Marcus Mumford on Backing Dylan, Naked Songwriting and Why Arcade Fire Rule His World
A week before the Grammys, Mumford & Sons had no idea they'd be sharing a stage with Bob Dylan. "It was surreal," says the folk-rock quartet's singer, Marcus Mumford, 24. "I was staying with my friend in California, and every night, we'd stay up until three listening to Dylan. Then I get a call: 'You're playing the Grammys with Bob Dylan.'" The British crew — whose breakout debut disc, Sigh No More, just went platinum — ended up stealing the show with a passionate rendition of their tune "The Cave," driving their album back up to Number Two. Mumford, taking a cigarette break from a writing session for the band's second album, checks in from London.
Were you excited to back Dylan on "Maggie's Farm"?
The initial idea was that we'd play the Grammys with the Avett Brothers — one of our favorite bands in the world — and "a legend of music." When our manager said, "It's Bob Dylan," I got out of bed and ran outside and jumped around like a madman! You can imagine the reaction of someone who probably wouldn't be playing music at all if it wasn't for Dylan....
The BRIT Awards 2011: The Winners
The Grammys were so great this year, weren't they? So many amazing performances! My favourites were the two Rihanna performances with Drake/Eminem, Skylar Grey & Dr. Dre, the Aretha Franklin tribute, Janelle Monae, B.O.B. & Bruno Mars and I've heard Muse were very good, but I haven't watched their performance yet. What are yours?
For now let's forget about the Grammys and focus on the BRIT awards! They'll be awarded tonight and there'll be some awesome performances by Take That, Plan B, Rihanna,Tinie Tempah, Mumford & Sons, Adele, Cee Lo Green and Arcade Fire.
Edit:
The winners are as following:
British Male Solo Artist:...
Skylar Grey, who is nominated for the Grammy this year in 5 categories, wrote a blog for Grammy.com, in which she describes how it feels to be a first-time Grammy nominee. Fort Minor fans know that Skylar Grey is none other than Holly Brook who was featured on Fort Minor's hit single "Where'd you go" (scroll down to watch a performance of the song). Apparently Holly/Skylar decided to change her name before she started to work on world domination by writing hits like "Love the way you lie" (Eminem & Rihanna) and "I'm coming home" (Diddy Dirty Money).