For the group’s latest album and tour, Needtobreathe went to Minnesota and Utah to write, create and talk.
“It was like summer camp,” says Josh Lovelace, the band’s keyboardist. “You work all day and have dinner together at night. It feels less like a job and more like a season of life that you get to create together.”
Lead singer Bear Rinehart jumpstarted the “Caves” sessions with ideas he had (“he writes every day,” Lovelace says), then gave the others opportunity to chime in.
“Things happen and it’s magical,” Lovelace adds. “You just hope you’re hitting ‘record’ at the right time. Some of the songs that are staples in our live set are songs that were birthed out of those moments.”
Needtobreathe
Once there was enough material, the five reviewed what they had and decided what fits.
“We’re all very vocal about that, so when the record comes in, for the most part, it has the whole band’s stamp of approval," he says. "Of course, there are always one or two songs that you wish had made it, but there are other opportunities.”
“Alive,” a song which made it onto the “Out of Body” album, was written for “Rivers in the Wasteland.”
“We kind of put in in our back pocket, rewrote the verses and then, it made an appearance on our show,” Lovelace says.
For collaborations (“Caves” has several of them), members of Needtobreathe often toss out names.
“We like to think of it in an organic way,” Lovelace says. “We knew were going on tour with Judah & the Lion, so we thought it would be fun to play a song together every night.”
Needtobreathe
Enter: “Dreams.” Similarly, “Fall on Me” needed a female voice. Carly Pearce is a friend; Pearce is on the song.
“Very rarely does it happen where we’re begging someone to do something,” Lovelace says. “Most of the time you’re doing things with friends, people you respect or someone that you just want to collaborate with.”
Crafting an album, too, requires considerable thought.
“We want to put out collections of music that, hopefully, move people and make them think and feel. It’s hard to do that in three-and-a-half minutes.”
Thus, band members are strong proponents of the album concept.
Recently, they went to a Rolling Stones concert (Lovelace, the “saver” of the group, kept the ticket stub for a scrapbook) and noted the band’s penchant for albums. “They’re still putting out albums this long into their career,” Lovelace says. “There’s something about capturing a band in a moment of time and the collection of songs that comes out of that time. It’s like dropping the needle on a record and listening to the whole thing.”
Members of Needtobreathe perform an acoustic set on the "Caves" tour.
Thankfully, Needtobreathe has fans who appreciate the philosophy.
“We don’t make music necessarily for ourselves," Lovelace says. "We make for people, and it’s hard to do that when we’re not playing for people in person.”
Case in point: The pandemic.
“We didn’t know if we were going to be able to do this anymore,” Lovelace says.
Venues, however, opened up, concerts returned and Needtobreathe hit the road.
Now, Lovelace says, “It feels like it’s back to the way it was. It’s fun to remind ourselves what we’re good at.”
