Mumford & Sons paid producer of debut album “on credit”: “No one would sign us”

nme.com:

Mumford & Sons revealed that they paid the producer of their debut album “on credit” because no one at the time wanted to sign them.The folk-rock band’s Marcus Mumford and Ben Lovett appeared as guests on The Chris Moyles Show on Radio X and opened up about the creation of their 2009 debut album ‘Sigh No More’ and how they were about to get it produced.Released on October 2 2009, ‘Sigh No More’ entered the UK Albums Chart at Number 11 and peaked at Number Two on February 2011.

In 2010, the LP was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize. It also won the award for Best British Album at the BRIT Awards in 2011. ‘Sigh No More’ also became the third most digitally downloaded album of 2011, selling 761,000 copies in the United States.The album was produced by Markus Dravs, who had previously worked with the likes of Coldplay, Arcade Fire, Florence + The Machine, Wolf Alice and more.

Dravs went on to produce the band’s second album, 2012’s ‘Babel’ which landed the Number One spot in the UK Charts and the Billboard 100 in the US.Speaking to Chris Moyles, the band opened up about that unexpected success the album received, with Moyles adding: “No one, I don’t think, including yourselves, thought the success that you had from that would ever be even possible in a dream.”Marcus responded, saying: “I think Markus Dravs did, actually.