The Mumford & Sons camp has been quiet since the band went on hiatus last September, but last night, the quartet’s banjo player, Winston Marshall, gave an interview stating that the best-selling folk group was no more. “It’s over,” Marshall told Vulture on Wednesday night (Mar. 26). “We had a good time, though, you know. It was good.” Relax, Mumford fanatics. Marshall was joking. Multiple reps for the band confirm to Billboard that Marshall’s words, which he spouted at a “Mistaken for Strangers” after-party in New York City, were meant in jest. When asked if the group has “killed” the use of the banjo in popular music, Marshall also added, “I think ‘killed’ is an understatement.We murdered it. We let it, yeah — f**k the banjo. I f**king hate the banjo.”
In September 2012, Mumford & Sons’ sophomore album, “Babel,” debuted with a whopping 600,000 copies sold in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan; five months later, the full-length was bestowed the album of the year award at the Grammys. Following a relentless touring schedule and multiple festival dates last year, the folk group announced that there would be no “activities for the foreseeable future” last September. “We just know we’re going to take a considerable amount of time off and just go back to hanging out and having no commitments or pressure or anything like that,” said keyboardist Ben Lovett. “I don’t think we’ve had, actually, much time in the process to be with other people and living a life outside of the band. I think that’s what’s in place at the moment: to do very little, especially when it comes to Mumford & Sons.”
