Mumford & Sons

With their third studio album, Wilder Mind, the quartet shifted gears from pinstripe vests and banjos to biker jackets and electric guitars that shrieked “Judas” with every strum. Moving into 2016, it appears that as far as their creative ambitions are concerned, the London natives are taking heed of that old English saying, “In for a penny, in for a pound.” Less than a year after Wilder Mind’s release, Mumford & Sons are back with Johannesburg, their sixth EP overall and third collaborative release, following 2010’s four-track effort under the moniker of The Wedding Band. As the title suggests, the new EP has its roots in South Africa – a place the band had previously never visited until a run of massive shows there in support of Wilder Mind.

“This EP came about because we were touring South Africa, and we wanted to immerse ourselves more in the area – not just fly in and fly out,” explains Winston Marshall, a multi-instrumentalist who provides guitar, banjo and backing vocals. “Originally, it was the idea of putting on a festival [Gentlemen Of The Road] – we actually did one in Dungog in Australia, which was incredible. This one proved to be a lot more difficult – we’d been to Australia quite a few times, whereas we didn’t know anyone in South Africa and had never been there before. The whole thing came together through baby steps. Touring is a lot of fun for us, but you rarely get to see or experience anything beyond a car park and the inside of a room somewhere. You want to see a bit of the place you’re in. You want to breathe it in. When the opportunity arose to do that, we took it.”

Joining Mumford & Sons in the writing, creation, recording and performing process was the band’s touring party through South Africa – Afro-Western hip hop duo The Very Best, Senegalese singer Baaba Maal and Cape Town pop-rock trio Beatenberg. The troupe proved to be one of the most eclectic and diverse groups of musicians that Mumford & Sons had ever played with – so the idea of recording in collaboration with all three was a no-brainer.

“Funnily enough, we met The Very Best for the first time while we were in Australia the first time, doing the Laneway Festival,” explains Marshall. “We’d toured with them a bunch, so we decided to invite them along for the tour. Johan [Karlberg] from the band is always sending us new music and sharing artists that he’s fond of, and it was through him and the band that we met Baaba and brought him along, and then we discovered Beatenburg – who, incidentally, were the only South African group on the tour. When we saw the group that we had assembled, it made immediate sense for us to capture what we had and make time to record music together.”

Maal’s collaboration came first, overseen on production by Karlberg, and entitled ‘There Will Be Time’. The rest was pulled together across two days in the studio – the second of which reportedly saw the ensemble working for over 16 hours to complete the remaining songs.

“Everyone was brimming with ideas,” says Marshall. “We were really lucky to be working with such a remarkably talented group of people. There was always something constantly on the go while we were writing and recording. When you’re confident in someone else’s abilities, it makes it a lot easier to push forward with. Baaba Maal’s voice is one of the most incredible fucking things that I have ever heard in my life. What he’s able to do with that thing is unbelievable.”

Stylistically, Johannesburg is a blend of the more stripped-back and harmony-driven elements of the Mumford & Sons sound, as projected through a world music perspective and with a mix of other ideas and genre stylings working their way into the mix. Some of the songs, too, are also notable for being the first Mumford & Sons tracks that are not primarily sung in English, as both Maal and The Very Best contributed vocals from their native tongues.

“I think some of the songs are even trilingual,” says Marshall. “Is there something after that? Maybe a quad-lingual or something? Because that’s the case for one of the songs, I’m pretty sure. That could even be the first instance of that, for all I know. Whatever the case, it was quite remarkable to hear that on one of our songs. I can remember asking Esau [Mwamwaya, The Very Best] and Baaba what they were singing, and the lyrics they shared with me were quite beautiful. Truth be told, they could have been singing anything in their language and I’d have still been swept off my feet.

“Could you imagine if what they were actually singing was all this awful stuff, like ‘I fucked your mum’ and ‘You’re a twat’? All you’d hear is the beautiful melody! You’d be none the wiser. Maybe that is what they were singing, after all…”

Just for clarity’s sake: is Marshall insinuating that they lied to him through song? He cracks up, immediately noting the Simpsons reference: “I hate it when people do that!”

[Mumford & Sons photo by David East]