Former Mumford & Sons member Winston Marshall criticises music industry’s “self-censorship”

Former Mumford & Sons member Winston Marshall has criticised the music industry and said there’s “a lot of self-censorship going on”.

Marshall helped form the folk rock band in 2007 but faced an online backlash in March 2021 after tweeting praise for a book by the controversial US journalist Andy Ngo, titled Unmasked: Inside Antifa’s Radical Plan To Destroy Democracy.

In a since-deleted tweet, Marshall said that the book was “important” and hailed Ngo as a “brave man”. After taking an initial break from the group following the backlash, Marshall officially left Mumford & Sons in June 2021.

Upon leaving the band, Marshall said that he “got his soul back”. “I felt I could sleep again, it’s amazing the effect that had on me. It has been completely liberating. I feel like it was the right decision,” he told The Times earlier this year.

“Obviously artists have a right to boycott,” he continued. “The difference now is that it’s ‘silence him or I’m out’. This feels so bizarre and I don’t think it ends well. Musicians’ careers are all about self-expression, so how can they think that’s going to work if they’re not up for people expressing themselves?”

Now, he has made similar comments in a new interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

Marshall said: “The music industry is a small industry, and it’s not entirely clear to me whether there is a chokehold by progressives on the industry or whether there is a minority of progressives that have a chokehold on the majority.

“But there’s certainly a lot of self-censorship going on. People who are too scared to say the truth and I think that’s because there is a professional and social repercussions if you do speak the truth and that’s a serious issue.

“When it comes to the business side, some of them are scared to say the truth and others believe, many are progressive as well who believe that, so there’s a real split there. When I say believe, they believe in those progressive ideas and those ideologies and they’re part of the echo chamber. There’s a mixture.”

Meanwhile, Marcus Mumford recently said that he “actually really begged” Marshall not to leave the band.

“I think you can disagree and work together,” Mumford said. “I just don’t think it’s the job of musicians to have all those thoughts. And I think Win probably agrees. I don’t know. But I should think he probably agrees. Which is part of the reason why he wanted to quit. Because he felt like his priorities couldn’t align in the way he wanted to speak about things and live life.

“He wanted to do a different thing. And that’s why I support him doing a different thing. Even though we disagree on a lot. A lot. And more now.”

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