The Lumineers started in 2002, which was only Jeremiah Fraites and Wesley Schultz. The reason Jeremiah and Wesley started the Lumineers is because Jeremiah's 19 year old brother Josh died from a drug overdose which really affected Jeremiah. Wesley was Josh's best friend. After the loss of a brother and a best friend they joined together and wrote songs which helped them cope with their loss. When they first wrote songs and played them they started performing little gigs around New York City. Back then they wasn't called The Lumineers they had different names such as 'Free Beer', '6Cheek', 'Wesley Jeremiah' and 'Fraites Elaborates'. 

The name 'The Lumineers' come about because they were playing in a small club and when they were about to perform they accidentally got named 'The Lumineers' which at the time was another band and from then on they kept with it. In 2008 The Lumineers invited Jay Van Dyke into the band as well as Maxwell Hughes and Ben Wahamaki.