The Lumineers

0:05Hi, I'm Wes Lee from Illumineers and you're watching MSN Exclusives. It's sort of a marathon when something like this happens because you're you're wanted in a lot of places and you can't get to all those places at once. So you end up playing these festivals and shows over a long period of time and it it sort of feels like a treadmill sometimes. You know how the difference between a treadmill and going for a run where there's this start

0:50and this finish? You just keep running. You don't know it doesn't feel like you're necessarily making that much forward progress because it seems like you guys already know this right? You know but because you do it every night. So there is a you have to battle that sort of inevitable you know disconnect with material after you've been playing it. We've been playing this for like three and a half years. Yeah. So when you when you add in the time before maybe four and you added the time before we put out the record and we were playing these songs you know they were telling us to wait wait. So all the bands get on the first record. Yeah. So now I hear you guys have a studio on the road with you. Yeah. So has it that must change the treadmill a little bit. Yeah I mean it allows you to do it. Yeah I think there's a concern of atrophy from the songwriting perspective you know it's

1:36like a muscle that's like their cast came off and now it's just totally like a tiny little shriveled muscle and so you want to we want to just start building that back into the everyday routine because it's kind of how we got here was just persistent you know crafting these songs. It wasn't so much immediate some brilliance or something it was over time just carving the stone and or massaging the idea over and over. So the tunes that are going to be on the deluxe edition also songs from back in the day that took a while to create. Yeah I mean Eloise is one of them Darlene. These are those are two of the originals and those were songs that didn't make their album but were songs that we really felt strongly about. They just wasn't necessarily a good place for them on a record initially.

2:23But you've been playing them live they've been fitting the sets. Yeah Darlene I would say and then Eloise more recently has been tied in almost every show which is nice and then anybody's problem is a friend of our sawmill Joe he works at a sawmill he cut off one of his fingers actually not too long ago accidentally and but he's he's great great musician and we did this thing called Denver Does Denver where you cover another musician in the area and then people hopefully cover your music you'll see that time nobody did but we covered his and we said oh that sounds pretty cool so we tried with the whole band and we've played it ever since so we eventually made a we cut out a version of it in a studio on LA actually Sound City that place where Dave Rolle.

3:09Yeah the film. We did it there and so did you use the Neve console is it is it still there and we've taken it home with it. One that was it was where like Blondown Blond was recorded and stuff. That thing was really cool. I think that that studio has sort of changed a little bit over time but yeah it was still there was something about that room you know. You mentioned Dylan you covered Subtrading Homestick Blues in New York too and I heard what what what is the stupid question I'm going to ask anyway what about Dylan songwriting influence you or effect you. Yeah well I think I think his imagery is incredible I think is knack for I still don't know how to do this thing where he like shelter from the storm where he always ends up saying the same line at the end of a phrase you know at the end of a long phrase and but I think

3:55he's just he's got so many memorable lines and amazing lyrics he kind of mixed everything together like some some artists are probably more weighted on they're really good with you know the lyric aspect and some are good at melody and he kind of found both even though he dressed it up in this really raspy people turned were turned off some people by his voice but I think he was the he's the total package when it comes to that so it's it's an obvious influence on a lot of people who start out as singer songwriters as I did. You did that. That's right. In Coffee Shops of just an acoustic kind of thing. Yeah for sure being in a band was not part of the part of the plan or anything it was just frustrating trying to get together with people because inevitably musicians flake you know

4:41really on practices or they're never on time or you know they have another gig or something so it was a lot more enjoyable to be self-reliant but then you start to realize oh well we can do a lot with this you know with the sound if you if you guys show up so it became it became a big thing to try to have those dynamics there once we started working with like more than just a drummer that's where I started with just the drummer and then moved from there but no I was pretty frustrated with with that unreliability aspect so it turned me off for a while and then I found really good people so now you have a good group now. Yeah and they found they found me in jail so kudos to them too. Back to the writing on the road thing just curious how has that been? I assume that's a new thing for you.

5:27It's brand new. I think I heard this one songwriter say that she preferred to write at midnight in the dark some weird... Oh Beth Thorton told me that one actually. Yeah I'm not sure it was somebody that wasn't her but for me but my thing is it's very private and if I sense that someone's around it's very difficult to get in that head space so it sort of has to just kind of happen and so it's a little bit harder to manufacture out on the road it's easier to do in the privacy of a home or something like that. We did most of our writing. Jared and I around each other in proximity but never sitting down going let's work on this together generally. Most of it was I'd be in the room and the other room and I'd say what is that and it was the Charlie Boy riff or but things would happen back and forth.

6:16What was that lie you know kind of thing and so it's very it's very strange you know it's a hard thing to reproduce but I think it's sort of like you can get good at anything or at least improve on it if you do it a lot so we're just trying to we realize the reality is we're on the road for a long time so you might as well at least try to do this well on the road because then you can you can be good at a few things you know instead of just compartmentalizing it all to get home and you're supposed to flick a switch now I'm going to start writing music again. Although home might be a long ways away. I mean I saw you guys at South by two years ago or a year and a half ago whenever that was and I feel like since then it's been non-stop. Like you've lived life on the road for the past year and a half. Sure yeah. And that's a very big change from going from where you were to where you are now. Have you enjoyed life on the road or has it been harder than you expected it to be?

7:06I enjoy it a lot more than I thought I ever would. I was basically worried that I wouldn't enjoy it but that I wanted this dream that inevitably it's like a dog chasing a car once I got there I would be unhappy with. Or just not know what to do with it. I ended up realizing I really like it because I'm kind of a home body but it's weird you kind of make yourself a home on the road. So I'm kind of what's the word not reclusive but you said one in a new creature of comfort at some point. Yeah maybe. I just like a lone time you know and that's hard to find when you're starting out as a band but now it's much easier for me to find. It used to be we're all in a mini band together and we're all looking out the windows and you

7:52know staring at each other's faces and listening to the same music together it's hard to get away now. It's actually an easier experience for me because you know we have a green room or we have more than one of those and things like that. So it kind of plays into my personality well oddly enough and so for me it's gotten easier. It's just the hard part is usually on your family and your partners because they're sort of the ones being left or they're coming out the visit and you're always stimulated. You're always going to a new city and do exciting things. Talking about things moving up the documentary that's on this the deluxe edition that comes out in a few weeks. Being in the middle of the hurricane the eye of the hurricane you probably don't notice things happening so what was it like for you watching those 15 minutes if you have seen them. I saw them. It was cool it looked it reminded me of a younger me even though it wasn't that long

8:40ago you know you just see so much and my voice was very hoarse so it was interesting to remember that week or whenever the interview was given you know each part of the documentary but yeah I like to look back but it's hard time to do that right now you know what I mean it's sort of like we're in the thick of it still so yeah you can't get too sentimental you know. Yeah fair enough. Five quick questions I'll give you back to your alone time. Five quick questions one word answers. Road or studio? Studio. Landon or McCartney. Landon. When you hear a song what usually hits you first lyrics melody or rhythm. Lyrics. If someone's never heard the lumineers what song do they start with? Pick anyone that's a two word answer. Anyone.

9:26In one word the lumineers. Lumineers. I got nothing. That's good. Yeah. Thank you very much. Thank you. Appreciate it. Yeah.