Marcus Mumford

Mumford & Sons' rise to pop star status was an unlikely success story. Fronted by singer and multi-instrumentalist Marcus Mumford, the London-based band made old-fashioned British folk-rock popular around the world, winning multiple awards along the way and selling millions of records. Their second album, Babel (2012), sold an astonishing 600,000 copies in its first week of release in the US alone.

Despite his extremely English persona, Marcus Mumford was actually born in the Los Angeles suburb of Anaheim, CA, although his family moved back to Britain when he was just six months old. (The singer-songwriter still holds dual British/American citizenship.) As a child, his parents founded Vineyard Churches UK and Ireland, the local branch of a charismatic Evangelical sect that in 1996 became its own self-sustaining church comprised of over 100 different parishes. Although the group is uncomfortable with the "Christian rock" tag, many of Mumford and Sons' lyrics are informed by Mumford's religious upbringing. Mumford met fellow musician Ben Lovett at school; the pair formed the band that would become known as Mumford & Sons in London in 2007 with Winston Marshall and Ted Dwane; all the players were multi-instrumentalists who would swap instruments between songs. Despite his top billing, Mumford insisted he was not the band's driving force. "People assumed that because we're called Mumford & Sons that I'm the leader, but that's not true. We collaborate on everything," Mumford told USA Today on April 21, 2011. Mumford collaborated with fellow singer-songwriter Laura Marling on her debut Alas, I Cannot Swim (2008), playing various instruments on the album and joining her backing band for the tour. (The pair were also romantically linked for several years before splitting in late 2010.) This gave the fledgling singer-songwriter his first real taste of the music industry as well as insight into the recording process. Mumford's experience touring and recording with Marling confirmed his belief that he wanted to fully commit to music. Following extensive touring across the United Kingdom, Mumford and Son released their debut EP Love Your Ground in 2008. The time spent on stage both defined their sound and built a following for their exuberant live shows that mixed bluegrass, country, blues, folk and rock into a fresh approach to roots music. Heading into the studio with producer Markus Dravs, who had previously worked with Björk, Coldplay and Arcade Fire, Mumford and Sons recorded their debut album Sigh No More, released in the U.K. in the fall of 2009 and in the United States in early 2010. The album had received advance buzz in the states as an import, and network TV appearances on both "The Late Show with David Letterman" (CBS 1993-) and "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" (CBS 2005-) in Feb. 2010 helped expand the band's American profile. Lead single "Little Lion Man" began to receive radio airplay in the United States (in an edited form that removes the casual f-bomb from the song's dramatic chorus), and Sigh No More as a whole quickly became the soundtrack of seemingly every coffee house and independent bookstore across America. The album earned the band their first award nominations, winning Best Album of the Year at the BRIT Awards and nominated for both Best New Artist and Best Rock Song at the Grammys. Although they didn't win either award, their highly-praised performance at the ceremony was generally considered the show's highlight and caused their record sales to spike even higher. Increasingly in demand as a live act, the band set out on their most ambitious tour yet in April 2011. Teaming up with similarly-minded indie-folk acts Old Crow Medicine Show and Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, they headed out on the Railroad Revival tour, crossing the States by train and playing joint shows at their stops. This unique trip around America was filmed by documentary filmmaker Emmett Malloy and released as the feature-length "Big Easy Express" (2012) with the tagline "3 bands, 6 cities, 1 train, and thousands of miles of track." Mumford married British starlet Carey Mulligan, best known for her roles in "An Education" (2009) and "Drive" (2011), in April 2012. The couple had been childhood friends, but had fallen out of touch until they were reportedly re-introduced by a mutual friend, actor Jake Gyllenhaal. Despite their profile as a "celebrity couple," Mumford largely refused to discuss their relationship with the press. By this point in their career, Mumford & Sons had built up considerable momentum on both sides of the Atlantic, along with significant followings in New Zealand, Australia and Europe. The band previewed two new songs ("I Will Wait" and "Below My Feet") on the American sketch comedy series "Saturday Night Live" (NBC 1975-) just before the release of 2012's Babel. Sigh No More had been a slow burn success, but Babel was an instant hit. The album topped the charts in Britain, Canada and America, selling over a million copies worldwide in the first week of release. Once again the band won Best British Album at The BRIT Awards; this time, they had more success at the Grammys as they picked up Album of the Year for Babel; the "Big Easy Express" documentary also won Best Long Form Video. With this vast popularity came the usual press backlash. The British music press were particularly openly dismissive of the band; music magazine NME even ran a 2012 feature entitled: "Why Do People Hate Mumford & Sons so Much?" Regardless, the success of their second album secured headline slots at major music festivals in 2013, including Tennessee's Bonnaroo, Chicago's Lollapalooza, and rural England's iconic Glastonbury Festival.