Released last September, the Lumineers’ album, “III,” tells the story of the fictional Sparks family in three chapters. (There are three bonus tracks on the album that aren’t part of the narrative.)
The listener is wrapped in a saga that spans three generations, each touched by a common problem: addiction.
“There’s been so much feedback or outpouring of emotion, meeting people around talking about these songs on this album in a way that was pretty unexpected,” said Lumineers co-founder and singer Wesley Schultz.
Schultz, 37, also gave more insight into “III.”
What inspired you to tackle addiction as subject matter for the album?
My wife and I have been caring for a loved one for about 10 years, and that person has been in and out of rehab. … And then for (Lumineers co-founder Jeremiah Fraites), he lost his brother (to) a heroin overdose. I think we thought, “Well, we went through these things as individuals, but we’re probably pretty unique in that way or alone.” But I realized that addiction has touched many more lives than I could have imagined.
Were you cautious about the way you wanted to portray addiction?
I think the thing you want to avoid as a writer is trying to make too much of a caricature of something. And so in order to avoid that, I was trying to say things in an unflinching or honest way. And I think that when you do that, even though some of the things that are said are harsh, like, “Maybe when she’s dead and gone, I’ll get some sleep” (in “Leader of the Landslide”) or “There’s easier ways to die” (in “Gloria”).
I think there’s a lot of compassion in those moments, even though some people hearing that would say, “Wow, that’s really cold or that’s really cruel.”
When you love an addict and you’re going on the ride with them emotionally, I think that there’s a lot of confusion and there’s a lot of resentment mixed with that love, and there’s a lot of anger. … There’s so much dissonance there. And I think trying to capture that in a song, you can’t just sing and say there’s dissonance. I think you have to tell stories to display that.
You portray three generations of one family struggling with some of the same problems. Were you trying to explore the idea of generational patterns?
My dad was a psychologist, and I wanted to work for him. I admired my dad a lot, and I was naturally interested in people and psychology. So I’m looking at, if addiction is a social disease, how does that work?
I’m realizing that it’s definitely not only your willpower at play here. And I think as a musician, as a person who tries to be driven and motivated, you trick yourself into believing that you could do just about anything with that attitude, (but) it’s not so simple as that.
