While the rest of the world will get to rock Mumford & Sons’ fourth album, “Delta,” when it drops on Friday, there is one person who definitely won’t be pressing “play” on the LP: Marcus Mumford, the frontman of the British alt-folk band that turned the banjo into a banging instrument.
“I’ve been completely obsessed by every record we’ve ever made,” Mumford, 31, tells The Post. “But once we’ve made them, I’ve never once gone back and listened through to any of our records. I may accidentally hear them on the radio or in a store or something, but I never really intentionally go back and listen. I think that can be quite a painful process for an artist because you hear all the mistakes — you don’t hear the good stuff.”
Although he will avoid their latest studio recording, Mumford will spend plenty of quality time with the new tunes once he and the rest of his quartet — which is rounded out by Winston Marshall (guitar, banjo), Ben Lovett (keyboards) and Ted Dwane (bass) — kick off the “Delta” tour on Friday in Dublin.
Launching a tour — which hits Madison Square Garden Dec. 10 and 11 — the same day as releasing an album is ambitious stuff, even for a band that won the Album of the Year Grammy for 2012’s “Babel.” “I guess we’re just excited to play these songs live as soon as possible,” says Mumford, who spoke with The Post on the phone from London earlier this week. “We just sort of feel like the live show and the album go hand in hand.”
“Guiding Light,” the first single off “Delta,” is an uplifting anthem that is guaranteed to get fists pumping in the arenas that Mumford & Sons will be headlining. But it took their lead singer a while to see the light about the tune.
“I spent, like, a year not really liking that song,” says Mumford. “I struggled as well with ‘I Will Wait,’ which is our biggest song off ‘Babel.’ I often struggle with them when they feel like they might be big, just because I feel like it has to be perfect, and it never will be obviously.“
With tracks such as the electronic-infused “Guiding Light,” the group stretches out of their folk-rock sweet spot on “Delta,” drawing from some eclectic influences.
“We were listening to everything from LCD Soundsystem to the Kinks to Jay-Z,” says Mumford. “I spent some time in New York with 88-Keys, who chops up beats for guys like Kanye and Jay-Z. And I spent some time with [EDM star] Skrillex in a hotel room in Buenos Aires watching him work. I really just wanted to learn from people.”
Some of “Delta” — including the long-gestating “Forever” — was shaped in New York, where Marshall is based and Lovett lived for five years before moving back to London. “We spent probably a third of the record-making process at Electric Lady Studios in the Village,” says Mumford, who calls New York “a second home” for his band. “We’ve spent a lot of creative time in New York. We find it a very exhilarating city to create in.”
While on the road for the tour, Mumford will be missing his two young kids — daughter Evelyn, 3, and son Wilfred, 1 — that he shares with Oscar-nominated actress Carey Mulligan, 33, his wife of six years. So, have they inherited any of their parents’ artistic genes? “Not yet,” he says with a chuckle. “The finger-painting quality is really low.”
As for whether he and Mulligan consult on each other’s work, Mumford says, “I’m sure it’s like any marriage, where you always want your husband or your wife to encourage you and to love what you do.”
But while the couple will have some “artistic conversations,” Mumford doesn’t preview any music-in-progress at home: “I keep it in the studio pretty much. I’m scared that my daughter will hate it, that’s why.”