The Lumineers are an American indie folk band formed in Ramsey, New Jersey, in 2005, and now based in Denver, Colorado. The founding members are Wesley Schultz (lead vocals, guitar) and Jeremiah Fraites (drums, percussion, piano); cellist and vocalist Neyla Pekarek joined the band in 2010, and was a member until 2018. The Lumineers emerged as one of the most popular folk-rock/Americana artists during the revival of these genres, their popularity growing in the 2010s. They are known for their energetic live shows and several international hit singles, including "Ho Hey", "Stubborn Love", "Ophelia", "Angela" and "Cleopatra". The band has become one of the top touring bands in the United States and is also popular in other countries.
The Lumineers have released five albums on American independent label Dualtone Records (Dine Alone in Canada and Decca/Universal worldwide). Their self-titled first album was released in 2012 and peaked at No. 2 on the U.S. Billboard 200. It has been certified triple platinum in the U.S. and Canada, platinum in the UK and Ireland, and gold in Australia. Their second album, Cleopatra, was released in 2016 and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and also on the Canadian and British album charts. It is currently certified platinum in the U.S. Their third album, titled III, was released on September 13, 2019 and debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200. Their fourth album, Brightside, was released on January 14, 2022. Their fifth and most recent album, Automatic, was released on February 14, 2025.
History 2002–2009: Early years When Schultz and Fraites began collaborating, writing together and playing gigs around New York City, they did so under various names, including Free Beer, 6Cheek and Wesley Jeremiah. Fraites elaborated, "When Wes and I got together, our first band name was Free Beer. It wasn't serious at first. We were a crappy band doing (terrible) covers. But we slowly started getting away from covers and writing originals. We were doing everything: vanilla singer-songwriter stuff, hard rock, electronic music. There was no focus; it was a mad, random mess." According to Schultz, the band became 'The Lumineers' after a band called Lumineers (a made up word) were supposed to play at a club in Jersey City the week after Schultz and Fraites played there. The emcee mistakenly introduced Schultz and Fraites as The Lumineers, and the name stuck.
The Lumineers struggled to find success in New York according to Schultz, who said, "I was living in Brooklyn and working three jobs just to pay the rent," adding, "it was really infuriating to move to a city that would help us grow musically but then never have any time to work on music. So I decided to do something about it." In 2009, after considering relocating to London, Philadelphia and Boston, Fraites and Schultz, in their "ignorance and naïveté", moved to Denver, Colorado, and joined the open mic scene. Before the move, while the band was still called Wesley Jeremiah, they had a former member, Jason "Jay" Van Dyke play with them rarely. Van Dyke sued The Lumineers around 2008, claiming that Schultz and Fraites didn't give him the proper credit he deserved. Later Schultz and Fraites acknowledged Van Dyke, and admitted that they performed for a short period of time. Van Dyke claims that he co-wrote nine songs with Schultz and Fraites. The parties settled the lawsuit in 2017, with the terms of the settlement confidential.
In 2009, Jeremiah and Wesley recorded a song called Don't Wanna Go, but it was never officially released and as of now is only available on SoundCloud and YouTube. The song describes the grief of the band after someone very close to them had unexpectedly died, likely due to a medical emergency of some sort. This follows the band's moral theme of grief, considering the depressing fact that they started the band in their shared time of lament after Jeremiah's brother and Wesley's father died.
2010–2013: The Lumineers In 2010, after the band's relocation to Denver, Fraites and Schultz met classically trained cellist Neyla Pekarek. Although Pekarek had just recently graduated from college and was planning to become a music teacher, she responded to a Craigslist ad posted by Schultz and Fraites requesting a cellist and agreed to join the band when she was invited.
As a three-piece, The Lumineers met Maxwell Hughes at an open mic event in Denver. Hughes played and toured with the band as an unofficial fourth member and contributed to the band's debut album. He suggested joining the band as a mandolin accompaniment, but the band was not looking for a permanent fourth member at the time, so Hughes and The Lumineers parted ways.
They originally signed a management deal with Onto Entertainment which funded the band to record a full-length album in Seattle at Bear Creek Studio with producer Ryan Hadlock. The album was then remixed by Kevin Augunas, who also worked with the Black Keys, Cold War Kids, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, J-Roddy Walston and the Business, and Jon Brion.
In December 2011, the song "Ho Hey", which would become the band's first single, was used in the first season of CW's Hart of Dixie. This started a national buzz on social media. In January 2012, John Richards, the morning show DJ at KEXP-FM in Seattle, discovered "Ho Hey" in a pile of new CDs he had received, played it twice in a row daily for a week, and called it the best song of 2012. WXPN Philadelphia / NPR then conducted a feature on the band on their "World Cafe: Next" program. The band passed up major label offers to sign a deal with an independent label Dualtone Records that same month. The album was then licensed under similar terms to Dine Alone Records in Canada, Inertia in Australia, and Decca Records for the rest of the world. On signing with smaller independent labels, Fraites claimed, "it's just nice to work with people that are entirely engaged. You know, not just sitting in front of a computer and playing Angry Birds on their cell phones all day," adding, "with these smaller labels, people work 12 or 15 hour days to ensure our records are in the stores, and that we're getting played at radio. We want to work with people that are as hungry as we are."
Their self-titled debut album The Lumineers was released on April 3, 2012, on Dualtone Records. The album was met with mixed to positive critical reception, holding a 73 on review aggregator Metacritic, translating to "generally favorable reviews". Musicperk.com rated the album 8/10 commenting, "a spark of uniqueness does exist". The band's popularity continued to build in 2012 with sold-out shows and favorable reviews, and their debut album went on to peak at number two on the Billboard 200 album chart. Of the album's success, Schultz told Liz Riggs of American Songwriter that "It's really arbitrary to any of us, especially to Jer and Neyla and I... because we've never really had an album out in this way... I'm really thrilled, but I also take it with a grain of salt," adding, "I think basically, I feel really lucky because I know how fickle the business, the industry is."
On June 14, 2012, the album's first single, "Ho Hey", debuted at number 90 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, their first song to do so. "Ho Hey" later peaked at number three on the Hot 100, making it the band's first top five single. As of 2017, the track has sold over five million copies. On June 30, "Ho Hey" hit number one at commercial Triple A radio, maintaining the position for eight weeks. Later, on September 17, the song hit number one on the Alternative Songs chart where it stayed for two weeks. "Ho Hey" also reached number one on Billboard'''s Rock Airplay, Hot Rock Songs, Alternative Songs, Rock Digital Songs, Alternative Digital Songs, Heatseekers Songs, Adult Pop Songs and Adult Contemporary Songs charts. "Ho Hey" experienced charting success internationally as well, reaching number one on the Canadian Alternative radio chart and number 17 on the Canadian single sales chart. It also reached number eight on the UK Singles Chart, becoming their first top 10 single there. In October 2012, Spotify named "Ho Hey" as the most shared song in Manhattan and third most shared in Brooklyn.
As of February 2025 the song had been streamed more than 1.4 billion times on Spotify and 356 million on YouTube.
On November 23, 2012, The Lumineers released Winter, an EP version of their self-titled debut album. On December 5, 2012, The Lumineers were nominated for two Grammy Awards for Best New Artist and Best Americana Album.
Continuing into 2013, "Ho Hey" would spend eight consecutive weeks atop Billboards Adult Pop Songs chart. Simultaneously, "Stubborn Love", the second single off their self-titled album, would see two four-week runs at number one on the Adult Alternative Songs chart.
The Lumineers headline shows in the Northeastern U.S. were announced for February 2013 and quickly sold out. Similarly, the band's tours of the UK, Europe and Australia in early 2013 sold out all shows, after many shows were moved to larger venues.
"Submarines" was released as the third single on July 30, 2013. The band performed "Ho Hey" and "Submarines" on The Colbert Report in July 2013. In August 2013, "Ho Hey" would become the 10th song to reach a 60th week on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, eventually finishing its run on the Hot 100 after 62 weeks, one of the highest runs in the chart's history. Subsequently, on August 20, 2013, a deluxe edition of their debut album was released, which included five bonus tracks, over 25 minutes of video footage and a 28-page booklet. Several songs by the band were used in the television series Reign. "Scotland", in particular, was used as the theme song for the series, and was co-written by and features a performance from Jason "Jay" Van Dyke, who sometimes played with Schultz and Fraites before their move to Denver.
2014–2018: Cleopatra Fraites and Schultz composed the music for "The Hanging Tree". "The Hanging Tree" is a song produced and performed by James Newton Howard featuring vocals from American actress Jennifer Lawrence for the 2014 film The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, the third installment of The Hunger Games film series. The song appears on both the official score album for the film and on the digital re-release of the official soundtrack for the film. The lyrics were written by The Hunger Games author Suzanne Collins and originally appeared in her novel Mockingjay. Following its release, "The Hanging Tree" debuted in the top 40 of the singles charts of Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. The song was released to American mainstream radio stations on December 9, 2014.
In September 2014, it was announced that The Lumineers began working on their second album. Schultz stated through Instagram, "Well folks, we are back in the studio, chippin' away at some new ideas. It's been one hell of a ride so far and we are excited to be writing again. Thanks and stay tuned." While performing the unreleased material in secret concerts, the Lumineers banned mobile phones, providing a locking pouch for people to hold their phones in during live performances.
The band released their second studio album Cleopatra on April 8, 2016. The black and white photo on the cover depicts silent movie star Theda Bara in the title role in the 1917 film Cleopatra. Cleopatra was co-produced by Simone Felice at The Clubhouse Studio in Rhinebeck, New York, and mixed (blending of all individual tracks in a recording) at The House Of Blues Studios in Nashville, Tennessee, by Ryan Hewitt. Band member changes for the Cleopatra tour included bass player Ben Wahamaki, a touring member since 2012, being replaced by Byron Isaacs.