“I was just looking for anything to keep me busy or to get me out of my parents’ house. They had placed an ad for a cellist for a folk band and I had never really been in a band before and I had never really thought that I would be in a band. I answered it, so it was quite a nice surprise,” says Pekarek.
The band’s fortunes were bolstered when they were picked up by management team Onto Entertainment in 2011. Pekarek explains that their managers’ beneficence allowed them to move beyond their cramped home studio, which let the recording of their self-titled album properly flourish.
“We had these demos that we’d recorded in Jer’s mom’s attic. A collection of about 14 or 15 songs and most of them ended up going on the actual record. We’d just finished the second half of those and we met management and they said ‘These are great, for demos. Don’t release them, we’re going to get you into a bona fide studio and do this the right way.’”
The expanded studio parameters efficaciously captured The Lumineers’ three-way synergy and the immediacy of their live show. However, even though the resources available to them were expanded it was still a tight turn-over in the studio. Thankfully the trio’s DIY origins prepared them for swift album production.
“Everything was thought about before it happened, every tambourine hit or shout or stomp or whatever, they were all really carefully thought over. We’d worked out all these songs in the best forms so basically we recorded all of the tracks in about ten days and mixed them in four days. Fourteen total days to make a record is not something that I would probably want to do again but I think that it turned out all right.”
Ho Hey’s infiltration of the global consciousness sent the band a massive 2012 touring schedule, supporting Old Crow Medicine Show and Dave Matthews Band before going on to sell out their own shows in multiple continents. Playing large noisy venues could potentially blunt the interactive intimacy central to their aesthetic but Pekarek proudly believes it’s been maintained.
“We just did a tour with the Dave Matthews Band at the end of September and we were playing in big arena sized places and I don’t think that we played any differently than what we used to for 150 person room or a 1,000 capacity room. I don’t think we have to pull out a tonne of gimmicks for bigger rooms,” she says.
Being thrust an extensive touring itinerary has shaken up their individual lives and they’re still adjusting to the peculiar living conditions. Pekarek speaks of some helpful habits she tries to uphold in order to be comfortable on the road.
“I’ve really realised I am a creature of having some sort of consistency. I cling to things that can be a little bit regular even if we’re not in the same place every day. I try to do a lot of yoga when I can. I write a lot of letters so I bring lots of stationary and stamps and things. Things that you don’t really need to be packing in your bag, but you need your comfort sometimes. All of us are learning how to live this lifestyle.”
Pekarek reveals that the massive success of Dave Matthews Band furnishes them with luxuries others can only distantly aspire towards.
“He’s sort of written the book on how to tour. He’s an animal, he tours all the time. I think some of the things are unrealistic for a band of our size. For example, each band member has their own bus and they have the option each night if they want to fly to the next gig or they want to ride on their bus to the next gig. I think the idea behind it though is that you have as much space from your bandmates and individual alone time as possible. Not all of us are going to have our own bus, I’m sure, but it is important to take that time for yourself; to really try to have as much alone time as possible.”
Nevertheless, Pekarek speaks affectionately about her bandmates and she isn’t bothered to be in a rather binding multi-levelled relationship with them.
“It’s an interesting relationship too because they’re your roommates and your bandmates and you’re tied financially. It’s not just a musical relationship. I don’t know how we found people that we get along with so well but all three of us, and we have two touring members, all five of us really get along well. I feel very lucky about that because we spend a lot of time together!”
BY AUGUSTUS WELBY
