Mumford & Sons announce break from music following end of Babel tour

Keyboardist Ben Lovett has said there won't be any Mumford & Sons activities for the foreseeable future

Mumford & Sons perform at Glastonbury 2013

(AFP)

Mumford & Sons have announced they will be taking a "considerable amount of time off" from making music following the end of their Babel world tour.

Keyboardist Ben Lovett said: "There won’t be any Mumford & Sons activities for the foreseeable future."

He said he did not know how much time the band would be taking off, but told Rolling Stone magazine: "We just know we're going to take a considerable amount of time off and just go back to hanging out and having no commitments or pressure or anything like that.

"It feels like the last week of school right now, before school holiday when you're in high school. The atmosphere on the road is one of… I think everyone's excited about being free of schedules."

The band has been on tour since April following the success of their second album Babel, which debuted at number one on the UK Official Albums Chart and also hit the top spot on the US Billboard 200.

In June, the band cancelled three gigs while bassist Ted Dwane underwent emergency surgery for a blood clot, but he recovered in time to headline Glastonbury.

The break will be the band's first time away from the limelight since their 2009 debut album Sigh No More.

Lovett said: "We're just going to rest up. I don’t think we've had actually much time in the process to be with other people and living a life outside of the band. I think that’s what's in place at the moment, to do very little - especially when it comes to Mumford & Sons."