Self-awareness is one of the biggest enemies to creativity.
Ninety percent of the time, I'm sitting in a bus driving through some place like the Colorado mountains and thinking, 'Wow, we're not in a pub in London anymore.'
You can't just repeat. It's valueless. So we - we're really keen to challenge ourselves. I suppose a byproduct of that will be challenging our fans a bit as well.
None of us had really any interest in doing a sort of 'Babel 2.'
In December 2010, we embarked on a slightly strange tour of India. We played every kind of gig you could imagine over two weeks, from sports bars to hotel bars to a beautiful outdoor amphitheatre.
Touring is something I do really well.
Without a drummer, you've got that sort of running, chicken-chasing, rhythmic thing happening with the banjo in the top end - it's what gives our music a lot of its momentum, a lot of its energy.
People don't really need to question our sincerity when it comes to our songs.
Can't cook. Can't, I dunno, do paperwork. I don't know, what else can't we do? I'm not to be trusted with other people's animals.
We were thrilled when we were nominated for best new artist at the Grammys, but we were even more so when they asked us to play live.
As humans, we're such a discontented species. We're always trying to further ourselves, and you get all the way to the moon, and then it's just discontent. You want to go to Mars.
There's definitely a negative correlation between the higher the profile and the enjoyment of the gig.
Our spiritual home is definitely the U.K., but we have such a breadth of influence, and America's a huge part of that, as I think it is for most bands.
Because we are four creative people - four writers - there was no way that we were ever going to be satiated doing the same thing over and again. Change was inevitable for us. And a very natural thing.
It's strange to think about the scathing reviews 'Sigh No More' got and then consider that we could win best album a year or so later.
We were proud of our first two records, but the parameters were pretty narrow. We didn't have full drums, for example. There were just so many limitations to that setup, and we really fully explored them.
We never could have foreseen the success of 'Babel.' It's not like banjo records were soaring up the charts, you know.
When we made the first album, it was meant to be a snapshot of Mumford & Sons in 2009.
Being a bass player in a band without a drummer for seven, eight years has been kind of weird.
We don't sing about eating local produce or growing beards or anything like that. It's funny to find yourself in a position where people associate you with things that are completely arbitrary to your songs.
