TED DWANE

In December 2010, we embarked on a slightly strange tour of India. We played every kind of gig you could imagine over two weeks, from sports bars to hotel bars to a beautiful outdoor amphitheatre.

I was a bass guitarist first before I started playing double bass - and I only started playing it because my teacher said I'd get twice as much work, as there's not enough players out there.

You can't just repeat. It's valueless. So we - we're really keen to challenge ourselves. I suppose a byproduct of that will be challenging our fans a bit as well.

Sticking to our guns creatively is the only way we'll ever survive as a band and be happy.

We never could have foreseen the success of 'Babel.' It's not like banjo records were soaring up the charts, you know.

There's not a lot to hide behind when you make the sort of music we make.

It's impossible to tell how you're perceived. I think it's important not to think about it too much, because it really means nothing. Some people think we're a rock band, and that's ridiculous, and the idea of us being a folk band - you sit in a pub in Ireland and hear those guys play, and you're like, 'Yeah, we're definitely not a folk band.'

I don't know many artists who've managed to go a career without bringing these things up. Saying the word 'God,' 'Jesus' - it happens in a million rock songs.

A lot of the time, if you go into an arena, they're pretty uninspiring. But we try to create an atmosphere.

We'd never thought we'd get to travel so extensively, meet our heroes, and collaborate with so many people.

If you told me in the '90s that I'd be in a chart battle with Green Day, I probably would have just laughed at you.

I think it's a great story, the story of Babel. I think anyone can direct it as an analogy for a lot of different situations.

We were thrilled when we were nominated for best new artist at the Grammys, but we were even more so when they asked us to play live.

We started off as Marcus Mumford, which is our singer's name. But then it very quickly became apparent it wasn't really a one-man thing: it was indeed a band. We wanted to give the impression of a family business, and we just liked the ring of Mumford & Sons.

As soon as we started playing sports arenas, we thought how great it would be if we could instead play to 25,000 people in our own way - a way we can control it so there's not all kinds of company branding around the show - and do it in a way that celebrates the community.

You can't really opt into something you don't believe in.

We always try to make each record a snapshot of the band at that time.

There's definitely a negative correlation between the higher the profile and the enjoyment of the gig.

I've always thought of faith as an acknowledgment of not being the biggest thing in the universe.

We have this spirit that's just uncrushable.

Self-awareness is one of the biggest enemies to creativity.

We don't want to be as big as Oasis!

We were proud of our first two records, but the parameters were pretty narrow. We didn't have full drums, for example. There were just so many limitations to that setup, and we really fully explored them.

We're obviously a London band, and British at heart.

As humans, we're such a discontented species. We're always trying to further ourselves, and you get all the way to the moon, and then it's just discontent. You want to go to Mars.