Mumford and Sons Shakes Things Up On New Album

Folk-rock band Mumford and Sons have announced some big changes for their upcoming record, Wilder Mind. The new album will not feature the banjo, an instrument that has defined the band’s sound.

Ben Lovett of Mumford and Sons has said the band’s shift towards a more electric sound was a “natural departure.”

“We didn’t say: ‘No acoustic instruments.’ But I think all of us had this desire to shake it up,” Marcus Mumford told NME. The new album will reportedly feature a full drumset and a heavier sound.

“When we started out making the record there wasn’t a template or a sound that we were trying to continue,” Lovett told NME. “When we were working on ‘Babel’, ‘Sigh No More’ was our starting point, but we didn’t start from ‘Babel’ and build from that for the third album.”

The 12-track Wilder Mind was recorded in London at Air Studios. Markus Dravs produced Mumford and Son’s first two albums, while James Ford produced the new album.

“At some point you have to try different things, as we collectively felt like it was time to try other stuff. Markus knows that we might well make the next record with him. We definitely haven’t broken up, we’re just playing the field,” Lovett says of the departure.

Mumford and Sons worked with Aaron Dessner of the National during the writing of the album and a number of the new songs were written in the National’s studios in Brooklyn, New York. The band says that those writing sessions helped to define the sound of the new album.

“We met Aaron touring around, just on the circuit. We’ve been huge fans of The National for ages. All of us, individually have got a very personal attachment to their music. We ended up being complete super fans,” Lovett says. “After meeting Aaron said: ‘Come to my garage in Brooklyn and we’ll make some music’. It was quite innocent really.”

‘Wilder Mind’ is due out May 4. You can catch Mumford and Sons live this summer.

Kevin Randolph

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