Mumford and Sons realised the importance of albums after an encounter with Neil Young.
The folk rockers have released ‘Rushmere’, their first new LP for seven years, and frontman Marcus Mumford admits that their focus was on performing concerts until the music legend told them that they were getting their priorities wrong.
Marcus is quoted by the Daily Star newspaper’s Wired column as saying: “I guess the first few years of our life as a band, we were like, ‘We’re touring musicians who need to make adverts for our life shows’. That’s what the records are.
“I remember I said that to Neil Young once, and he was like, ‘You’ve got it all wrong, man. Your live shows aren’t the things that are going to last. They’re moments in time and experiences that are beautiful and great, but your recordings are going to last. So you need to pay attention to how you record music’.”
Marcus and his bandmates Ted Dwane and Ben Lovett took themselves away from social media while making the new record to avoid being influenced by outside feedback.
The 38-year-old singer explained: “This is the first time I’ve put anything out and actually done what artists always say they’re going to do, which is not to read anything or look at anything. So I’m off it all. I feel really great.
“I took Twitter off my phone. It’s one of the best things I’ve ever done. I haven’t looked up any of it – and I’m like in blissful ignorance.
“I’ll see the feedback at the shows when we start playing. Historically, our band has always judged our success on ticket sales more than anything else, not comments.”
The ‘I Will Wait’ band will embark on a UK and Ireland arena tour in late 2025 and Marcus confessed that the group are “addicts” when it comes to performing live.
He said: “We’re addicts. Let’s just see what the audience is like and how people feel about our music live, because that’s our only real way.”