The entrance lobby and sweeping staircase on the first floor of the magnificently restored St Pancras Railway Hotel in central London looks vaguely familiar.
But until it is pointed out by a record company rep, none of us remember the location was featured in the video for the Spice Girls’ ‘Wannabe’. (Well, it was 20 years ago!)
Anyway, it’s up the stairs, a swing to the right and into a private suite, where we find the four members of Mumford and Sons, politely greeting the international media.
Keyboardist Ben Lovett and bassist Ted Dwane are chatting with Hot Press and are instantly welcoming and affable, as we take our seats by a large picture window. We’re here to talk about their third album, Wilder Mind, which has already generated much controversy and debate, mainly because it sees the erstwhile London folkies abandon their acoustic instruments in favour of a broad indie palette that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Coldplay, Keane or even U2 record.
There isn’t a banjo or a foot-stomping kick drum to be heard on the album, recorded in London with James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Haim, Florence & The Machine). With texture rather than twang dominating, it features 12 new tracks, written by the group at various times over the last year and a half in London, New York, and Texas. Several of the songs were written and demoed at Aaron Dessner’s (The National) Garage Studios in Brooklyn.
We don’t have much time, so it’s straight down to business. Are they now turning their backs on the rousing, rootsy, organic sound that made them such unlikely superstars in the first place?
Ben Lovett is first to engage: “It wasn’t a conscious decision to reinvent ourselves or to abandon the kind of music we started out with,” he begins.
“We wanted to make music that was about who we are right now and that’s always been the case with us. When we came back together after a few months off, this was the music we wanted to play. Is it our ‘difficult’ third album, as the cliché goes and as some people have said? I don’t know – everyone’s got a different idea which album is the ‘difficult’ one anyway.”
Did they worry they would alienate their core audience?
“No, because there was no sense of intentionality about it with us,” he insists, choosing his words carefully. “We understand why some people might say that. We didn’t anticipate upsetting anyone. To us it doesn’t sound like we’re doing something that’s in any way daring or all that different. It’s four people expressing who they are musically. And to us it was inevitably going to involve an element of evolution as we progressed.”
The change of musical policy could be seen as a reaction to the six years Mumford & Sons spent on the road, becoming a household name in the process.
Dwane: “It really was amazing to us – the success we had. We still talk about it. I mean, we used banjos! (laughs) No one could have accused us of having commercial aspirations when we started. It came as a complete surprise to us that it took off the way it did.”
Lovett: “It came to the end of 2013 and we had a meeting where we said, ‘we’re not going to book any dates or plan anything for a while’. And that led to a freedom, where, all of a sudden, we could do and be anything we wanted. It was like the six years [prior to that] had been fast-forwarded on us all and life had caught up. We got to reflect a lot, go out and be challenged in new ways. We could travel and catch up with relationships and friendships and all of that normal stuff. Was there an element of exhaustion? Definitely. When you’re in that touring/recording mode it’s lovely and you think you can go on forever. When you stop, you realise how fatiguing it is.”
Dwane chimes in again: “Sometimes your mates in the pub will talk about this gig or that one and you don’t really remember much of it. I was watching our Glastonbury appearance in 2014 on telly the other night and thinking, ‘yeah that was a bit special’. At the same time it was weird watching it.”
The songs on Wilder Mind range from the jangly power-pop of ‘Tompkins Square Park’ and chugging rocker ‘The Wolf’ to the mid-tempo single ‘Believe’ (think ‘With Or Without You’) and the anthemic ‘Broad Shouldered Beasts’.
Lovett says the collaborative nature of the songwriting and recording dictated the sound of the record. “It was nice to be able to write music without thinking about how we were going to play it live. In some ways, this is our first real studio album because, on the first two, we were already playing most of those songs live: it was about capturing what we were doing on stage. With this, we weren’t limiting our instrument selection. It was fun working with James, especially, with all of his history. He definitely opened us up in the studio, showed us new tricks. His influence comes through throughout.”
Dwane: “One of the main conversations we had at the beginning of the sessions was about how to have less parts but make those parts do more work. Some are textured, ambient and layered – such as ‘Believe’. Others are more skeletal and bare- boned. “We’ve done about 10 shows with this new album. It felt very natural, not too challenging. We all play drums ourselves. We’ve added a few musicians including a friend who comes out on the road and plays with us.”
With dates in the US, Canada and around Europe planned (including a headliner at the Reading/Leeds Festivals), the band have ample opportunity to see if their new direction finds favour with fans. They’re well up for it: “We really want to get this record out there,” Lovett beams. “We’ll be incorporating a selection of songs from the first two albums into the show as well so we hope no-one will feel left out. Are we looking forward to it? Hell, yeah.”