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"\r\nMumford &amp;amp; Sons have been nominated for several Grammy Awards, including Record of the Year&amp;#xA0;and Song of the Year (both for &amp;quot;The Cave&amp;quot;), and they&amp;apos;re currently touring the West Coast as part of the radio station holiday show circuit. But the band tells Rolling Stone they&amp;apos;re focusing primarily on finishing the follow-up to 2010&amp;apos;s Sigh No More.\r\n&amp;quot;We&amp;#x2019;re trying to stay as not stress-y and hectic as we can to write the best record we can,&amp;quot; keyboardist Ben Lovett says.\r\nThe record is nearly done, according to bassist Ted Dwane. &amp;quot;[It&amp;apos;s] certainly more mature, I&amp;#x2019;d say,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;The second record is just a reflection of our mindsets, where we&amp;#x2019;re all at. It&amp;#x2019;s doom folk, kind of like Black Sabbath meets Nick Drake.&amp;quot;\r\nLovett adds, &amp;quot;It&amp;#x2019;s not like we are just listening to one style from one era. It&amp;#x2019;s finding the songs that really speak to us and then we discuss them, we share those songs around.&amp;quot;\r\nAmong the artists that have spoke to them lately is&amp;#xA0;fellow Brit and Grammy nominee Adele. &amp;quot;There&amp;#x2019;s a reason why it&amp;#x2019;s done what it&amp;#x2019;s done that goes beyond what any marketing campaign can ever do,&amp;quot; Lovett says. &amp;quot;It&amp;#x2019;s not money &amp;#x2013; there&amp;#x2019;s brilliance there in writing a simple song. And it&amp;#x2019;s great to have that kind of appeal to people again. It&amp;#x2019;s not so much about the bells and whistles, it&amp;#x2019;s about the lyric and the melody.&amp;quot;\r\nDwane points out that the band have always taken a more emotional, as opposed to cerebral, approach to songwriting. &amp;quot;It should come from emotions in your heart, not so much your head,&amp;quot; he says.\r\nThe quartet have spent a lot of time this year crafting the next record, which is still unnamed and does not yet have a release date. &amp;quot;We spent a week in Nashville just writing, the four of us, kind of getting together any individual song ideas we had and playing them out. And then we did the same a few weeks ago down in the west country in the U.K.,&amp;quot; Lovett says. &amp;quot;Even though we&amp;#x2019;re right in the heart of it, even in the studio sometimes doesn&amp;#x2019;t feel as free as it is just playing together. It&amp;#x2019;s brilliant.&amp;quot;\r\nThe band&amp;apos;s critical and commercial success has certainly influenced the second album, however. &amp;quot;It&amp;#x2019;s been really affirming because we started out with very humble aspirations. We never thought we&amp;#x2019;d be commercially viable and we were proved wrong,&amp;quot; Dwane says. &amp;quot;It&amp;#x2019;s been a really great couple of years for the band and I suppose it has instilled us with confidence.&amp;quot;\r\nRelated&amp;#x2022; Exclusive Photos: Mumford &amp;amp; Sons Take America&amp;#x2022; Marcus Mumford on Backing Dylan, Naked Songwriting and Why Arcade Fire Rule His World&amp;#x2022; Exclusive Video: Mumford &amp;amp; Sons Live at Rolling Stone"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/mumford-sons-second-album-is-black-sabbath-meets-nick-drake-20111213?cnn=yes>