Mumford & Sons

Tue 20th Oct, 2009 in Features

- œNew folk’ or not, London four-piece Mumford & Sons is one of the year’s true gems. The band’s debut album Sigh No More is out this month, with the UK music press already singing its praises.

We’ll be seeing the guys on the St Jerome’s Laneway Festival tour in 2010, as part of a brilliant line-up announced today. FasterLouder got chatty with Ben Lovett about rocking out with banjos and accordions.

So I hear someone let slip the other day that you are coming out for Laneway Festival in February?
That was Marcus [lead singer]. Cheeky bugger. We don’t even know what a laneway is. We just did a UK tour, and we were in Birmingham and I was up late drinking with our guitar tech. And then I went downstairs to have a cigarette and bumped into all the Temper Trap boys, who were playing in Birmingham the same night, and staying in the same hotel completely by chance. So we went out with them and learnt about what a laneway is. We thought it was just the name of a festival, but it turns out it’s what you call a sidestreet.

Now, speaking of your tour, I heard some stories about your recent album launch with a huge barn and bundles of hay…
Yeah. It was a barn dance. What we did was to take 500 people on busses from the centre of London to an hour out of London to a barn. But they all met at Kings Cross, at the international train station. No one really knew each other before that, they were all just told to meet there. And we didn’t even know what was going to happen. But everyone showed up, and we had ten double-decker busses to drive them out to the barn, and we had a really good hoedown. It was a really fun night. I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy.

And it’s about two years since you guys first got together, which is a pretty short time for everything to have come together so you could record and release your first album. And everyone’s going crazy for it. I saw that [BBC radio host] Zane Lowe called your single the – œHottest Record in the World Right Now’…
He’s a really nice guy. And his support in the UK has been invaluable. It really has been a massive surprise to us. We’re really just a folk band, and we’ve been trying to get our heads around playing for bigger crowd. We’re really surprised by it all, and we’re trying to get our heads around the fact that so many people are responding to what’s important to us. Nothing we’ve done up until now has been geared towards anything greater than just playing the music we want to. So the thought that a DJ from a national radio station is behind it…it’s all been a bit of a blur. A total blur.

So we formed about two years ago. Marcus and I were at school together for ten years, and we had a band for about six years before we went our separate ways. I went off with an indie band, and Marcus finished uni. Then when Marcus came back to London, and we made this band. And on this first day almost exactly two years ago we tried out this song – œWhite Blank Page’, and when we played it, and arranged it together, we just felt that everything made sense. There was this vibe that we were all feeling, and then within half an hour that song was written.

And ever since then we’ve been together as a four-piece. And it’s all been really good as to how it has progressed – it’s been totally crazy, actually.

That sounds like some twist-of-fate, meant-to-be-together story…
It’s a little bit surreal, yeah. [Laughs] We were friends playing together, and playing as a backing band for other artists, and we were all trying to make it. London is a very popular place for UK bands to cut their teeth – there are over 10,000 bands in London, or something.

But none of these things seemed to matter. These songs have become really meaningful to all of us, and no matter who writes the song we all get it. We’ve spent so much time together that we have all shared the same experiences that the song is about – there’s a real feeling of brotherhood.

And now, when I type – œMumford and Sons’ into Google, there’s 651,000 results that come up.
Crazy. What a result. [laughs].

You must have had some inkling that this folk revival was happening – correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t you guys spend some time as Laura Marling’s backing band?
Yeah. That’s how we met Country Winstone, our banjo player. He was playing banjo for Laura about two years ago, and Laura was a young girl, just new to London. And we met her – Country made the introductions – and then all these thin strands of people we knew – Marcus and I went to school with Herbie from Noah and the Whale – and then we started hanging out with all these other songwriters and bands that we knew…

Noah and the Whale have had a pretty good year, too.
They’ve had an excellent year. They’re an incredibly musical band – we’ve got a lot of love for them. We’re all from the same neck of the woods, which is a bit surreal. And now that we’re all out on tour we bump into each other in the strangest places. The last time we bumped into Noah and the Whale was in Portland, Oregon. And we were both playing gigs 20,000 miles from where we began, which was practically the same place. It’s very weird.

And I don’t quite know how everyone in this small group of friends have been successful, but I’m very, very happy that it has.

Well my theory is that with the Top 40 dominated by electro, and electro-tinged hip-hop/R&B, I think people might be looking for the other extreme, and trying to get as far away as possible. And they are looking for well-written songs with melody, and actual lyrics instead of just words – and for music like folk music, which has so little pretension to it.
Well I hope we’re not the end goal of that. We’re just a few guys from London who are inspired by the real deal. And if people are searching for the melodies, and the more organic vibes, there are other places to end up than Mumford & Sons [laughs].

Well, I think the BBC has taken to calling you, and Laura, and Noah & the Whale – œnu-folk’…
Yeah. I don’t like that much. I think it’s fair to say that we’re not folk. Folk music, to me, is Crosby Stills, Dylan, Neil Young. And it would be a bit embarrassing to be put in the same bracket – if I was them, and saw myself lumped in with us, and Noah, and Laura then I’d be wondering to myself just how broad this “folk” genre was…

Well, all genres are a little bit bullshit.
Exactly. It’s hard for us to be pigeon-holed. Nobody likes to be pigeon-holed. But it’s nice to be given some connection to folk – we really believe in pure songwriting…

That’s one of the hallmarks of folk, though. Or at least what people think of folk – a focus on songwriting, and on lyrics, an earnestness, a lack of pretension.
Exactly. And for me, there’s no other way to write music. Every musician can write a song for a bit of fun, but if you’re going to write a song that you’re proud of, and you’re going to tour, and you’re proud of, then it has to be earnest. It has to come from the heart. It has to represent what you’re about. I can’t quite imagine how people do it any other way. But some of my favourite bands do, so…

What genre would you like to put yourself under then? Make up a genre.
Folk – œn’ roll. You have no idea how happy I would be if one day I walked into a record store and saw “folk – œn’ roll” as a genre. Rocking out, boys will be boys – but with banjos and accordions, and mandolins, and double-bass. What’s wrong with that? It’s part bluegrass, but if we said we were bluegrass we’d get shot.

That conjures up a whole other world of association that you may or may not want to be lumped in with.
Well we do want to be. But we just…for us, it’s like musical heresy. What I love about bluegrass is that it’s hearts on sleeves, and getting everyone involved, and rocking out. But unfortunately in the UK people think of rednecks, and hillbillies. We wouldn’t ever call ourselves bluegrass, but there’s a lot about bluegrass that’s just fun, and inclusive, and dancing music. So “folk – œn’ roll” is the dream genre.

So, two minutes left – what’s next for you guys? We know Australia in February…
We’re touring India. Us, and Laura, and a couple of Indian bands. A two and a half week tour of India.

Then after that we’re going to the US, then a full tour of the UK. Basically it’s a year of touring. And we’re really looking forward to coming to Australia – I think Australia has all the best parts of the US and UK combined. I went to Sydney in 2003 and just loved it. And we didn’t get a chance to have much of a summer this year, so we’re looking forward to getting a tan.

Sigh No More is out now on Dew Process through Universal. Mumford & Sons play Laneway Festival 2010 in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth.

Friday 29 January – Alexandria St off St Paul’s Terrace, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane (twilight event)
Saturday 30 January – Footscray Community Arts Centre, Melbourne
Sunday 31 January – Sydney College of the Arts (SCA)
Saturday 6 February – Perth Cultural Centre, Northbridge