Mumford & Son’s South African Sojourn Documenting an intercontinental creative process
Written by Whitney Marin
The British indie-rock band Mumford and Sons rose to popularity in the U.K. and in the U.S. with their debut album Sigh No More in 2009. Since then, the band has released two more studio albums and has gone on to win a Grammy for Album of the Year, a Brit Award and several Billboard Music Awards.
As their music has grown, it has also evolved, with the group going on tour and connecting with new cultures and places. In 2010 the band collaborated with local artists in India and released the Mumford & Sons, Laura Marling & Dharohar Project EP.
DOC NYC hosted the world premiere of director Sam Wrench’s documentary, We Wrote This Yesterday on Sunday November 13th at SVA Theater. The films pays homage to the creative process, documenting the collaborative work behind the band’s latest 5-track EP, Johannesburg, which was written and recorded in two days during the band’s 2016 South African tour.
The film chronicles all aspects of creating the EP while the artists performed for packed crowds and explored South African culture. On screen, it’s easy to see the birth of new friendships and connections forged through a common desire to make great music. The band worked with an eclectic crew of new collaborators from Sweden, Malawi, Senegal and Cape Town, all with unique sounds to bring to the table.
“We were absolutely excited every moment of the trip and we love touring so much. We love going to countries we don’t know. So there was a lot of excitement to capture,” said band member Winston Marshall during the Q&A following the screening.
Wrench is a London-based director that was worked on commercials, music videos, and documentaries. On his process for acquiring those genuine moments of artistry, Wrench said his main focus was to stay out of the band’s way and to not interrupt their process. “The idea was to have a couple of cameras in each room with those cameras pushed back as far as possible and just hit record and let it play out,” said Wrench. “Which was a really great idea until we got to the edit.”
The director’s philosophy was essentially, “you don’t know what the important bits are going to be until they’re the important bits.”
Whitney Marin is a freelance writer, associate producer at Tru Films, video encoder at WNET, and documentary film enthusiast. She is a contributor to the DOC NYC blog. In her spare time you can catch her writing a limited web series.
