A growing band across the world

Lord Hurons first albumLonesome Dreams. Photo from www.wikipedia.org

Lord Huron’s first album”Lonesome Dreams.” Photo from www.wikipedia.org

By Connor Latlip

The Jag

“Long Lost” album cover. This is one of their most played albums. Photo from www.wikipedia.org

In 2010, Ben Schneider formed Lord Huron as a solo project, but along the way he added members to help him play in live shows.  

In 2005, Schneider was studying visual arts at the University of Michigan, and he finished his degree in France before moving to New York City, where he worked for an artist. The same year he moved out west to Los Angeles, California to pursue his dreams as a song writer and performer. 

Lord Huron started in 2011 as an indie rock/folk band. The members are Ben Schneider, the lead singer. Mark Berry, the drummer. Miguel Briseno, the bassist and Tom Renaud, the lead guitarist. The name “Lord Huron” is inspired by Lake Huron, the lake which Schneider grew up visiting.  

What makes Lord Huron a good band is that it hits home to the emotions of the listeners and the songs can relate to your past experiences or personal feelings. It also has this nostalgic feeling as well, like you already listened to the song before you hear it for the first time. Mark Richardson, from the Wall Street Journal, describes Lord Huron as having a “cinematic flair, heavy on the mood and evocative imagery.” He also says that Lord Huron sounds like The Band, Neil Young, My Morning Jacket and Fleet Foxes. 

In 2012, Lord Huron released their first album called “Lonesome Dreams,” which is also a song on the album. “Lonesome Dreams” was released on October 9, 2012. The album debuted at number 5 on Billboard’s Heatseekers Albums chart. There are eleven songs in the album and the most well-known songs are “Ends of the Earth,” “Time To Run,” “Ghost on the Shore,” “She Lit a Fire,” and “Lonesome Dreams.” The interpretation of the album was a series of old adventure tales.  

“We had this fun idea that ‘Lonesome Dreams’ was kind of this series of old adventure tales,” Schneider said during an interview with Jeff Oloizia, from “Interview Magazine.” 

“Lonesome Dreams” was only the beginning of their success. In 2015, Lord Huron came out with their best album, “Strange Trails.” The album sold over 500,000 copies in the United States. The album has 14 songs that are emotion-wrenching and soul-healing. Some may call these songs “sad” because of the rhythm and the lyrics of the songs. For instance, Schneider sings, “That girl laid a curse on me” in “Cursed” and “You don’t want me, baby, please, don’t lie” in “Love Like Ghosts.”  

Lord Huron released their third album in 2018, “Vide Noir,” which means black void in French. This album was different from their previous two. Instead of slow and sorrowful music, they came out with 12 songs that have a faster rhythm. Vide Noir is more of a dreamy-like and a soul-searching type of album. The first song in the album, “Lost in Time and Space,” begins with a broken heart. “She went west to chase her dreams/She took my money, but she didn’t take me,” confesses Ben Schneider, before setting off to get her back. The song “Emerald Star” talks about an emerald star in the sky that is guiding his quest to fortune tellers (“Ancient Names part 1&2”) and the edge of the earth (“Back From the Edge”). The magic of “Vide Noir” is its sense of story that the songs share, which suggests a happy ending depends on what you are searching for.  

Lord Huron’s most recent album that they released in 2021 is called “Long Lost” and it contains 16 songs. Lord Huron went back to their old ways of slow-rhythm and heart-warming music. However, they made the base guitar a focal point in all of their songs in this album, and added the violin back into their music, like the way they introduced in “When the Night is Over,” from Vide Noir. Lord Huron also added more percussion into the mix.  

The song “I Lied,” featuring American song-writer Allison Ponthier, mentions a man trying to change his ways and become a better person for his lover, but in reality, he didn’t change his ways and broke his promise to her. As for the woman, she had vowed to stand beside him forever, but she found that it was a lie when she told him she could never live without his love.  

“Not Dead Yet” talks about a man who is assessing his run-down reflection in the mirror. “You got holes in your clothes, booze on your breath. You look like hell and smell like death,” Schneider sings. Many of the fans say that “Not Dead Yet” is their favorite Lord Huron song because of the base guitar solos and the happiness it brings to the listeners. “I’ve been out way too long; I’m heading right for the edge. If she asks about me, tell her I’m not dead yet!”  

The song “Love Me Like You Used To” tells a tale of a person who has wandered away from his lover and regrets that he ever left. The man pleads “love me like you used to and I’ll praise you like I should.” The song’s theme is that there is this lost-love scenario and it’s prevalent in a few of their songs in other albums.  

As of 2022, “Long Lost” has gained 50 million streams and counting, making it #1 on the Americana/folk Album and Tastemaker Albums chart, #2 on Vinyl Albums & Alternative Albums chart, #3 Top Rock Albums chart, #4 Top Album Sales chart, and #23 on the Billboard 200 chart.   

The last time Lord Huron was in Kansas City was June 5th, 2022, at Starlight Theatre. There was a big crowd, bigger than some may have expected. It wasn’t just kids or young adults that were at the concert; there were middle aged men and women and older men and women as well. The atmosphere was electric, and everyone was in the moment, singing along to every song that they played. At the end of the concert, Lord Huron played “The Night We Met,” their most famous song, and Schneider got the whole crowd to sing along with him. It was perfect and the crowd didn’t miss a single lyric.  

Lord Huron is truly a great band because their rhythm and style of music isn’t like any other band. Ben Schneider’s sense of storytelling in these songs is magical, based off his experiences and other peoples’ experiences. Some of the songs transitions into each other perfectly, for example, “Love Like Ghosts” transitions into “Until the Night Turns” which transitions into “Dead Man’s Hand.” Also, “La Belle Fleur Sauvage” (The Beautiful Wild Flower) transitions into “Fool for Love.” All of their songs have imagery, meaning that whoever is listening to their songs can create a mental picture of what is going on within the song based on the lyrics.  

The song “She Lit a Fire,” has impeccable imagery and Schneider sings “I’ve been through the desert. And I’ve been across the seas. I’ve been walking through the mountains. I’ve wandered through the trees for her. I have been trying to find her, want to give what I’ve got. She lit a fire and now she’s in my every thought.” 

 

Playlist link: https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/lord-huron-favs/pl.u-8aAVZ5jHo0ZEXD8