'Jersey is a badge of honor': Music duo The Lumineers shoot new video at Ramsey High

Three Ramsey High School graduates traveled a long, crooked road before reuniting in November to shoot a music video at their alma mater.

The result — The Lumineers' "A.M. Radio" — takes viewers through the 85-year-old building's halls and walls to the accompaniment of a song from the group's fourth album, Brightside, due out in January.

"It's a love story to friendship," said creative director Nick Bell (Class of 2001), who suggested the locale and oversaw production.

Lumineers' singer/guitarist Wesley Schultz (Class of 2001) and drummer Jeremiah Fraites (Class of 2004) have been performing together since 2005, when a "happy accident" brought them together at the home of a mutual friend.

"Jer used to hang out with my younger brother Samuel, and sometimes he'd come on family trips with us," Schultz said in a telephone interview from Denver last week. "But in high school, three years is worlds apart, so when this friend suggested we get together to jam, I wasn't so sure."

The two clicked, and have been writing and performing ever since. They started with coffee houses in Allendale and Ridgewood and eventually opened for the likes of U2 and Tom Petty between tours promoting their own work.

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"You take any place that will let you play and sometimes your family and friends are most of the audience," Schultz said. "The only way to make it is to tour a lot. You have to get out."

Their first album won the Lumineers Grammy nominations for Best New Artist and Best Americana Album in 2013.

But five months into a two-year tour promoting their 2019 album, III, the duo was shut down by COVID last March. Fraites was also in the process of moving to his wife's hometown in Italy, but the two kept in touch and found their time apart has inspired a new direction in their music.

"This time it was bare bones," Fraites said. "Wes just had these [shoddy] very low-fi iPhone recordings that left a lot more to the imagination than the previous processes, and that was exciting. It took me 20 years to play like I was a teenager again."

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Bell latched onto the duo after attending one of their early performances, offering to do their graphics for free until the Lumineers could afford to bring him on as their creative director.

"I shot their cover photo," Bell said in a phone interview. "When they got picked up, they said 'you're our guy'."

So Schultz and Fraites agreed when Bell suggested the filming at Ramsey High School over three days in November, although they had to come in from Denver, Italy and the Bronx for the shoot.

"I remember losing a ring on the hill in front of the high school during a snowball fight," Schultz said. "Took me three hours to find it."

Principal Michael Thumm was Bell's guidance counselor in high school and was thrilled at the proposal.

"Nick was a student who only wanted to focus on art," Thumm said. "All of his notebooks from algebra to social studies were filled with sketches that had little reference to the disciplines they were intended for."

Bell said Thumm's response to their requests was "anything you want," and they enlisted the help of students and staff as extras and assistants. Student Mike Peters served as both.

"Being able to get close to the camera and watch how everybody did their specific job was very informative," Peters said. "For my scene as an extra, we shot for about an hour or two, though they ended up only using a few seconds."

Mike said the experience "has reassured me that cinematography is what I want to do in the future."

Schultz said they are still working out a return to touring, depending on how the pandemic evolves over the winter.

"But wherever we go, being from New Jersey is a badge of honor," Schultz said.

Marsha Stoltz is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: stoltz@northjersey.com

Twitter: @marsha_stoltz

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: The Lumineers visit Ramsey NJ, shoot new video for 'Brightside' album