Mumford and Sons sat down with radio host Brian West just ahead of the release of their fifth album, Rushmere, on March 28th. This comes after nearly twenty years of performing together.
Marcus Mumford credits many influences for the musical style the band is known for: “We were surrounded by musicians who inspired us at the time, all playing acoustic instruments, and we just loved it.” He names Laura Marling, Fleet Foxes, Feist, Metric, Broken Social Scene, and Arcade Fire. “These were bands using acoustic instruments but in rock ‘n’ roll kind of ways.” Additionally, their bluegrass inspiration came from watching the film O Brother, Where Art Thou? and discovering artists like Alison Krauss, Gillian Welch, and Flatt & Scruggs.
Whether performing for audiences of 3,000 or 20,000, Ted Dwane says the band enjoys elements of both. “Last night, at Massey Hall, getting to sing unamplified into a room was such an amazing moment—something you can’t necessarily do in a bigger venue. And certainly, when we started out, we never imagined our music would fill a space as big as an arena.”
With the band’s popularity and their extensive touring, Mumford says they had a quick ascent. “Our band got big fast, and Canada was a big part of that. But we didn’t skip any rungs on the ladder in terms of touring. We did the cafes, then the bars and pubs, then the clubs, then the theatres, and then we got into bigger spaces. We did our first arenas, then our first stadiums… we remember all those rungs with love and joy. So, when we get the chance to go into a smaller room and play those venues again, we have so much love for that time when we were able to do that.”
Their new album, Rushmere, is named after the place where they all met. This is their first album as a trio. Mumford says, “We’ve had to adjust to decision-making in songwriting and how we do things in the band. With three, every opinion really matters. You can hide in a four. You can’t really hide in a three. It’s been really good for us.”
They began working on this album in January of 2023 and quickly realized they were all excited about the same things. The music kept flowing. Dwane says recording this album felt like “…a cozy experience. It wasn’t one that was pressurized or made in big cities. It was just a really, um, friendship-driven effort.”
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