Background and career
Jeremiah Caleb Fraites (born January 17, 1986) is an American drummer, composer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. He is a co-founder of The Lumineers and is a songwriter for the band. He was born and raised in Ramsey, New Jersey.
Jeremiah Fraites' family is from Ramsey, New Jersey; his mother is the director of the Redeemer Christian Nursery School in Ramsey. Fraites graduated from Ramsey High School in 2004, and William Paterson University in 2009. Fraites got his first drum set at age 14, the summer before his freshman year of high school. He grew up surrounded by music in his community and immediate family. His brother played the guitar, his dad sang in the choir, and his mother sang to her nursery school students. In 2001, his brother Joshua died of a heroin drug overdose at age 19 after being in and out of rehab. Jeremiah Fraites also struggled with addiction in the years after his brother's death but managed to recover and become sober. He married Francesca Lazzarin in 2019, and they had two children together. Lazzarin is Italian, and the family split their time between the United States and Turin. Fraites and Lazzarin have worked professionally together on Fraites' solo piano and instrumental projects.
Fraites' brother Josh (1982–2001) was a friend of Wesley Schultz; after Josh's death, Jeremiah Fraites and Schultz began playing music together as a way to cope with their shared loss. After years of playing in the Fraites home, in 2005, they relocated to New York City and began to play in small clubs and at open mic nights in an attempt to find success in the music business. They played several types of music, and occasionally included other musicians while they played under various names, including Free Beer and Wesley Jeremiah.
In 2009, Fraites graduated from college. Unhappy at having to work multiple jobs to make ends meet while attempting to become full-time musicians, Fraites and Schultz decided to relocate to Denver, which had a lower cost of living. They eventually placed a Craigslist ad for a cello player, which led to Neyla Pekarek joining the band.
A self-financed tour in 2009–2010 led to the band being signed to a management contract. Their management company financed an EP. As they became better known, their self-financed tour and their EP led to The Lumineers being signed to a recording contract. The band subsequently released the albums The Lumineers (2012) and Cleopatra (2016).
Fraites released his solo debut album Piano Piano on January 22, 2021, through Dualtone Records (US/Canada) and Mercury KX (World). The album is a collection of piano-centric instrumental songs that he had been working on for over a decade. It was met with critical acclaim from NPR's Weekend Edition, Denver Post, NPR Music's All Songs Considered, American Songwriter, and Earmilk, among others. Fraites partnered with the meditation app Calm for the release of two exclusive tracks titled "Felt" and "Pluck". He also partnered with the British music technology company Spitfire Audio for their Originals series on a program called "Firewood Piano". The program is based on his eccentric upright piano, nicknamed "Firewood", which he used to record several songs for his solo debut album. He composed the score for the film The Long Walk, which was released in theaters on September 12, 2025. It is his first film score. His second film score will be for Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere.
