British folk rock band Mumford & Sons will trade its signature folk sound for a more electronic one in its upcoming third album Wilder Mind.
While detailing the record in an interview with Rolling Stone, frontman Marcus Mumford said the band "felt that doing the same thing, or the same instrumentation again, just wasn't for us."
"We've got a broader taste in music than just that," added bassist Ted Dwane, "None of us had really any interest in doing a sort of Babel 2. It was always going to be different."
The band, comprised of Mumford, Dwane, Ben Lovett and Winston Marshall achieve critical acclaim with their second pop-folk album Babel, which earned a Grammy for Album of The Year in 2013. The new record, however, will feature less banjo, acoustic strumming and stomping kick drum, and more synthesizers.
"Anyone was able to pick up a synth, or a drum machine, or electric guitar and just create," Mumford said of the recording sessions. "With this album, there was nothing off the table."
Regarding the band's new sound, Mumford says the new album offers "more space" than the band's last ones.
"I think all our favorite bands have albums that are really urgent. But they have so much space in them," he explained. "You listen to an Old Crow album and there's not a huge amount of space there. But you listen to a Led Zeppelin album and you actually hear the space."
The band will promote Wilder Mind with a summer tour that will kick off in Seaside Heights, New Jersey on June 5 and wrap up in The U.K.'s Leeds Festival on Aug. 30. The new album will be released on May 4.