THE LUMINEERS THINK BIG PICTURE
When you think of The Lumineers, you think of intimate, rootsy, acoustic-based music. It’s an impression most of us have had ever since we heard the Colorado-based band’s breakthrough single Ho Hey back in 2012.
On the face of it, their downhome sound might not seem ideally suited to being played in arenas.
But in the midst of their first headlining North American arena tour, Lumineers singersongwriter-guitarist Wesley Schultz said things have been going just swimmingly for the band in these much bigger venues.
“It’s been really gratifying to play these places and to have it translate,” Schultz said recently.
The Lumineers, along with with Kaleo and Susto, are at the SaskTel Cente on Thursday.
“When you go to these bigger places, you wonder — am I going to feel out of place here?” Schultz said. “I talk to my wife every night and she’ll ask, ‘how’d the show go?’ and I’d normally point out the stuff I’m upset with and what went well, and she’s like — ‘I’ve never heard you this positive and happy about shows.’
“I’m just really happy with how it’s going. You do a lot of things differently. I remember hearing an actor describe the difference between stage acting and acting on screen. When you’re on stage, you’re really animated because you’re trying to reach the guy all the way in the back and when you’re on the screen, it’s a lot more subtle. You’d look silly if you acted the same way (as on the stage). You can liken that to playing a small club and then trying to do something different on a bigger stage in an arena. So you have a screen to show people what we’re doing. And we’ve always tried to break down the wall between the audience and the band. So part of it is an attempt to create less of an enormous barrier between the audience and us. One of the ways we do this is we have this alternate stage that we play a few songs out on.”
Schultz said it helps that they now have two albums under their belt, their Grammy-nominated self-titled debut from 2012 and Cleopatra from last year. Prior to the release of Cleopatra, it was more of a stretch for the band — that also includes multi-instrumentalist Jeremiah Fraites and singer/cellist Neyla Pekarek — to fill out a 90-minute set.
And the Lumineers are set to take their music to an even bigger stage when they open for U2 on a number of dates on the upcoming Joshua Tree tour, which plays stadiums across North America beginning in May.
“When we started out, we decided we weren’t going to open for anybody,” Schultz said. “We got these great offers from these bands that we listened to when we were growing up and we said ‘no’ to all of them pretty much. We said we’d rather play for 200 people than 20,000 that came to see another band. That was our attitude back then. But now it’s changed. I want to glean a little bit from these bands like U2. There’s a lot to learn from them. To just be up close with them and see what they’re doing. I think that’s something special and I don’t think those opportunities are there forever. Also it’s been a while since we’ve had to win over people in this way and I think it sharpens you a bit.”
When the first Lumineers album broke big, it was around the same time that Mumford & Sons were topping the charts with a similar folk-based acoustic sound.
At the time, there was a lot of media chatter about this new musical trend that was so different from the dance-oriented pop dominating mainstream radio at the time. But since then, there’s hardly been an avalanche of similar bands who’ve had the kind of success that The Lumineers and Mumford had. Schultz is well aware his band couldn’t be more different from most of what’s topping the charts.
“I think we were lucky when our first album came out that
there was that idea of a zeitgeist and it worked in our favour,” Schultz said.
“Our manager told us a lot of people were telling him (after the first album) — this music is over. But (I think of ) Fleetwood Mac. I can still put that on and it means something to me and I’m a few generations removed from when that first came out. I think that music transcended. That has consistently been the ultimate goal. How can we make something that goes a little deeper than the trends going on? Now we just played (Madison Square) Garden for a couple of nights and the overwhelming reaction, even amongst my friends who’re involved in my life, they were like — ‘Really? You’re playing the Garden? You sold it out twice?’ For me, it was interesting to be able to surprise people with the second album. That it’s not on pop radio, but it’s still growing. You just hope you’re leading with something that will stand the test of time.”