The trick to techno, as a connoisseur, is that you got to do two things: keep your hands down and your mouth shut.
— Winston Marshall
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.
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.
Irish people never think we're Irish. Americans think we're European or French.
We're not all Christian, so we can't be a Christian band.
The day we struggle to enjoy what we do and just get the gig over with we'll quit.
Do you know what the key to comedy is? Timing.
I cut off my dreadlocks, but I couldn't face throwing them away. They were so hard to grow, man. There's a lot of work goes into those things. Some people keep a diary or a photo album to remind them of their past lives - well, I've got hair. Who knows? One day, maybe my grandchildren might want to see it.
I don't understand how those old bands did it. We worked out early on that if we did three gigs in a row and went out afterwards, we'd lose our voices. We know our limits.
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.
Things got big quickly for us, and playing arenas... it's like - and every band will tell you this - you don't see any of the town.
I think that's why so many school bands start on guitars: because they hide their mistakes with the distortion.
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.
We were copying lots of bands, like Avett Brothers and Old Crow Medicine Show.
Every day is a learning day.
We get accused of inauthenticity because we play the instruments we play.
Technically, I suppose I was following all the right behavior patterns of a trustafarian.
I became obsessed with Simian Mobile Disco's music and poorly attempted to make my own techno music.
We look at our albums as stand-alone pieces of art and also as adverts for our live shows.
It must be tiring being Bob Dylan for the past 50 years. People act like he's not even human, which must be hard work. Every room he walks into just goes quiet.
I think we're all guilty of it as British citizens: if something gets big, we go, 'Ugh.'
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.
Once you're out there in front of people, I don't think there's any choice than to just give it your all.
2014 was a pretty bad year for me. Quite a lot of loss.
I regret a couple of wardrobe decisions.
New York - it's the center of the world.
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.
When we first started touring, we were going to these towns we'd never otherwise go to, never otherwise see, and that's sort of why we like being in a band. But we started playing these bigger rooms and not even seeing the towns.
'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.
We're all big fans of bluegrass.
Banjos are funny instruments. They can get pretty irritating.
If you can't pigeon-hole yourself, who can you pigeon-hole?
England's just very cynical.
We're not, like, hard men.
Simian Mobile Disco changed my life. They put me onto the EDM world. Although they would hate that term, they're more techno.
We don't want to be part of some Tidal 'streaming revolution,' nor do we want to be Taylor Swift and be anti-it.
We know what we like in music, and we got into music to try and give back what we got out of it.
England's just very cynical. Like I am. Like we all are.
Somebody told me about a band that works out their whole set as if it was one song. They learn the whole set as one piece, so they know how the dynamics of it work. It's really difficult to do, and you can only really do it while you're on tour, as being in a rehearsal studio is not the same as being on stage in front of an audience.
You write in songs what you're too scared to write in real life, and then you sing the songs to loads of people instead of telling it to the person you should be telling it to... Songs are a great way of dealing with those issues but kind of a coward's way as well.
We called ourselves Mumford & Sons because we liked the idea of an old-fashioned, family-owned store.
We like being English, but we're not that patriotic.
I want to bring UCB to England. We don't have anything like it.
Class is a big issue here. And some people get picked on more than others. I think we probably do. I mean, it doesn't help that we wear waistcoats and tweed the whole time. But there is a reverse snobbishness in England towards that sort of stuff. And I think that's one of the reasons we really enjoy America, 'cos we're classless.
Banjos, dobros, and acoustic guitars are not our first instruments.
Just being thought of as a Christian is pretty annoying. Not that there's anything wrong with it. But just being told you're anything when you're not.
You're always thinking about making new music.
We play the instruments we love.
It's very important, when everyone else seems to be pigeon-holing you, to try and pigeon-hole yourself.
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!'
