Mumford and Sons Excited by Indian Odyssey

Posted on Dec 7th 2009 12:10PM by Stephen Dowling
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With bands having to get out on the road more and more as record sales dwindle, and with live music becoming more and more of a draw around the world, it's rare for a band's tour dates to take on an exotic air. British Sea Power recently played Taipei; Moscow sees the likes of Crowded House and Manic Street Preachers taking to the stage; and U2 are set to play their first Turkish concert next year.

But hotly-tipped British act Mumford and Sons really are doing something different. On the weekend, the band flew out to India to begin a six-date tour of the subcontinent, as well as recording with Indian artists.

The band will be writing an exclusive tour diary for Spinner while on the road, but ahead of that singer Marcus Mumford (pictured) spoke to us -- fresh from a doctor's appointment for his anti-malaria jabs -- about the prospect of a tour really off the beaten track.

How did the tour come about?

We're very lucky. We were at South By Southwest. Laura and Marling and the band have the same manager. We were sitting with Laura after a gig, and this Indian guy came up to us and said 'I have a friend who has a grant from the British Council to do a cultural exchange, and we'd love Laura and Mumford and Sons to do it,' and our manager just said 'Yes, we're doing it.'

So what does the tour have in store?

We'll play some gigs in India with an Indian artist called Papon, and then do six gigs in six different cities, and then do some recording... we're recording with a group of folk musicians from Rajasthan, in Delhi.

Have you been to India before?

It's the first time for all of us. Everyone's whose going. Everyone we work with, our press guy, our manager, our manager's assistant, everyone's gone, 'Yeah, we've really got to come with you to look after you.'

None of us know at all what's going on, none of us know what we're going to be doing or how we're going to be doing it. It's a big old adventure.

We're doing four days recording in Delhi, then we're doing gigs in Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata and Hyderabad. It just sounds ridiculous. Every time I say it out loud it just sounds more ridiculous.

It's a little more exotic than listing Hull, Glasgow, Inverness?

Equally as exciting of course. I love Hull. Hull's a great place. Different I think is the word.

"I have a friend who lives in Mumbai. She was someone I worked with in Hong Kong, and she works in Mumbai in the slums, so we are going to go hang out with her.

You must have to pack a lot of spares with you.

I don't think 9-volt batteries are going to be easy to find. We'll take a bunch of them. I just bought three sets of guitar strings. We're hiring a bass, we're taking minimal instrumentation. Winston's taking his banjo, Laura and I are bringing guitars, and we're hiring pianos and drumkits.

We've been running around the UK, Glasgow and Manchester, and literally talking to you on the phone I realise I'm going to India tomorrow, and I have no idea what I'm going to do.

* Keep checking Spinner for Mumford and Sons' updates from their Indian tour.