The Lumineers Debut New Song 'Where We Are' Inspired By A Near-Fatal Crash

The Lumineers celebrated the holiday season when debuted a brand-new song called "Where We Are" as part of their exclusive iHeartRadio LIVE with The Lumineers: A Holiday Celebration show.

Taking place in the iHeartRadio Theater in Los Angeles, Wesley Schultz and Jeremiah Fraites rejoiced in the band's career on Thursday night (December 16) with an hour-long set and debuted the new track in the process. As part of their fourth studio album, BRIGHTSIDE, which will drop January 14, the song was inspired by Schultz's near-death car crash with his girlfriend-turned-wife, Brandy Schultz, about 10 years ago.

"It started raining and it started snowing at the same time, that mix. We flew off this highway going 70 miles an hour. The car rolled two and a half times and ended up on its side. We were lucky to be alive," the vocalist reminisced to the live audience. "In an instant, you're left to pick up the pieces. It's like we've all been in a collective instance, car crash together, the last 18 months, almost two years from now. We feel like this song has a weird resemblance to this feeling."

The mid-tempo track, which clocks in at three minutes, hears the band offer some optimism amid a trying period of time. "Where we are/ I don't know where we are, but it will be okay," Schultz repeated on the simple hook, with the band backing him up on vocals.

In addition to "Where We Are," the collective offered additional cuts of the soon-to-be-released project, including the "A.M. Radio" and the set's title track, "Brightside."

Asked about the pressure to live up to previous projects, Schultz explained that the only folks that have to truly please is themselves. "No one really paid much attention to us for a number of years, so we starting realizing what we liked," Schultz said in reference to the "blessing of failure" of early material. "Part of it is finding something that gives you goosebumps, makes you feel emotions when you hear it back. That's kind of the only thing you can go off of in music."

While the intimate concert featured catalog favorites like "Ophelia," "Hey Ho," "Cleopatra," "Angela" and "Gloria," Schultz and Fraites made sure to take advantage of the celebratory season. Running through "Blue Christmas" and their recently-released "This Is Life (Merry Christmas)" featuring Daniel Rodriguez, the band put holiday cheer at the forefront, but it was their cover of Willie Nelson's "Pretty Paper" that stood out amongst the three cuts.