Marcus Mumford
Marcus Mumford is the leading singer and drummer for the band Mumford & Sons, which has produced such hit albums as Sigh No More (2009) and Babel (2012).
Synopsis
Born in California in 1987, Marcus Mumford moved to his parents' native England when he was only six months old. He played in a jazz band as a teenager. After spending a year at the University of Edinburgh, Mumford moved to London where he got involved in the music scene there. He formed Mumford & Sons in 2007 with Ben Lovett, Winston Marshall and Ted Dwane. The group released its first album Sigh No More in 2009. In 2012, the band put out its next record Babel, which won the Grammy Award for album of the year.
Early Life
Marcus Oliver Johnstone Mumford was born on January 31, 1987, in Anaheim, California, and found fame and acclaim as the frontman for the folk-influenced rock quartet Mumford & Sons. He moved to England at the age of six months where his parents established a branch of the Vineyard Churches, an evangelical Christian organization.
Mumford was exposed to a broad range of musical influences. One of the first records he listened to was his mother's copy of Bob Dylan's Slow Train Coming (1979). As a teenager, Mumford was also strongly moved by the bluegrass-imbued soundtrack for the film O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000). He also played drums in a jazz group around this time with his future Mumford & Sons band mate Ben Lovett.
Mumford dreamed of following his older brother's footsteps by going to Oxford University. After being rejected by both Oxford and Cambridge University, he ended up at the University of Edinburgh. There, Mumford struggled a bit. As he explained to Rolling Stone magazine, "I had my heart broken. I failed to get into the colleges I'd wanted to, which was what I'd pinned all my hopes to, really. I had no idea what I wanted to do. I'd left home and kind of left behind the values that I grew up with and I didn't really have anything to fall back on."
Mumford & Sons
In 2007, Mumford formed Mumford & Sons with Ben Lovett, Ted Dwane and Winston Marshall. The group soon won over audiences with their interesting fusion of rock, folk and bluegrass styles. After releasing a few EPs, the band released its debut album Sigh No More in 2009. Sigh No More, which featured such tracks as "The Cave" and "Little Lion Man," proved to be a huge success. It eventually sold more than 2.4 million copies in the United States.
Mumford appeared at the Grammy Awards with his band in 2011. The group performed "The Cave" and served as a back-up band for Bob Dylan. The chance to work with Dylan was a dream come true for Mumford. As he explained to Entertainment Weekly, "When our manager said, 'It's Bob Dylan,' I got out of bed and ran outside and jumped around like a madman!"
In 2012, Mumford enjoyed another surge of popularity with his band's next release, Babel. In its first week of release, the album sold more than 600,000 copies. The recording was a critical success as well. The band picked up the Grammy Award for Album of the Year for Babel.
Personal Life
Marcus Mumford married actress Carey Mulligan in 2012. The pair had known each other as children, but they didn't start dating until 2011. The couple tied the knot the following April with a ceremony officiated by Mumford's father and held in the English countryside. Mumford had previously dated English singer Laura Marling.
