WERTHEIMER: Tell me about road-testing songs. We've never been called a quartet before, though. We already feel like we were born out of the tradition of folk so much, so really we just kind of call ourselves a rock band really.ĭWANE: Just a band, and we're only just that as well. We're not Irish, despite a lot of people's preconceptions. We definitely can't call ourselves bluegrass because we're not American. MUMFORD: Well, there are so many things that we can't call ourselves. WERTHEIMER: I must say that I searched for words to try to describe your music, and I found that in things that have been written about you - folk, rootsy, Irish, bluegrass - can you tell me what you call it? WERTHEIMER: Two members of the quartet - Marcus Mumford and Ted Dwane - join us from Colorado Public Radio in Denver. That's because Mumford and Sons makes a practice of playing the new songs at their tour stops as they write them, road testing songs like this one: WERTHEIMER: The band's fans have not had to wait to hear the new material. They're out with a follow-up to their breakout album, "Sigh No More." We'd play the big track from that album - it's called "Little Lion Man" - but we can't because of language.
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Mumford and Sons sounds like a hardware store, but, of course, is the British band with a huge stateside following. And then 'Holland Road' came about the same week in December and had this chord sequence I just fell in love with, and then I wrote some lyrics to it." , 'Can we maybe think about being a bit more direct with the lyrics?' I was like, 'Well, yeah, but it means writing new songs. And a little obscure in places lyrically. "There was darkness to it - a bit too much weight to it, like it was a bit too serious. "We felt like it wasn't quite balanced enough. "In about December, last year, we got to a point with the record where we had enough songs to release an album right there and then," Mumford says. That seems to be another key element to Babel: balance. "Also, leaving a bit more space within songs - songs like 'Ghosts That We Knew' and 'Reminder' and, actually, 'Lover's Eyes,' which have instrumental breaks and all really intimate moments, and they're not shying away from being quiet as well as being loud." "We were quite intentional on this record with intimate moments and saving those," says Ted Dwayne, the band's upright bassist and vocalist. "We're inspired by such a range of things between the four of us - almost every genre of music has been embraced by one of us at some time, and just about anything can inspire a song."įour-part harmonies and stories are key to Babel, but so is space. "There are matters of the heart and sort of spiritual considerations that most humans have - explorative, really," Mumford says. Mumford grew up a preacher's kid, and so it's natural to presume that the new album's title, Babel, takes on a certain biblical relevance. "It's not like we were treating the audience like guinea pigs or anything.
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We did it with the first album when we touring, and it would just sort of grow in front of an audience. "It's just been the way we've always done it. "It gives you a lot of confidence in the studio if you've seen how people are going to react to the songs," singer Marcus Mumford tells NPR's Linda Wertheimer. For them, it's part of the creative process. That's because Mumford & Sons' members have tested new songs at tour stops as they are written. Babel is the new follow-up to the band's breakout debut, Sigh No More, but its fans haven't had to wait to hear the new material. With a name like a hardware store, Mumford & Sons is a British folk-rock band with a huge stateside following.