Mumford & Sons are back with new music after a nearly five-year dry spell. The group opened up about partnering with Pharrell on their new single “Good People.”
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Pharrell not only produced the song but also sang backing for the band as well. According to the group, the song was almost a decade in the making. Marcus Mumford connected with Pharrell around 10 years ago, becoming friends with the artist, according to NME.
The two talked about collaborating for a long time, but life seemed to always get in the way. Both wanted to hit the studio to see what kinds of music they could put together.
“There was a mutual kind of respect and admiration straight away,” Mumford said. “And we’ve always talked about making music together. We’ve always talked about just getting in the studio and seeing what happened.”
That didn’t become a reality until recently. Mumford & Sons played at Pharrell’s festival Something in the Water in Virginia Beach in 2023. Reconnecting again, the musicians finally decided to put something on the books.
“I said to him, man, we’ve got to do that thing we’ve always talked about doing and get in the studio together,” Mumford said. “He was like, ‘I’m waiting on you’. And we were like, ‘You’ve seemed a little bit busy mate’. And he made the time, we got together in New York, we started messing around with some ideas.”
Mumford & Sons on ‘Good People’
“Good People” developed quickly out of that recording session. Mumford said, it “felt like the kind of record we need.” His bandmate Ben Lovett was also excited to be recording again, saying, “Just feels so great to be sharing new music again after all these years.”
As for the drought in new content, Mumford said that the band was happy to wait. They never had a sense of urgency in hitting the recording booth again. However, they wanted to strike when the creative irons were at their hottest.
Mumford said, “I think we always felt like we knew we were going to release some more music, but we wanted to wait for the right music. We’ve never been in haste, I don’t think. But when this music came around, we had a sense of urgency and I mean, it was only a few weeks ago that we made it, we wrote it, let alone recorded it.”
[Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)]
