Marcus Mumford joins Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1 to discuss his new song “Better Off High” from his forthcoming solo album ‘(self-titled)’ due out next month. He tells Apple Music about the origin of the project, working with Blake Mills during the pandemic, needed to reconnect with his songwriting muscles, and that it’s a record about freedom and healing.

Marcus Mumford Tells Apple Music About HIs Forthcoming Solo Album is About Freedom and Healing...

I think it was important to start at the beginning of the story of making this record for me. The first song I wrote was a song called ‘Cannibal’, and that felt like the first song that had to go on the track listing, first song to come out as well. Then it was followed closely by ‘Grace’, which is the answer to it in my view, and songwriting wise, it was the second song I wrote for the record. Pretty much going in chronological order. What people hadn't heard yet is where it gets to, which really it's a record about freedom and it's a record about healing. I think, certainly in my story, it's important to face up to some of the gnarlier stuff first in order to get to that place of freedom and healing. In the way we've rolled out this record, it starts with some of the hardest stuff. If people can get through that, it's worth the wait, I think, because we do get to a place where it is fun.

Marcus Mumford Tells Apple Music About The Origin of His Solo Album and Working with Blake Mills…

I started in January, was it January '21, with this task ahead of me. I didn't know at that point whether it was going to be for the band or for someone else or for me. I just said, "I need to reconnect with my songwriting muscles. They've gone into atrophy during COVID." I did a bit of scoring work and I did a bit of songwriting, but not enough that my... The songwriting muscles weren't being exercised. I just went away. Said to the lads in the band, "Look, I'm going to go away and write. I don't know what it's for, but I'm just going to follow the creative. I'm going to set myself the task of writing as honestly as I can.” It was at home in Devon, in England, in my little studio to start with. Then, because I have a US passport, as long as I did the quarantining the right way, I was able to come to LA. Once I'd started writing, I connected with Blake Mills, who I'd written a song with six years previously, and we'd taught together and I'd been a huge fan of his work for a long time, both his writing and his playing and his production. I took him ‘Cannibal’ in its infancy as a song and said, "Do you want to work on this with me? I don't know what it's for at the moment. It's not for any particular record. I just want to flesh it out." We did that, came together quite quick. Then we moved straight on to ‘Grace’. And that was the second song. ‘Better Off High’ was the third. We just kept rolling and even up until like November '21, I was refusing to refer to it as a record.