Hey guys, Willie Geist here with another episode of the Sunday Sit Down podcast. My thanks as always for clicking and listening along. Got a great one for you this week with one of the biggest bands in the world, Mumford and Sons. Their latest album is called Prize Fighter. It's already gone to number

one across the world. Crack the top 10 on the U.S. Billboard 200 as well. Doing big business,

a really cool album with lots of great collaborations, including with hosier, with Gracie Abrams,

and with Chris Stapleton. It's a great album, and it's their second album in less than a year.

It came out 11 months after their previous album of 2025 called Rushmere. I'll let the guys tell

you the story, but basically what happened was they were recording at Electric Lady Studios,

the famed studio, started by Jimmy Hendricks in New York City. And they just got inspired to keep going.

And there were other artists around there, including a guy you'll hear about in the interview named

Aaron Dessor. He is from the band The National, but also just one of the great producers in all

of music has worked with Taylor Swift and Ed Shearin. The list goes on and on. And they just kind

of got cooking with him and got to

work on another album that became prize fighter. So the guys and I, it's the three guys, just I'll give

you a visual. We're inside a place called the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn. It's a small

venue where Mumford and Sons used to play way back in the day before they were the Mumford and Sons that we know now, before they broke out with their debut 2009 album nominated for a couple of Grammys, had that crazy performance on the Grammys in 2011, performed with Bob Dylan that night and everything changed after that.

But before that, they were playing at Music Hall of Williamsburg, and they just love it. It feels like home to them. Very small venue where they had just the night before we talked played a pop-up gig. They posted on social media a couple hours, said, hey, 8 o'clock tonight, we're going to be at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. Come if you can. Of course, the place sold out.

And they played an unplug gig. They had no amplification, nothing. They just got on the stage and started playing. So we are inside that venue. Sitting left to right is Ted Dwayne on the left. He is the stand-up bass player with a deep voice. In the middle, the lead singer, founder of the band, Marcus Mumford. and then on the right is Ben Lovett,

who's an incredibly talented keyboard player and vocalist among many other things. So that's

your crew left to right. Try to use their name so you can keep track of who's talking as we go.

I think you'll find the story of their journey to this album and their journey together. Fascinating. So I will get

out of the way and I will let you listen now to Mumford and Sons from the music hall of Williamsburg

in Brooklyn here on the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Thanks for doing this, boys. Good to see you again. Thank you. How's everybody been? We're feeling good?

Very well. Very well. Having a lovely time in you. Especially last night, because you were in this room in New York. I think with two hours notice, you posted on Instagram and the place filled up by 8 o'clock.

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