Mumford & Sons

Wed 20th Jan, 2010 in Features

I’d just touched down after a jaunt overseas and switch on the radio to hear the final chorus of Little Lion Man and a presenter predicting it would claim a top-five finish in the station’s Hottest 100 countdown. Huh?

I’d only been out of the country three weeks but had never heard of this band going by the name Mumford & Sons. However, it appeared said group had blown up. When I mentioned Markus Mumford and his merry men to friends and acquaintances I was met with glazed eyes and dreamy smiles. “Yeah,” they would breathe. ” Sigh No More is an amazing album. I can’t wait to see them live. Are you going to Laneway?”

So, what is it about Mumford & Sons? Ben Lovett (keys, organ) is pensive. He’s standing in the kitchen of his London digs and it’s well after midnight. Outside the temperature has dropped to minus two. As he speaks I can picture his scratching the three-day growth on his chin and running a hand through his already dishevelled hair. He gives a considered response.

“I don’t know. It’s a little bit strange. We talked about it today, actually. The record has done better in Australia, in some respects, than it did in the UK. To think that is without playing any shows is hard to put a finger on. I understand you guys like it raw and that’s just one of the things we pride ourselves on. We don’t really have any frills.”

What they do have is a critically acclaimed debut record and a single that BBC Radio Host Zane Lowe called – œThe Hottest Record in the World Right Now’. Not bad for a band that came together two years ago and had no instruments when they went into the studio to record the long player.

“Yeah, we were really disorganised,” Lovett concedes. “We got this window to do the album with [producer] Markus Dravs and we had half a set of instruments, pretty much. Ted [Dwayne], being Ted, didn’t have a double bass and that was a bit awkward on the first day and Markus needed to get an acoustic guitar. So there were some pretty important elements to making the album that we hadn’t really thought about. It’s all been very accidental.”

Some accident. But Lovett is audibly aghast at the idea of aspiring to greatness.

“There’s no way that this is in the ballpark of what we thought might happen when we were making this record. To be fair, every tour that we’ve done has been a constant surprise. We hope to be continuously surprised, because once you set your expectations at a level or start getting yourself too prepared then it kind of takes the fun out of it and the pleasure and the innocence. I don’t think it’s something we’re ever going to get our heads around, but we’re not too worried about that as long as we turn up, play the gigs and keep writing.”

These are the things that set Mumford & Sons apart: their raucous live set (complete with double bass, accordion, banjo, mandolin, stomp box and four-part harmonies) and lyrics that read like the life lessons of a world-weary man; sorrow and frailty mixed with hope and encouragement.

It’s as if Markus Mumford has sat down with your soul and had a heart to heart, tidied up the mess and made sense of your fears. For others, the earnest confessions are a turn-off. Lovett is unapologetic. He think “those people” need to just open up a little bit.

“Ironically, a lot of the album is actually about self restraint and just addressing the issue of that. We don’t ever want to beat around the bush because one of the beautiful things about writing songs is the opportunity to not have to do that. In a lot of ways this record, for us, has been a way to express things that we couldn’t in conversation or couldn’t say directly. The songs are like the vehicle to be as honest and as earnest as we can.”

While he says the band is excited to come to Australia for the St Jerome’s Laneway Festival, Lovett is a little perplexed. He says it’s the first time they have been to a country where people have the record, can sing the lyrics and know how the songs are “supposed” to sound.

“We can’t quite imagine what that might entail because we’re used to showing people the songs directly, like being able to see people and say, – œWhat do you think of this?’, instead of people turning up to a show expecting to hear a certain set or a certain sound. They might be expecting a full re-creation of the album sound, which isn’t exactly what they’re going to get. Without the extra strings and the brass and the production quality the sound live is slightly different.”

Sigh No More is out now. Mumford & Sons play the St Jerome’s Laneway Festival around the country, plus a pair of sideshows in Sydney.

Friday 29 January – Laneway Brisbane
Saturday 30 January – Laneway Melbourne
Sunday 31 January – Laneway Sydney
Tuesday 2 February – Oxford Art Factory, Sydney
Wednesday 3 February – Oxford Art Factory, Sydney
Friday 5 February – Laneway Adelaide
Saturday 6 February – Laneway Perth