Mumford & Sons plan new sound

London - Mumford & Sons are ready to change their sound on their next album.

The band - Marcus Mumford, Ben Lovett, 'Country' Winston Marshall and Ted Dwane - have already started writing songs for their third record and have hinted they are ready to overhaul the folk style that has made them so popular on their first two LPs Sigh No More and Babel.

Keyboard player Ben, 26, said: "It's dangerous for us to talk about what we've been discussing for the third album, but we do have greater ambitions not to just stay within certain sonic confines. We're not going to be the band that stands for folk music or organic music."

'Do whatever feels soulful'

It's a view shared by the group's frontman Marcus - who married actress Carey Mulligan in April - who insists they don't want to keep making the same type of album throughout their career.

The 25-year-old musician added to Style magazine: "We've always done what feels good, rather than what we've thought long and hard about, and we'll do whatever feels soulful next, whether that's with an electric guitar or a synthesizer."

The four-piece also insist they have used their music to rebel against their own cultural backgrounds.

The Little Lion Man hitmakers were educated at some of London's best schools and all have wealthy families - Winston's father Paul Marshall co-founded the London-based hedge fund group Marshall Wace in 1997 - and Ben admits forming the band was their way of not conforming to expectations.

He said: "Music is a way of rebelling against our backgrounds ... Because at the time we were all being encouraged, which is a nice way of putting it, to go and do what middle-class white kids from public schools are meant to do, and that's go to university and then do something in finance."