NEED TO KNOW
Hot on the heels of 2025’s critically acclaimed Rushmere, Mumford & Sons are tapping into their creative spirit with vigor via yet another album: Prizefighter, which was surprise announced by the band on Wednesday, Oct. 29.
Though the albums may be hitting fans’ ears within only months of each other, the award-winning group’s lead singer Marcus Mumford tells PEOPLE that their forthcoming offering is an encapsulation of “the most prolific period of time we’ve ever had as a band,” largely thanks to their efforts collaborating with Aaron Dessner of The National to bring it to fruition.
“Dessner, he just feels like a real ally,” multi-instrumentalist and founding band member Ted Dwane shares. “We’ve obviously been a fan of The National for a long time, and we met him and worked with him as we were preparing to make our third record, Wilder Mind.”
Mumford & Sons
Dwane touts teaming up with Dessner to be “a really great part of that record-making process,” noting that the lauded musician “felt like such a kindred, safe pair of hands” to work with for their new project.
That effortless ability to songwrite as a unit came as a direct result of the creative synergy between Dessner and Mumford & Sons. “When the flywheel starts turning and there’s creative energy — the machine was warm, the engine was running and there was just a lot of music around. It felt very seamless and the very obvious, very natural thing to do was just to get in and start making a record with him,” Dwane adds.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Taylor Hill/FilmMagic
With days spent ideating at Hudson cafés and nights spent jamming around Dessner’s Long Pond Studio’s kitchen table, Mumford & Sons tapped into the essence of rediscovery while creating Prizefighter. In doing so, they effectively leveraged their trademark emotional openness to craft a record that draws a clear bridge between struggle and success, and what it takes to navigate both ends of the spectrum.
“We wrote more songs in a shorter amount of time than we’ve ever done before,” Mumford notes of their time with Dessner.
Longtime Mumford & Sons fans know that the group, when operating as a whole, has remained largely insular over the years, rarely venturing outside of their ranks for collaborative efforts under their singular moniker. However, the pendulum has shifted for Prizefighter, with the group tapping the likes of Hozier, Chris Stapleton, Gigi Perez, Gracie Abrams and Dessner to take part in its creation.
The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now!
Fellow multi-instrumentalist and band member Ben Lovett says of their openness to work with others on Prizefighter that it “came from a place of security that was formed through the work with Pharrell [on 2024’s “Good People”] and with Dave Cobb on Rushmere.”
“We were in equal measure, striving and also confident in our ability to be able to open the door, allow different people in,” Lovett tells PEOPLE. “Some of them are featured, some of them are not. There are other people you’ll see in the liner notes who make their way into the writing of these songs or into the performance on the songs.” Among those names, the group teased, are the likes of Justin Vernon and Brandi Carlile.
Prizefighter is, at face value, a new album, but to the band members, it represents a conscious shift in perspective about their relationship with fame and creative output.
Kevin Kane/Getty
“It’s like we got to this stage in our careers where we’re comfortable in our skin now, and so we can talk straight,” Mumford says. “And this is the straightest talking record I think we have. And so it’s the closest to the essence of who we are, honestly. And that’s why I love it so much, because it feels like representing that on record can be really hard and really challenging, and you can get most of the way to success. But there’s always edifice, I think, and this one doesn’t feel like it has much of that in it. It’s just f—ing us and our mates, and that’s what our band is.”
Releasing two major, full-length records in one year is a feat many musicians, especially those with a jam-packed work schedule, would be hard-pressed to accomplish. However, to Mumford, the group “felt a bit like athletes” working on Prizefighter. “Like we’re at the top of our game here, let’s f—ing go. That kind of confidence that you see in those Netflix documentaries back in the dressing rooms of f—ing NFL teams when they’re doing well.”
“There’s just a really healthy attitude towards work and we love it. And it’s sort of that simple and it’s reflected,” Dwane echoes of his bandmate’s sentiment.
Ultimately, Mumford admits of Prizefighter as a whole, “I have to say this is my favorite record we’ve ever made.”
