The Bizarre Story Behind Mumford & Sons and Hozier's New Collaboration, ‘Rubber Band Man’

After teasing a long-awaited collaboration, Mumford & Sons and Hozier finally graced our playlists with ‘Rubber Band Man’ on Friday (October 24th). It's a haunting, harmony-laced anthem that we'll be jamming to for the foreseeable future - but as Marcus Mumford explains, the star-studded offering has a bizarre origin story.

While chatting to Track Star ahead of their acoustic performance of the track at New York's Electric Lady Studios, Marcus reveals how ‘Rubber Band Man’ arose after his good friend messaged him about a strange dream she'd had involving him. For the average Joe, such an occurrence would be relatively unremarkable.

But for a man as well-connected as Marcus, it perhaps shouldn't come as a surprise that this friend happened to be none other than 11-time GRAMMY winner, Brandi Carlile.

“I was in Paris, and Brandi Carlile texted me”, Marcus recalls, “She'd had a dream about me, and had these lyrics. She'd, like, written a poem. I think, kind of in her sleep”.

The ‘Little Lion Man’ hitmaker goes on to share how these unfinished, midnight scribblings ended up being the kernel of their new song, “And it included some of the verse lyrics for ’Rubber Band Man’. And I was like, ‘Can I make these into a song?’ She was like, ‘Yeah, that's what they're for!’ I know Brandi very well, she knows me very well at this point, and I think she just knew the kind of story I would like to tell”.

While neither Marcus nor Hozier have delved into the exact meaning of ‘Rubber Band Man’ yet, judging by the rich, visceral lyrics, it seems the song follows a protagonist who is pleading with a male partner to return into their arms, after growing distant.

It seemingly pivots around the psychological concept of the ‘rubber band man’, which uses the metaphor of a rubber band to convey how some men pull away when they start to feel close to their partner, before snapping back - like a rubber-band - and longing for that intimacy again once again, with this cycle then continuing.

It's safe to say we've been longing for this titanic collaboration for a minute, with Mumford & Sons and Hozier have established themselves as two of the most influential figures of the past ten years in the contemporary folk space. They've performed together before, but they've never joined forces in the studio before this - and given how powerful ‘Rubber Band Man’ is, we hope this isn't the last time...

Explore the full Lyrics & Meaning behind ‘Rubber Band Man’ here.

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