Ahead of releasing their fifth album Automatic this week, The Lumineers frontman Wesley Schultz has touched on why artists are guiding lights in an increasingly fraught social and political climate.

“I think they have an important role to play right now for the very fact that they bring us back to our emotions,” Schultz told Hot Press. “When I need to feel something, I turn to music. That’s the fastest way for me to get goosebumps or get back in touch with my own true self. A lot of what a phone, a glass of wine or a pill do is numb you out of a lot of things. The beauty of music is that it’s the antidote to not feeling. It makes you feel something whether you want it to or not”.

The Lumineers rose through the ranks with their self-titled debut album, which peaked at number 2 on the Billboard 200. Dropping the record in 2012, the Denver-based band broke through during the peak of “stomp, clap, hey” era, an early '10s folk-pop movement spearheaded by such acts as Mumford and Sons, Of Monsters and Men and, of course, The Lumineers. They emerged as one of the most popular Americana artists during the folk revival, with their popularity growing exponentially in the 2010s.

According to Lee Robert Blackstone, folk music “enables people to cope with problems in modern society”. It can also galvanise, Schultz says, but not necessarily by way of command.

“There’s an old saying that music isn’t prescriptive, it’s descriptive, “ he noted. “It doesn’t tell you what to do, it just describes what’s happening. The audience is smart enough to process that, and do with it what they will. Even good protest songs don’t tell you what to do, they are more of an observation and when it’s put that way, you’re so struck by it that you want change.

“Music reminds us more about who we are as people, and there’s no substitute for that. We need music. I love protest songs, but the good ones are cleverly disguised where they slip in this subversive message. They’re not always telling you to go march in the streets, they’re making you want to march because of how you feel”.

Automatic, the band's fifth studio album and their first new release in over three years, finds Lumineers co-founders Jeremiah Fraites and Schultz sifting through the post-pandemic fallout, exploring the blurred lines of reality and fiction, as well as the variety of methods to numb boredom and overstimulation. Automatic drops this Friday, 14 February, via Dualtone.

• Stay tuned to Hot Press for the full interview with The Lumineers’ Wesley Schultz, who discusses becoming a father/rockstar, his love of protest songs and the importance of human connection after the pandemic. Coming soon…