“The secret of longevity for us, is we get to make our records and nobody else hears it until it's done. And that’s it”. Soon, all artists will want a career just like The Lumineers. Wesley and Jeremiah divulge their manifesto…

SEASON 11, EP 1: THE LUMINEERS BUCK ALL THE TRENDS ON HOW TO SUCCEED, AND SUCCEED BIG

How do you still get big in the music business? As in, becoming a big band, with a big following, shed loads of streams and playing large venues - arenas perhaps, even stadiums. A career, with fans, money and fame. How do you do that?

By following the advice of your record label? By writing songs with no intros but hitting the chorus within 30 seconds, so it blows on Spotify? By putting yourself squarely into a genre? By working with a big, successful producer…by releasing clips onto TikTok and becoming an influencer on Instagram…by collaborating with popular songwriters. By playing the game. By becoming what Wesley Schultz, singer and guitarist of The Lumineers calls a “phenom” (you can guess what that’s short for). 

So let’s take The Lumineers as an example. The band first blew up with a ragtag debut album that was a mess of genres. They had success with a simple guitar based folk song called Ho Hey and their live shows went down a storm. But in Wesley’s words, The Lumineers at that time were: “compassless, there was no rudder to it. We were middle school, wearing sweater-vests. But we weren’t stuck either”. 

They submitted a follow-up album, Cleopatra, to their label without anyone hearing it. And the lead single was a simple ballad with no guitar. Instead, its centre was Jeremiah Fraites’ deeply uncool, twinkly piano motif. But that lead single went huge. Cleopatra was produced with Simon Felice, highly respected but way off the ‘hitmakers radar’. The only songwriters were Scultz and Fraites. 

“The secret of longevity for us, is we get to make our records and nobody else hears it until it's done. And that’s it”. 

Now they have done it again, with fifth long player AUTOMATIC. If, as I did, you expected lush strings, a smattering of brass, sophisticated arrangements and bells & whistles, think again. The new record is as stripped back as the band ever was. It is also short and very sweet indeed.

If the route to longevity is to be bendable into the music industry’s rules for success, The Lumineers really shouldn’t be here at all. It makes no sense. Their stripped back, rootsy ‘Americana’ (if that’s what we can call it) took hold for reasons not listed above. Instead, their unlikely ascendancy into the realms of being a major league band, by any measure, has happened through the real route to success: trial and error, hard graft, writing songs from the heart and performing them with vulnerability. And yes, when that led to big breaks, like supporting U2 on the massive anniversary tour for The Joshua Tree, they didn’t blow it. 

You don’t have to be a phenom but do have to be a pro. In today’s music business, you can’t phone in the work and expect a career in return. 

Schultz and Fraites have thought about it all, a lot. They know their strengths and weaknesses, their inspirations, and how to tap them. Tom Petty, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen and Radiohead are there in the mix. Indeed, you could say that The Lumineers self-awareness seems to be the real root of their ultimate success and longevity. That, and treating the work as sacred. As Fraites puts it:

“Even to make one song is impossible. It’s so much work. One song is already a pain in the ass, before you talk about doing a full LP.”

As Fraite’s friend and British booking agent Alex Bruford told him once “everybody wants Radiohead’s career”. And it’s a truism. The artist who doesn’t compromise creatively, can take a 180 degree turn if they want to, can meld their influences but render those as something unique to them. Artists that can call on the tradition of the song but dress it in different ways, adding something to the DNA of popular music. And do it all with success and recognition, and no need for hype. Dignity intact. 

It’s likely then, that a new generation of artists and bands coming up in today’s fractured and frantic music business, bands that really want success but don’t want to be moulded by the industry like plasticine, might just be telling themselves that they want a career like The Lumineers. 

AUTOMATIC is released Friday 14th February. Buy it on Bandcamp.