Mumford & Sons have opened up about the difficulties their 2015 album electric guitar album ‘Wilder Mind’ caused them.

Speaking in this week’s NME, which is available digitally and nationwide from today (July 7), subscribe now and find out where to pick up a copy here, the band said their fanbase found it hard to accept their change of direction.

“A lot of people heard [lead single] ‘Believe’ and started giving the album one-star reviews on iTunes before it had even come out. It was definitely hard for our fans, I think,” admitted bassist Ted Dwane.


“But maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing,” insists keyboard player Ben Lovett. “Maybe there were fair-weather fans, or people who liked us for elements of our instrumentation that had nothing to do with the stories or melodies… If they’ve switched off, that’s OK. But I think quite a few people switched on. If there’s any regret, I think it’s that between us and the people we spoke to in the media, the album became more of a statement than it needed to be. I think the music should have done the talking, rather than us – letting musicians talk can be dangerous sometimes.”

The band are currently working on a new record and already have six songs in the bag. But they are remaining tight lipped on how it will sound.

“We all feel slightly different about the next album,” says instrumentalist Winston Marshall, “but I feel like we’ve got a really good chunk of the record done, although there’s still a lot more to do. If you’re going to write an album of 10 songs, our attitude is that you need to write 30 and choose 10 fucking good ones. We could probably put out a not-so-good album right now, but it’s better to wait and put out a great one.”

The band are set to headline this year’s Latitude Festival next weekend alongside the 1975 and Fleet Foxes.