Banjos are used in Celtic, English folk music and obviously American music. But not that much in pop music. But it's more versatile than people realise it to be. It's a beautiful instrument, very rhythmic and melodic. You can do anything with it.
Some people like the same thing forever, but I don't know. We kind of, like, listen to loads of different stuff, and our attention spans aren't good enough. So there was a bit of frustration when you're, like, having to play the same thing all the time because we play all, like, loads of different instruments.
'Babel' is a continuation of a project; it's not like now we are more theatrical. We've grown up, seen places, been places, and that is shown in this album.
I play banjo, and in Britain, it's easy to get away with playing banjo because you don't often see it on U.K. stages. In America, people know when you're a good banjo player, so I was really nervous about playing out there. But we actually went down really well.
We're all big fans of bluegrass.
The thing about Nashville that's amazing is everyone plays... so you don't meet up for a drink, you meet up for a pick. It's an incredibly creative town, just bubbling with energy.
The trick to techno, as a connoisseur, is that you got to do two things: keep your hands down and your mouth shut.
I think that's why so many school bands start on guitars: because they hide their mistakes with the distortion.
This is how people are going to listen to music now - streaming. So diversify as a band. It doesn't mean selling your songs to adverts.
Elton John is an absolute lad. He's a hero.
We're in a long line of English people pretending to be Americans and not being as good as Americans.
We called ourselves Mumford & Sons because we liked the idea of an old-fashioned, family-owned store.
We're a pretty emotional bunch. You know, someone doesn't say hello to you one day and you're like, 'I cannot believe the gall!'
It's always great to see grey hairs in a crowd; people who are older have been to a lot more gigs than the kids; they've seen everything, so seeing them in the crowd means we've earned their applause.
Irish people never think we're Irish. Americans think we're European or French.
We look at our albums as stand-alone pieces of art and also as adverts for our live shows.
I'm a modern-day renaissance man.
We don't want to be part of some Tidal 'streaming revolution,' nor do we want to be Taylor Swift and be anti-it.
Simian Mobile Disco changed my life. They put me onto the EDM world. Although they would hate that term, they're more techno.
I became obsessed with Simian Mobile Disco's music and poorly attempted to make my own techno music.
