The Lumineers are Wesley Schultz, Neyla Pekarek, and Jeremiah Caleb Fraites - and their music is making serious waves all over the globe. Playing intimate, fan-friendly venues has, says Brad, been a real treat to witness.
"It's a real breakthrough, as there's always serious pressure with album number two, but they've knocked it out the park in my opinion, and the fans seem to love it," says Brad, who first became acquainted with The Lumineers while working with the Dave Matthews Band in 2012.
"I was the fly guy for Dave [Matthews], and I would also mix monitors for the opening acts; we did an arena run with The Lumineers opening up, and that was that when [their hit single] Ho Hey was really big. What struck me was that they were the only support act that attracted almost the entire audience when they went on."
From there, a relationship formed, and by April 2013, Brad was a permanent fixture on The Lumineers team as monitor engineer. He's one of only two remaining crew members from that time, which speaks volumes; and when it comes to mixing, Brad's console of choice is a DiGiCo SD5, provided by Sound Image in the US and SSE in Europe.
"My last console did a job for me, but when it comes to input count and scalability as far as I/O or outputs go, DiGiCo has to be my go-to," he reveals. "You can also get DiGiCo boards anywhere around the world; and on top of that, if we do a TV show, maybe they can't get me an SD5, but they can get me an SD8, or an SD10."
(Jim Evans)
