NEEDTOBREATHE moves to Music City, kicks off new tour
Brothers Bear and Bo Rinehart of NEEDTOBREATHE remember paying their dues as young musicians and climbing Nashville’s pecking order of venues — which is what made Music City the obvious choice as the new home of the South Carolinabred band.
“Nashville is a place we’ve played literally every club in the market,” Bear said. “We started at The End, then we did Exit/In probably five times, then we did Cannery all the way up until we got our first offer at the Ryman. Now, after playing the Ryman seven or eight times and Ascend Amphitheater the first week it was open, it’s just insane. It definitely feels like a new home to us.”
Alongside bassist/vocalist Seth Bolt and keyboardist/vocalist Josh Lovelace, NEEDTOBREATHE’s Forever On Your Side Tour was scheduled to kick off this month in New Braunfels, Texas.
The tour is named after their recently released four-song collection, “Forever On Your Side,” in which the band ventured from their studio in Charleston to Niles City Sound in Fort Worth, Texas — where Leon Bridges’ Grammy-nominated debut “Coming Home” was recorded.
“We wanted to go make some music together and see what happened and not have a goal in mind,” Bear said. “It was an experiment really, we didn’t know what we’d get.”
With a studio full of vintage gear and a preference for analog over digital recording, Niles City Sound proved to be just the sonic playground NEEDTOBREATHE was looking for.
“It was a quicker process, a little more spontaneous,” Bo said. “That’s something we really wanted to do after having made a record that was very tightly knit and very meticulous. I think we wanted to unwind a little bit and chase after the mood and the chemistry the band has when we just get in a room and play.”
For Bear and Bo, who both recently bought properties in the Franklin area, moving to Music City was inevitable.
“There’s just no better place for creativity in America in my opinion,” Bear said. “Early on, we avoided moving to Nashville because it was the obvious choice. There’s just so much great music here. If you want a drummer who plays 1960s soul and also lives down the street, Nashville’s where you want to be.”
“I heard about a thing there called ’bonuts,’ ” added Bo, “which I guess is like biscuit-doughnuts. So that’s why I moved down here.”
NEEDTOBREATHE was formed in 2000 in Seneca, S.C., and its first two albums after signing with Atlantic Records, “Daylight” (2006) and “Heat” (2007), helped the group build a considerable presence in Christian music.
Being in the spotlight was never the main goal for NEEDTOBREATHE, according to Bear. They just wanted the freedom and ability to keep writing and performing.
“We never had a goal of being a huge band like U2,” Bear said. “We always said if we could be like Beck or Wilco — you know, bands that can do what they want musically and have been able to do it a long time — that was the gold standard for us.”
After “The Outsiders” (2009) and “The Reckoning” (2011), NEEDTOBREATHE received their first Grammy nomination in 2014 for their fourth album, “Rivers in the Wasteland,” which debuted at No. 3 on Billboard’s album chart and topped the magazine’s rock and alternative album charts.
Their highest-charting album to date, “H A R D L O V E” (2016), debuted at No. 1 on four charts including Billboard’s Top Albums, in addition to capturing the No. 2 spot on Billboard’s 200 chart. The band joined musical forces with R&B/soul vocalist Andra Day, a two-time Grammy nominee and three-time BET Award nominee, for the album’s title track.
The life of a musician can be tough, according to Bear, so it’s important to remember who you’re playing for.
“I honestly tell people, unless this is the only thing you can do, you probably shouldn’t because it is a crazy life,” Bear said. “It’s been a long climb and it hasn’t come easy, but I think the biggest thing we learned a few years into it is that we didn’t have to play to the world, we just had to play to the people that we communicate with. It’s about knowing who you are as a musician, finding an audience and playing to them.”
In addition to writing songs to connect with their audiences, NEEDTOBREATHE’s music is an ode to their former selves.
“I think we write songs to inspire people,” Bear said, “but we’re also always talking about how we play shows to our 16year-old selves, like when I first saw Ben Harper or The Black Crows. Those moments gave me my life calling, and we want people to leave our shows feeling that way. We want people to listen to our records and live through them.”
Reach Michael Aldrich at maldrich@tennessean.com.