Mumford & Sons have collaborated with Pharrell on a new single, “Good People,” which marks the British rock band’s first new music since 2019. The group debuted the uplifting song yesterday during Pharrell’s Louis Vuitton menswear autumn/winter runway show at Paris Fashion Week.
Mumford & Sons — Marcus Mumford, Ben Lovett, and Ted Dwane — recorded the song with Pharrell in New York and Paris. They enlisted Native Vocalists, a six-piece vocal choir from the U.S. and Canada hailing from Native American Tribes within the Northern Great Plains, to feature on the track.
The collaboration emerged after 10 years of friendship between the musicians. Last summer, Mumford & Sons reconnected with Pharrell at his festival, Something in the Water, in Virginia Beach. Pharrell told GQ he was interested in the band’s aesthetic. “I always thought that their sound was an interesting one and the aesthetic was just as interesting,” he said. “And I was very curious as to what it would be like to work with them, there was like a snowball effect of curiosity, and if I could even be of added value.”
Frontman Marcus Mumford added of the gospel influence on the song, “We talked about how change doesn’t come without a revelation first. And we both had experience with that. We’d all had experience with that, and it felt like we were ready to write a song that felt quite connected to how we were feeling and reaching into some soulful level.”
Mumford & Sons’ most recent LP, Delta, arrived in 2018. In 2019, they shared single “Blind Leading the Blind,” which was leftover from the album’s recording sessions. A follow-up has been a long time coming: Mumford, who released his solo debut Self-Titled last year, said in 2022 that he was ready to make a new Mumford & Sons album.
“The next thing really is to get in the room with the boys in the band and start playing each other the songs we’ve written,” Mumford said in an interview. “I’ve got a bunch that are kind of ready to go. And then we’ll make a record, and tour it, and get to do what we love.”
The group is now a trio instead of a quartet following the departure of guitarist and banjo player Winston Marshall. Marshall stepped away from the band in 2021.