Based in Bologna, Italy, Franklin Delano are led by singer, guitarist and songwriter Paolo Iocca. He met singer/guitarist Marcella Riccardi while already rehearsing with Luca Di Pierro at drums (soon replaced by Samuele Lambertini).
Primarily influenced by the recent post-folk scene risen from the ashes of Red Red Meat, they released a demo with the help of Zahr Records, a small italian label. "All My Senses Are Senseless Today" (released february 2004), created a sense of expectation in Italy. The album was a mixture of slow pace folk-rock songs, often arranged with a dark "Slint style" attitude. Their chicagoan friends Califone and Sin Ropas gave Franklin Delano a big help in introducing their music to the United States - i.e. Perishable records (run by Califone members) distributed their first record through their online shop.
By that same year the core of the group comprised the trio of Iocca, Riccardi and Vittoria Burattini - hailing from the legendary Massimo Volume, italian cult band that had sundered a few years earlier (and of which Riccardi had also been part for a couple of years) - at drums.

Franklin Delano second effort - "Like A Smoking Gun In Front Of Me" (released february 2005) - marked a slight change in the group's sound; while remaining steeped in the dark slow cored style of their previous album, the songs took influencial benefits from a series of new musical inputs, from psychedelia to alt. country. An understated part in this development was due to Stefano Pilia, part time Franklin Delano upright bass player at that time - on the album also at bass, guitar drones and many little details.
Produced at Clava Studios in Chicago by former Red Red Meat and Califone member Brian Deck (who had been behind the mixing board for well known artists like Souled American, Modest Mouse, Ugly Casanova, Iron&Wine) with musical contributions by Califone members Ben Massarella, Tim Rutili and Jim Becker, saw the band moving on both Madcap Collective Records - italian ever-growing label and art collective - and File 13 Records - a well established chicagoan label (Need New Body, The Silent League, Atombombpocketknife among their past releases). The album was promoted and distributed in the United States, beginning to garn plaudits from the local music press.
Shortly after the release of Like A Smoking Gun…, which most italian critics judged to be among the year's best releases, Franklin Delano embarked for their very first U.S. tour, with the help of File 13 and Califone.

Soon after this long touring effort - that helped them winning fans and spread the name all over the States - and a following of italian shows, the group suffered an internal shake-up with Burattini replaced by Zeus Ferrari (also with Juniper Band) at drums, and Marcello Petruzzi (also with Caboto) joining the band at bass. At the end of 2005 the line-up comprised Lucio Sagone (Ronin, Uncode Duello among his collaborations) at drums, Vittorio Demarin (Gomma Workshop, Father Murphy) at violin, piano, organ etc.
The new album "Come Home" will be recorded and mixed by Brian Deck at Engines Studios in Chicago and it will be released on Ghost Records in September 2006.