Mumford & Son”s Grammy Award for album of the year for “Babel” hasn”t even had time to gather dust, and yet the British quintet is already thinking about its third album and it sounds like it”s time for a little something different.
“I do feel like we’re ready to make the departure,” keyboardist Ben Lovett told Rolling Stone. “There’s definitely cohesion between the two albums [2010’s ‘Sigh No More’ and ‘Babel’]. Now that we’ve done that, we’re not desperate to walk away from that sound, but we’re willing to explore what else we could do. These two albums are like brothers. Do something that’s a cousin.”
“There”s other sounds we want to make,” chimes in Marcus Mumford. And we can only assume he”s joking when he adds one of those sounds is “Like, hip-hop. We really want to rap.”
The band is fleshing out new ideas on its winter tour, with a practice room set up at every venue, but the new album could be a few years away, says banjo player Winston Marshall. That seems likely given that “Babel” is only on its second single (and first single, “I Will Wait,” is still gaining traction on the Hot 100).
Next up for Mumford is a brief European tour and then this summer they”ll hold their second annual Gentlemen of the Road Stopovers, the multi-artist festivals they started in small towns last year. After starting in Lewes, U.K., the shows will move to North American: Simcoe, Canada on Aug. 23-24, Troy, Ohio on Aug. 30-31, Guthrie, Okla. on Sept. 6-7 and St. Augustine, Fla., on Sept. 13-14.