The Lumineers Australia Tour Is ‘Making Up For Lost Time’

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From quiet, acoustic beginnings to a series of upcoming shows that will have audiences across Australia and New Zealand in a foot-stomping folk fever, The Lumineers can barely believe how big their audience really is.

Having just kicked off the tour in New Zealand, The Lumineers’ Wesley Schultz said on a recent episode of the Rolling Stone Uncut podcast that they’re coming to Australia to reward their loyal fans for all the loving and listening. “We don’t go there often enough, and they’re still listening,” Schultz admitted, explaining that the band found an explosion of new fans during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Schultz explained that in hard times, music can take on new meaning for listeners. “The way I try to understand it, if there’s a way to understand it, was in COVID, people leaned into the things that they really needed and loved. And, and up to that point, it was more like music was almost viewed as more of a luxury and a passive thing,” Schultz said.

“The music I listened to, that’s like my forever music. And for certain people, it was amazing to realise that some people are leaning into this music to help them get through times. Like I’ve leaned into all sorts of artists like Neil Young, Bob Dylan, just like a ton of Tom Petty, just a ton of artists that I grew up loving,” Schultz continued. “And then feeling like somehow for certain people, we were filling that void for them? It means a whole lot”.

Taking stock of their listeners on Spotify, Schultz and co. realised that their music was working wonders for Australian audiences. Schultz revealed that “three of the top five cities in the world for us [by listener count], including the States, were in Australia”.

Schultz added his regrets, but excitement for their ANZ fans to get the payoff for their hard hours of listening, saying, “I just can’t wait to play these shows, because there’s like an element of this that I wish we had done this sooner. So it’s like making up for lost time”.

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Last year, The Lumineers celebrated their 20th anniversary, having been founded by Wesley Schultz and Jeremiah Fraites in New Jersey in 2005. Since then, the duo have attracted over six billion streams across five albums and landed two Grammy Award nominations, five Billboard Music Awards nods, and an American Music Award nomination.

Listen to the full episode here.