{"id":305208,"date":"2026-02-23T01:31:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T01:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/305208\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T01:31:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T01:31:13","slug":"mumford-sons-thrilled-their-songs-feature-in-anti-ice-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/305208\/","title":{"rendered":"Mumford & Sons ‘thrilled’ their songs feature in anti-ICE protests"},"content":{"rendered":"

The White House\u2019s archives contain a picture of Barack Obama, George Clooney<\/a> and David Cameron looking on rapt as the band perform at a state dinner.<\/p>\n

When they broke through in 2009 with debut album Sigh No More, their folk-pop was the stomp-clapping, waistcoat-wearing embodiment of that era. Liam Gallagher<\/a> said they looked like \u201cfucking Amish people\u201d. And, I tell them, it was songs like The Cave which I remember trying and failing to learn on the guitar in year nine.<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe good thing about that song is you only need one finger and you can do the whole thing,\u201d Mumford says. Which makes me feel bad. \u201cIf I had known that\u2026\u201d I say. \u201cIn an open tuning,\u201d he clarifies, absolving me. I feel better.<\/p>\n

They are here ahead of the release of Prizefighter, their second album in the space of two years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that we\u2019ve made the best record we\u2019ve ever made,\u201d Mumford says. \u201cI feel as evangelistic about our band as I did right at the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"\"Emeli Sande, Marcus Mumford and Rita Ora performing at half time during Game4Grenfell,
2 September, 2017. Image: Matt Crossick \/ Alamy<\/p>\n

Alongside Marcus Mumford the singer, friend of celebrities, husband of Carey Mulligan, is Marcus Mumford the activist. In the aftermath of the Grenfell fire<\/a>, he set up the Grenfell Foundation charity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been really hesitant to speak on anyone\u2019s behalf, because I think that\u2019s been part of the problem historically with Grenfell. We basically went around saying \u2018how can we be helpful\u2019, not inserting yourself into it, which can be the temptation with this,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think that community was failed by both the market and the state. On a seismic level. And I also got to witness the power of community when it was organised, and I\u2019ve never experienced such resilience and courage to speak truth to power than among those guys. What we got to see up close was a total privilege. And they\u2019re still doing it. And they\u2019re just amazing people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Get the latest news and insight into how the Big Issue magazine is made by signing up for the Inside Big Issue newsletter<\/a><\/p>\n

Demolition work has begun on the tower, but almost a decade on from the disaster, there have been no prosecutions. \u201cI think it\u2019s a shame on our system. I think it\u2019s all taking too long,\u201d Mumford says. \u201cOf course, you look at other examples like Hillsborough<\/a>. Justice for Hillsborough is ongoing, it\u2019s really scary. The Grenfell community have always seen this as a very long game, and they\u2019ve been incredibly patient, but they are continually let down.\u201d<\/p>\n

One track on the new record had an unusual genesis. \u201cAlley Cat, I wrote in a prison actually. I go into prison and do poetry workshops and that came out of one of those sessions with the lads. Which I felt slightly conflicted about to start with,\u201d Mumford says. <\/p>\n

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\"\"Protests in Minneapolis<\/p>\n

So\u2026 is it his San Quentin? He laughs. \u201cNo, Alley Cat is just fucking around.\u201d The singer seems shy when talking about prison volunteering, which he got into after Covid, motivated by \u201cmy love of local communities. I like being present in the place where you live.\u201d<\/p>\n

He adds: \u201cIf all of us were defined by the worst thing we ever did, we\u2019d all be fucked. I believe in grace, I believe in mercy, I believe in responsibility, choices, consequences, of course. I\u2019m not a libertarian of that kind. But at the same time I just don\u2019t think we have enough grace for each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two days before I meet Mumford and Dwane, a man named Alex Pretti is shot dead in Minneapolis by US immigration agents. <\/p>\n

Video footage of the killing has been everywhere, coming weeks after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer killed Ren\u00e9e Good \u2013 also in Minneapolis, also on camera. <\/p>\n

These events have been dominating Mumford\u2019s head for a mix of reasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of our songs, White Blank Page, has been used a bit by some anti-ICE protest videos, which I\u2019m thrilled about,\u201d he says. \u201cI cried watching the news yesterday after what looked like the execution of Alex Pretti. As a band that\u2019s spent a lot of time in America, we\u2019re really concerned about what we see.\u201d <\/p>\n

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He adds: \u201cI think it\u2019s an absolute disgrace what ICE is doing in the States and not reflective of what we know to be the values of most Americans we\u2019ve ever come across. And we\u2019ve travelled America more than most of my American friends ever have. We just see the value of the humans that we meet there, across the board.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you want to gauge where the country\u2019s culture has shifted in the past 15 years, consider two adaptations of Wuthering Heights. Back then, it was Kaya Scodelario (Effy from Skins<\/a> to you and me) as Cathy and, as the end credits rolled, a track by Mumford & Sons played. The band had come up in a folky explosion alongside acts like Laura Marling and Noah and the Whale. It was Holly, a song by Jay Jay Pistolet (Justin Young, later lead singer of the Vaccines), which led Dwane to the big city.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what made me want to move to London,\u201d says Dwane. \u201cI remember sitting in a little parish church in my parents\u2019 village trying to learn that. Just thinking, I\u2019ve got to get to London. I\u2019ve got to try and hang out with these dudes,\u201d he says. Mumford chips in: \u201cI wrote him fan mail because of that song.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dwane says: \u201cIt\u2019s been nice to have been born of something that\u2019s so of a place and a time. Having a community around your music is a really helpful thing, especially in the days before algorithmic music discovery. People would find us because of the people around us\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"Mumford with wife Carey Mulligan at the Oscars, 2024. Image: Jay L. Clendenin \/ Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Fast forward to 2026, and Wuthering Heights is back in cinemas. The landscape has moved. Margot Robbie is Cathy<\/a> and Charli XCX is doing the entire soundtrack. Mumford & Sons are no longer the upstarts \u2014 instead, they\u2019re in with director Emerald Fennell<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cCreatively, she\u2019s one of my heroes, she\u2019s a genius,\u201d Mumford says of Fennell, whose collaboration with his wife Mulligan for 2020\u2019s Promising Young Woman bagged them both Oscar nominations. \u201cShe\u2019s become one of my wife\u2019s best friends. She\u2019s absolutely hilarious and has this incredible attitude towards making things that I really admire. <\/p>\n

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\u201cYou gravitate towards other creative people, especially in this new era of not being in denial about being an artist. You hang out with people who might be in different jobs, but artistically I\u2019m now fascinated by all sorts of creative people, and she\u2019s one of the ones that I\u2019m fascinated to see what she puts out into the world. She\u2019s a visionary.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Aged 38 and 41 when we speak, Mumford and Dwane are whippersnappers in a landscape where acts still play arena shows into their 80s. When I call them young, though, Mumford comes back to a point: \u201cYou were in year nine when The Cave came out?\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of any longevity as a band is learning to treat it more like a job. Mumford has been sober for almost seven years. \u201cIt\u2019s been great. I love it. But I was a fucking legend, sometimes,\u201d he says. Dwane adds that live shows have calmed down: \u201cWe used to get through an astonishing amount of booze before, during, and after a gig. <\/p>\n

\u201cNow, there\u2019s a renewed sense of gratitude and professionalism\u2026 when that many people have paid to come and see you, they just want you to sing in tune and try and get the notes right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Almost five years after banjo player Winston Marshall left the band amid controversy over tweets, reviewers still say they\u2019re missing his energy. \u201cI think it\u2019s better that people are where they want to be, right. There\u2019s no way that Win could still be here. It wouldn\u2019t have been right for him or for us,\u201d says Dwane. <\/p>\n

\u201cCreatively it\u2019s impossible to know if it would have been easier or harder with Win in the room. Because, essentially, we\u2019re just on our path trying to do everything right, and this has been a really great record-making experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Mumford<\/p>\n

The band will play Hyde Park on 4 July \u2013 a live experience in which the area closest to the stage is reserved for punters willing to pay \u2018golden circle\u2019 prices. Mumford says Hyde Park is making \u201ca good swing\u201d for the top tier of British venues. Dwane chips in: \u201cWe do have a slight aversion to golden circle, because we feel it on stage. It\u2019s never quite right. I\u2019m sure management are trying to massage that into\u2026 a bronze circle, maybe.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now they\u2019re in that mid-career maturity, there are many reasons to go to a Mumfords gig. \u201cSome people come to a Mumford & Sons gig and think it\u2019s going to be tops off, pints thrown, like some sort of Pogues gig from the late \u201980s, says Dwane. \u201cAnd some people come and their favourite songs are the more quiet, intimate moments. And they come for almost a meditative, acoustic experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then I ask what the drug of choice for their fans is. Dwane says: \u201cA nice warm ale, isn\u2019t it?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, because that\u2019s very laddish,\u201d Mumford says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s true, actually. It\u2019s a white wine spritzer,\u201d Dwane says, to a cackle from Mumford. \u201cI think it\u2019s like warm Sauvignon\u2026 no I\u2019m joking\u2026 on a train with a screw top. No I don\u2019t know what it is,\u201d Mumford says.<\/p>\n

Fuelled by sparkling water, the booze conversation turns to snakebite. \u201cA couple of those and you can automatically play The Cave,\u201d Dwane says.<\/p>\n

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Mumford adds: \u201cYes, that\u2019s it, that\u2019s what you were missing. Drink two of those.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prizefighter is out now on Island Records. Mumford & Sons<\/a> play British Summer Time at London\u2019s Hyde Park on 4 July. <\/p>\n

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this?\u00a0Get in touch and tell us more<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Reader-funded since 1991 \u2013 Big Issue brings you trustworthy journalism that drives real change.<\/p>\n

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