The Cities That Birthed Mumford & Sons' 'Wilder Mind'

That was written in Texas, actually. We took this time off after we finished Babel, and one of the last things we did before going our separate ways was hanging out in this studio in Brooklyn. But then we were apart for about four or five months, but occasionally when we were seeing each other, we tried to utilise the opportunity and sit down and write a song or two. This time it was our friend's wedding in Texas in this big old ranch, and we were all there, and after the wedding we had a couple of spare days, and the people who helped the bride's family kindly let us stay in the little cottage down there. We got some instruments and on the last day we were getting ready to think about heading to the airport, and we started writing this song.

That was the product of some reckless jamming, really. Quite a fun song to play, a really collaborative effort, and yeah, that was something that together in the studio.

This album is – there's obviously a lot more percussion and drums. We started working with James Ford in the studio; he's a drummer, so that was really cool. We did a lot of live takes and stuff. But before he was around, Marcus being a drummer, he was more focused on guitar this time around, so we used a drum machine, and that's something you can obviously hear on that track, it's quite metronomic, and again, it evokes the atmosphere of the two cities this album was made in – New York and London.

This was another really late one. We were working where we'd made the first record, and it was an idea that we'd been working on for a little while. Marcus had been having a little sleep on the sofa, and he just got up, and went to the microphone and just sang the chorus, which then became a verse.

That was another late night one. A really fun song to make, and a pretty easy one to make as well; a lot of these songs did come about quite swiftly and easily, really.

Where does that come from? That was in the same place too. That was something that Marcus had been playing around with for ages. He was really excited about this very melodic bassline and that was a really fun one to record – like I said before, we'd done a lot of live takes on this album, and I think it's one of the main things that sets it apart. Previously it's all clicked and in the box, but this time, lots of live takes and things being captured, particularly with Snake Eyes.

That was a New York one – there's references to Manhattan and stuff in there. That was with Aaron Dessner, who was so kind and helpful with this album. One night it was pretty late and he was like, “You should get into the booth with the guitar and just record!” so that just sort of came about like that. Everyone went nuts with it – it seemed to be over in a flash. It was one of those songs that recorded itself.

The writing of that felt pretty swift; it came together quite naturally. It used to be a really big song, we layered heaps of stuff over it, and we basically took stuff away and away and away until it was just the harmonies. We had group harmonies coming in and it was really pretty until someone pointed out that it was actually really creepy – you could hear Marcus playing in this really intimate moment until you realise there's three other guys standing there singing. That was the first take, actually.

That was weird because we were working in Aaron's place in Ditmas, which is in Brooklyn. I got in one morning and Marcus was playing something on guitar. We basically arrived at the studio with the same idea in our heads, which was really creepy. That's how that one came about, it was very strange.

That was one that evolved pretty naturally. There's not really much to say about that one, we kind of just got together and pieced it together.

It was another product of a drum machine, it just frees your hands up to get creative with melodies and stuff like that. There's a few moments on the record where Marcus' voice just soars and you see it down the octave – it's kind of sexy, I suppose. He learned a lot, it was something he did in the interim when we were apart, went away with some amazing people and learnt a lot about what it is to be a singer, not to necessarily be hammering away at the guitar all the time as well. There's a lot of delicacy in his vocal performances now, which I love and it's really great hearing him not just fucking belting it all the time – there's more subtlety to it now.

 

WHAT: Wilder Mind (Dew Process)