ’68. Roughly translated it says ‘there is sand underneath the pavement!'”

“It’s talking about the potential of things breaking and breaking up things. Everything is morbid and falling apart and you have to keep on telling yourself that it’s going to work itself out (‘everything is healing’).”

Manuela’s debut album is expected shortly and will feature cameos from Jim Dixon (Django Django), William Reese (Mystery Jets), Roxanne Clifford (Veronica Falls) and Paul Thomson (Franz Ferdinand).

