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| From left to right, Ben Lovett, Marcus Mumford, Winston Marshall and Ted Dwane from Mumford & Sons/ Courtesy of Live Nation Kra |
By Jung Hae-myoung
Mumford & Sons, a British folk rock band that performs with various musical instruments, will have its first performance in Korea this November. Prior to their visit, Ben Lovett ― who plays accordion as well as piano, synthesizers and sometimes vocals in the band ― had an interview with The Korea Times to give a sneak peek into their Seoul concert.
Lovett said the band was thrilled to be able to tour Asia. He said the members of Mumford & Sons love traveling which was also a big reason why they set up the band in the first place.
"I don't believe any of us have ever been to Korea, let alone play a show, so there's that nervous excitement about what it's going to be like," Lovett said.
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| Mumford & Sons will perform at MUV Hall near Hongik University in western Seoul, Nov. 15, as part of their Asian Tour 2019. / Courtesy of Live Nation Korea |
Mumford & Sons was founded back in December 2007 in the U.K. by Marcus Mumford. After playing in all sorts of bands, Mumford had a handful of songs to start the band. The band members are good friends with each other as some of them go way back 25 years. Lovett said now they feel like brothers.
"Mumford & Sons was supposed to resemble four brothers rather than father and sons. Funnily enough, we never thought we'd do much more than play a handful of gigs opening up for other bands, and then things started to take off, and we didn't get round to changing the name," he said. He added that sometimes they regret it, but now it is just who they are.
Since their debut, their unique selection of instruments, such as banjo and mandolin, has grabbed a lot of attention from listeners. Then for their third album "Wilder mind," they boldly left out acoustic sounds ― which had been deemed as part of their core identity ― and opted for synthesizers and electric guitar.
With such experiments, Mumford and Son's music is known as "West London Folk" rather than traditional folk music. Lovett says they have never felt like they sat comfortably in a traditional genre since they were just experimenting with different kinds of instruments.
"We just were interested in these instruments at the time we started the band," he said. "If Mumford & Sons had started five years earlier, I think we could have been a punk band!"
The multi-talented members also swap roles when they make tracks, rather than sticking to one instrument. Mumford is usually the main vocalist yet he also plays guitars and drums. Winston Marshall, playing banjo, also takes bass guitar, and Ted Dwane plays double bass as well as drums and bass guitar too.
"If someone has an idea, and they can play it on the instrument, then they will often be the one to record it," Lovett said.
Recently, they have been experimenting more with a drum machine.
"We technically don't have a drummer in our band, although we all play a bit of drums," he said. "Sometimes we like to setup a drum machine loop and play together over it. I could see us doing more of that in the future."
Experimenting with different instruments, they also take many references from other kinds of music. For their third album "Delta," they went from listening to folk records to dance, from heavy rock to R&B.
Paul Epworth, who produce the record, has encyclopedic knowledge of music and would reference sections of all sorts of pieces of music, and they would take his advice for their own music.
With a variety of instruments, the band often sings about love. Although a broad subject, Lovett said love in his book is being "selfless" and a "willingness to give over to another."
"Therefore it is very exposing and dangerous as if you love someone without a backup plan ― if you trust them fully, then you are empowering them to either reciprocate or let you down," he said. He added songwriting can be a great outlet when one may experience love and loss, hope and hopelessness.
Mumford & Sons won "British Album of the Year" at the Brit Awards in 2009. The band then won "Album of the Year" at the Grammy Awards in 2013, and their second album "Babel" made top of the U.K. album chart and Billboard chart.
