Nashville, Tennessee- When I saw the rock band NEEDTOBREATHE had new music coming, a bell went off. Weren’t they a band that my kids used to listen to? Indeed, they are.
NEEDTOBREATHE is an American rock band from Seneca, South Carolina. The band is composed of Bear Rinehart (lead vocals, guitar, piano), Seth Bolt (backing vocals, bass), Josh Lovelace (backing vocals, keys), Randall Harris (drums, percussion), and Tyler Burkum (guitar). I interviewed Lovelace to get more information on their band and their upcoming 9th album, CAVES.
Despite a 20-year history that includes all the accolades of an iconic band, GRAMMY-nominated, multi-platinum band NEEDTOBREATHE came into their latest studio album with a much different frame of mind. They still felt they had something to prove. In truth, this band has loomed large for years, leveraging a unique fusion of modern rock, purpose-driven soul, and irresistible pop appeal to a wide variety of listeners.
Previous albums that have been released include Daylight (2006), The Heat (2007), The Outsiders (2009), The Reckoning (2011), Rivers in the Wasteland (2014), Hard Love (2016), Out of Body (2020), and Into the Mystery (2021). And while the band has never marketed themselves as a Christian band, many of the members are preachers’ kids, and their music has a more positive outlook than many other rock bands. Not only that, five of those albums have reached Number 1 on the Christian Albums chart.
Lovelace has been a member of NEEDTOBREATHE since 2011.
He explained, “The band has been around for 20 years now, which is crazy to think about. CAVES is our ninth album, which is hard to even fathom. And I think for us, we’ve always done a little bit of reinventing every record since I was with the band.”
Being a bit older now, the guys are “more comfortable” in their skin and are more likely to put a lot of different ideas on the table, often thinking outside the box.
One thing that NEEDTOBREATHE is known for is the varied collaborations, including their multi-million streamed number one hit “Brother,” which they sang with Gavin DeGraw. They also teamed up with Carrie Underwood for the moving song “I Want to Remember.” Other chart toppers include “Multiplied” and “Who Am I.”
Set for release on September 15th, CAVES is a collection of awe-inspiring melodies, breathtaking instrumentation, and epic-scale energy, giving the band’s soul-probing approach a bigger, more expansive new scope. The album features a handful of all-star collaborations with Judah & The Lion, Old Dominion, Carly Pearce, and Foy Vance.
Foy Vance toured with the band in 2013, and NEEDTOBREATHE “adored everything he put out.” Judah & The Lion are in their peer group, and they have been around each other but never had the opportunity to collaborate until now. And being based in Nashville, it was natural to team up with two of country music’s hottest hitmakers, Old Dominion and Carly Pearce.
Lovelace said, “Old Dominion is one group that we’ve admired from afar for a while watching their big shows. They built this thing from the ground up and we see a lot of similarities between them and us. Carly is a sweetheart with a beautiful voice, and we are lucky to have these people on the record.”
The song “Everknown” has only been out a few weeks, and already has millions of streams. With the lyrics, You never met a darkness you couldn’t outshine/ You left us everything but still you’re leaving us more/ We’re walking down the roads that you walked down before they paint a picture of an ethereal otherworldly being who has always been there leading the way.
Other songs they have teased ahead of the album release are the up-tempo ‘The Cave” and the stirring, “Hideaway.”
And while the whole record is a must-hear, the collaborations alone are worth the cost of a download. The unmistakable sound of each guest artist is evident while being framed in the NEEDTOBREATHE style.
Josh expounded, “It’s just a fun record and honestly does feel like a little bit like a playlist in some ways. There are different moods and different things about it. And if you’re a NEEDTOBREATHE fan, I think it kind of checks all the boxes of what we’ve done over the past two decades in a fresh new way, which I’m really proud of.”
The reason that NEEDTOBREATHE remains so popular is that they dig deep to create sonic masterpieces that speak to various aspects of the human condition. As they mature and gain new knowledge, their music grows and changes with them. With their multiple collaborations with artists from various genres, the band is likely to garner a new collective of fans. However, the “old-timers” who have been with the band from the start, well, they are in for a treat! You will want to pre-save CAVES today.
You can follow NEEDTOBREATHE on their website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and all streaming platforms.
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Bethany Bowman is a freelance entertainment writer. You can follow her blog, Instagram, and Twitter.
