After releasing their second studio album 'Cleopatra' back in April, The Lumineers have been putting in the hard yards on the road. They recently played at Glastonbury at the end of June, before they made their way across the Irish Sea to play at Longitude. Away from all the noise and chaos on the first day of the festival, we got a chance to sit down with drummer and multi-instrumentalist Jeremiah Fraites. We spoke about playing the festival circuit, his recent trip to Dingle and being star-struck by Hozier.
In the backstage area to the right of the main stage, Fraites invited us onto the band's tour bus. Despite being surrounded by a number of different mod cons, Jeremiah is definitely a little more old fashioned than most, not least in the way he dresses. For him it's more of a ritual "I get hyped once I'm wearing this garb, so my black pants and suspenders, then I feel like I get into character."
By now they are used to the festival circuit, but at the start they felt a little out of place "We just played Glastonbury a few weeks ago and it was our second time. The first time I felt like we were more like outsiders looking in and this time I felt more embraced. I just felt like we belonged to be there and that was really cool."
Fraites also spoke about what makes festivals special. "The festival circuit is very different to the headlining circuit and it's nice to have not too much of one thing."
He doesn't think that their style exactly suits it, however. "I think being loud and fast tend to do well and I don't think The Lumineers have the speed."
Thankfully though, they do have the great equaliser: the sing-along. Even though it's what they're known for, Fraitias said they still have a way to go. "It's tricky though, I think that we're still trying to figure out the festival circuit, but we love doing them.”
The crowd is always a bit different over here as well and he seemed to agree with that sentiment. "I had a revelation going to Glastonbury what those types of fans are willing to go through. I don't think that would fly over in the US. "
Besides playing at Longitude, they have also got a chance to see some of Ireland.
As Fraitas explained"The singer (Wesley Schulz) and I just spent an awesome time down in Dingle. We became good friends with the band SOAK. They just opened up for us for about a month in the States, all over America."
They really got to know SOAK and her band as they showed them around Ireland. "We hung out a lot and we got to see The Cliffs of Moher, it was really beautiful."
This time around The Lumineers took some time out to record their new album. The only drawback was that they couldn't play much of their new material live in case someone recorded it on their phone. "I think what was difficult about this album was that we had no time to road test it because people would have leaked it."
So once it came to actually performing the new songs it was a real baptism of fire. Luckily, it seems the crowds have responded well to the new material. "The fans seem to be singing both albums and that's really cool," he told GoldenPlec.
For most of the interview Fraitas seemed fairly laid back, but just before the interview Hozier was hanging backstage and he couldn't help but give him a mention."I am kind of distracted by Hozier. I kind of what to have a cup of coffee and hang around. I felt kind of star-struck to see him. I love his music so it was cool. It's kind of one of those random occurrences that tend to happen at festivals."
Before we finished up he also gave us his dream festival lineup, and it certainly didn't disappoint."Radiohead would be one be one for sure. Then I would say Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers and then maybe Pink Floyd during their prime. That line up would sell some tickets."
The Lumineers will play the 3arena in Dublin on Wednesday the 26th of October, 2016.