Louis Bloom has been sleep-deprived of late, and Mumford & Sons are to blame.
“I have had sleepless nights with how excited I am,” the Island EMI Label Group president has told Music Week, making his enthusiasm for the band he signed during his days in Island’s A&R department in 2009 immediately clear.
We checked in with Bloom to talk about the campaign for the band’s sixth studio album Prizefighter, which was the early frontrunner for the No.1 position in the albums chart, according to Monday’s Official Charts Company Midweek Sales Flash.
The Aaron Dessner-produced record, which features collaborations with Chris Stapleton, Gigi Perez, Hozier and Gracie Abrams, plus co-writes from Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and Finneas, follows last year’s No.1 Rushmere, which Bloom spoke to Music Week about last April.
“The reception to Prizefighter has been brilliant, deservedly so,” he said of its follow-up. “Watching the streams, the reviews… Everything’s been very positive, not just here, but internationally, too. It just feels like there’s an overwhelming amount of love for this band.”
Bloom is working the campaign from his vantage point of Island EMI Label Group president, and he reflected happily on a busy period, which includes the campaign for current Music Week cover stars December 10.
“It’s brilliant for me to be able to run both labels because I have a vision for what they both should be,” he said. “They’re both necessary for UK music and to export UK music around the world. This set-up gives me so much flexibility to do that, and to work with the very best artists in the world, so I feel very fortunate.”
He highlighted Island EMI’s work with EMI North – whose team also star in our new issue.
Mumford & Sons
“We’re spreading our tentacles far and wide, working with amazing partners around the country,” he said. “This is an exciting time for us; there’s no let-up. We’re relentless in our pursuit of working with the best execs, the best artists, the best producers, the best writers and the best visual artists. It’s an exciting time for British music, and we want to be very much part of that.”
Now though, it’s time to pick Bloom’s brain on all things Mumford & Sons, from the ins-and-outs of their latest blockbuster campaign – which includes a headline date at BST Hyde Park this summer – to the executive’s own glorious history with the band.
How has release week been for you so far?
“They’re on fire. I feel very honoured to be involved, and so does the whole team. There’s a group of us who have been with this band from the very start. I signed them back in 2009, and I’ve kind of grown up with them, as has Sam Lunn, who does marketing, Al Smith, who runs commerce and James Lee, who is in commerce, too. Max Lutkin is a little newer, but has still been on board for a while now. So there’s a team around them, and we care about each other deeply. We’re very much emotionally invested in Mumford & Sons. It’s been an amazing journey.”
You signed them when you worked in Island’s A&R department. How important have they been for your career?
“They were massive for me, personally. More than the success, they have taught me a lot. You learn so much from the best artists, and I did with Mumfords. What I learned was the value of heart over head sometimes, and the value of community building. It wasn’t a strategic thing; it is a natural thing for them, wanting to bring people along with them. It was always about community. It was a very spiritual thing watching them at those early shows. Now they’ve influenced a whole generation. So to watch it come full circle, and be part of that, is a beautiful thing.”
It has been a quick turnaround since the release of Rushmere, just shy of a year ago. Was that always the strategy?
“Yeah, that was a plan. The last Dave Cobb-produced album was like a warm hug for their fans; that’s how Ben Lovett described it. It started bringing everyone in. But purposely, we didn’t do any major promo. Instead, we did lots of fan activations to galvanise the core audience. We kept our powder dry for this album, which we always saw as a more sustainable streaming album, more of a crossover. So we have had this in place since 2023 when we started on the Good People collaboration with Pharrell, and it’s working.”
No one ever expected Sigh No More; no one was calling for an act with banjos and Shakespearean lyrics – it was done because it was pure
Louis Bloom, Island EMI Label Group
D2C is obviously important with two releases in quick succession. How much did you rely on data from that to gauge the appetite for two albums?
“There was Aaron Dessner music happening at the same time as Dave Cobb sessions, so we made the plan in the absence of data. We made a gut feel call. But, as Marcus kept saying to me, they were very distinct works. So it was a human decision, not a data decision. But they’ve got an avid fanbase, and sometimes more is more. We’ve seen that very much in hip-hop; now it’s happening in every genre. It’s almost, ‘put the music out there and work the record afterwards.’ Also, you want that spirit of spontaneity. If you sit on something too long, it can become stale. You can see when an act feels excited or not, it has to feel authentic. You learn from previous campaigns. At the very start, it felt like that, but maybe on album three or four, we were sitting on things too long, maybe overthinking collectively. So we’ve gone back to the roots of it all, which is, be disruptive. Don’t over analyse, do it with love. No one ever expected Sigh No More; no one was calling for an act with banjos and Shakespearean lyrics. It was done because it was pure. It came from the band, and that’s the spirit of where they are again, so our release cadence needs to match that.”
With that outlook, presumably, the featured guests on this album came from the band rather than a strategy to target particular markets?
“Mumfords were always part of scenes. Not only did they emerge from the new folk scene in London, and would pop up each other’s nights – remember Marcus was Laura Marling’s drummer – it was all very collaborative. Then they did the Railroad Revival Tour, artists hopping on and off and they went to India to make music. That’s continued. Last year, they went by train from Louisiana to Vermont, picking up the likes of Noah Kahan, Maggie Rogers and Nathaniel Ratcliffe, featuring on each other’s songs. It’s a beautiful, utopian world of love and collaboration. That informed the spirit of this record. Plus, there are relationships that Marcus has built. Hozier happens to be a labelmate, but they have a friendship beyond that. Gracie Abrams went to Mumfords shows as a teenage fan. So these are not call-ins. These are people who respect each other deeply. It was a direct thing from the artist.”
How much did not doing much promo last time help create an anticipation for this record?
“Push and pull is everything. Timing is everything, so it was very deliberate. From the very beginning, we wanted the story to be about this record. They’ve done the work, they’ve done the shows – they did over a million tickets last year – and they’ve reconnected, so now it’s a great time to go on Graham Norton, to do a Tiny Desk Session and SNL. This is a good time to shout loud again. But we don’t live in a top-down world anymore. These things are good, but only when there’s a natural love for the music. It has to follow that. And that’s what we’ve done, and it’s culminated in a feeling that Mumfords are everywhere. People are talking about this band again. Their followers are increasing on every platform, every metric is absolutely flying. They’ve enjoyed an incredible career, but with this album, they’ve re-found a lot of the magic from the start.”
Why do you think Mumford & Sons have remained resilient in a mainstream pop arena?
“I think it’s a combination. They’re brilliant songwriters, and they know how to write a hook, but they’re also poets, so they’re very literate at the same time. So you’ve got these two things: intellect plus a common touch. There’s a joy to what they do. You feel it emanating through the songs, through the music, through the live performance. So all that combined means that they cross over. We all need some hope and positivity without cynicism.”
How has this campaign been shaped by the new set-up at Universal in the UK?
“The central teams are beyond amazing. The AMS [Audience, Media & Strategy] team, run by Becky Allen and Kate Wyn Jones, are new working with the band, but they coalesced around them in a way that makes everyone feel so special. They’ve got so much love and everyone wants to work so hard. AMS have really been in the trenches with digital strategy and international have been incredible too, Nickie Owen and her team. So, looking at all the New Music Fridays and waking up to all the front covers internationally has just been amazing. It always takes an army to make the world aware of these artists; it doesn’t happen by accident. There’s such positivity on our WhatsApps and our Zooms, it’s infectious. The band creates their music and we celebrate it.”
What are your hopes for this album? A big first week followed by a long tail?
“That’s definitely the ambition. These records will stick around. Also, when you put great music out there, you never can account for virality and exactly when it is going to hit. No one can tell you exactly how any campaign is going to exactly roll, but my expectation and my hope is that this album is going to be on a streaming level – not just a physical level – their best and their biggest to date, leading into BRITs and the Grammys next year. Like I’ve said, they’re up there with the very best, and they’re so on it at the moment. Everyone’s got such a good feeling about them, and I would hope that gets recognised.”
Our aim at the label has always been to sign acts who are unexpected. And Mumfords were the unexpected
Louis Bloom, Island EMI Label Group
Are you pleased to still be having awards conversations about a band 17 years after their debut?
“Our aim at the label has always been to sign acts who are unexpected. And Mumfords were the unexpected. No one else wanted to sign them at the time. So it’s always about finding those nuggets that are just so unique and crossing them over into the mainstream. It’s those artists who usually get that recognition; they are the ones who are changing the game and influencing the next generation. We’ve got quite a few at the roster at the moment, across genres. It’s about patience, nurturing them and not giving up. We get a lot of credit, which I’m pleased about, for sticking with Lola Young for so long. So I hope we get seen for developing long-term career artists over 10, 20 years. Mumfords are that, so is Hozier. Ben Howard, Dermot Kennedy, too. History tells us, if you’ve got something great, you stick with it. You don’t give up when it’s quality. That’s very much our values as a label, and I think that long-term approach is going to pay off.”
It looks like a good start to 2026 for you. How is the rest of the year shaping up?
“Very good. I’m very excited about the Nia Archives music we’re hearing. There’s going to be new Lola Young music, I can’t tell you exactly when, but there will be. I’m excited for The Last Dinner Party, there’s some exciting things happening around them that you’ll see. Dermot Kennedy is coming back with new music too, and then we’re developing Flo as a massive priority for EMI. Their new music is outrageous, absolutely incredible. They’re going to really go to another level this year. We’ve the boy band December 10, who are now selling out tickets in seconds. There’s something very real about what’s happening there. We have Led By Her’s new mixtape, which is going to be a critically acclaimed record by the end of the year. U2 have just released their Days of Ash EP and hopefully more music will follow. Sekou has new music coming too that is very strong, and Jacob Alon has won Critics’ Choice at this year’s BRIT Awards, which we are all very proud of. So at Island and EMI we’re trying to lead across genres.”
INTERVIEW: PAUL STOKES
PHOTO: CARSTEN WINDHORTS/GERARD HYNES