For their new LP Wilder Mind, Mumford & Sons decided to take a different route than they are used to. Trading in their folk sound, fully equipped with accordions and banjos, the foursome plugged in their guitars for songs to thrill the audience at Saturday Night Live.
Introducing electrifying songs "The Wolf" and "Believe," it was evident Mumford & Sons were not sticking to their Sigh No More and Babel roots. They shared the stage with Empire's Taraji P. Henson, who hosted the acclaimed show for the first time.
Frontman Marcus Mumford talked with Rolling Stone in regards to honing a more electric sound.
"We felt that doing the same thing, or the same instrumentation again, just wasn't for us," said Mumford. "We've got a broader taste in music than just that."
Added bassist Ted Dwane, "None of us had really any interest in doing a sort of Babel 2. It was always going to be different."
The British indie-folk band will bounce from one festival to another, including headlining shows at Bonnaroo, Reading and Leeds and Outside Lands. They will continue on to host the Gentlemen of the Road Stopover Shows, spanning two-day shows in Walla Walla, Washington, and Seaside Heights, New Jersey.
"Towards the end of the Babel tour, we'd always play new songs during soundchecks, and none of them featured the banjo or a kick-drum," Marcus Mumford said, noted NME. "And demoing with Aaron meant that, when we took a break, we knew it wasn't going to involve acoustic instruments. We didn't say, 'No acoustic instruments.' But I think all of us had this desire to shake it up."
Recorded at Air Studios in London, Wilder Mind was produced by James Ford, who has worked with Arcade Fire, HAIM and Florence + The Machine, reported NME.
The group's third studio album Wilder Mind will be released May 4.
