Mumford & Sons On The Banjo-less Backlash & Why They Love Australia

With the start of their world tour only weeks away from kicking off in Australia, we caught up with Ted Dwane of Mumford and Sons to chat the tour, the album, and the creative evolution of the band.

Their newest album Wilder Mind dropped in May this year, and immediately earned itself some controversy and concern from fans for its relatively different sound – and most noticeably, the absence of any banjo.

“When ‘Believe’ came out ahead of the album, people were already leaving star ratings on iTunes, even thought they’d only heard one song, and they were quite scathing, and it’s kind of mad how people reacted, almost scary in a way, like wow maybe this isn’t going to go down well.” Dwane said. However the initial shock made way for generally positive reviews and critical success. Dwane went on to add, “But then as more tracks came out and eventually the album was released, and most importantly we started playing it live, people unanimously said that the old stuff and the new stuff was working well together.”

When chatting about the process of the album, “We were just very intentional about creating some space and some time for ourselves just to make the best record we could, and Babel was obviously a bit of a rush between tours, and we didn’t want to make a record that way again, we really wanted that time and space to make something we were really, really proud of and really excited by.”

Dwane was honest about the band’s feelings towards the initially hostile reception to Wilder Mind and its highly talked about lack of banjo. “It was honestly quick shocking, quite alarming to us when people made such a big deal out of that, because obviously, we knew it was part of a thing that defined our sound, and perhaps what made us unique, but we didn’t think that was all that we were.”

Dwane chatted on what it means to be defined by your output, and why the band felt it was the right time to segway away from being a ‘concept band.’ “Sigh No More was a big album for us, it put us on the map I guess, for a lot of people they took that as a statement of intent, and it was – but you know, you grow, and that was six, seven years ago now. As human beings we’re always changing, so you know we hope that our fans will change with us, will trust us, that we’re never going to do anything commercially driven.”

Moving on to the tour ahead, Dwane and the rest of the lads are pumped to be heading back down under. “We haven’t been for a couple of years, 2012 was the last time we were there and we did a really extensive tour. This time around it’s going to be a little more concise, a little more focussed, but it’s been a few years and we’re all pretty thirsty to return. It’s gonna be great.”

The guys join long time friends The Vaccines as well as our own Meg Mac for the Aussie leg of the tour, and are excited and proud of the supports they’re playing with. “Choosing our supports is so important to us, we want to create the best gig we can, we want people to come in for the very first band, so, yeah we’re keen!”

Chatting the idea of mixing their older ‘classic’ sound with their new material, Dwane said, “We sort of talk about it as colours in your palette, so when we sit down and write a set list before a show, there are obviously acoustic-y ones, like ‘Tin Shell’ and those really chill ones, then there are radio songs that everyone knows like ‘The Cave’ and ‘Lion Man’ and stuff, and then the darker ones, and there are all of these different colours to play with.

With Wilder Mind there’s this whole fresh sort of colour, and it’s given us a lot more creativity and room for dynamics within a set so we can build in and there’s these rockier ones like ‘The Wolf’ and’ Snake Eyes’ and there’s those most of real release, real reckless abandon, and that exists in some of the faster songs of the first few records, but it’s definitely a notch up.”

Dwane also added that the set list is now at two hours plus, so fans are undoubtedly in for an amazing gig wherever they’re playing.

[include_post id=”452606″]Ultimately Dwane and the rest of the band are confident in the direction they’re heading. Whilst the initial mixed reviews for sans banjo Wilder Man were a shock, they want the fans to know they’ll always be true to themselves, but there’s a natural progression to an evolving sound.

“I think people, well, we’re all guilty of the same thing: you reduce things to their lowest common denominator, and if you come up on a tweed lined soapbox, then you hear something that doesn’t quite fit in that box, then you probably start seeing all the things that don’t fit in that box as well – and to us it’s only heightens our desire to keep moving.

I think the idea of just being stuck in 2011 as a folk rock band, whilst we’re so in love with those songs, and still love playing them, and are proud of what we made, and how it’s given us this journey, to fuel us on this path, so without any disrespect to that time, this is now 2015.

We’re not the same people, we’ve changed, we’ve had all these experiences, we’ve been married, we’ve done all sorts of stuff, inevitably the music changes with you, it’s a part of us. It’s an emotional thing. But really, this is such a privileged place, and our biggest feeling is one of gratitude. To all our fans.”

Australian Tour Dates

Saturday, 7th November 2015
Riverstage, Brisbane
*SOLD OUT*

Thursday, 12th November 2015
Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne
*SOLD OUT*

Saturday, 14th November 2015
The Domain, Sydney
Tickets