NEEDTOBREATHE
Despite a 20 year history that includes all the accolades of an iconic 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 is a band who have loomed large for years, leveraging a unique fusion of modern rock, purpose-driven soul and irresistible pop appeal into a stat line which puts them in exceedingly rare company.
Ask their fans and it’s been two decades of spirit-mining songs, master musicianship and elemental artistry, digging deep to create a series of sonic monuments to the human condition. Yet for all they’ve built, the five-piece group remains a burry figure in the shadowed fringe of modern rock to some – so on their ninth studio album, CAVES, they’re coming out into the light.
Full of awe-inspiring melodies, breathtaking instrumentation and epic-scale energy, their new work finds NEEDTOBREATHE moving fans like never before, giving their soul-probing approach a bigger, more expansive new scope. And in some ways, proving they truly belong in the arenas they routinely sell out.
“For a band like us, we’ve always seen ourselves as outsiders a little bit, but this record comes from a place of confidence,” says singer Bear Rinehart. “We always believed we could make a record that would feel at home on the world’s biggest stages. It was important to us to prove that we could.”
That’s a tall order, without doubt. But in fairness, they’ve already proven just about everything else.
Formed in South Carolina in 2001, NEEDTOBREATHE has grown and evolved to occupy a unique position in the modern genre+ landscape. They’ve placed five Number One albums all across the Billboard chart spectrum, from Rock and Alternative to Contemporary Christian, where they first found an audience. They’ve racked up two billion career streams and scored multi-Platinum chart topping hits – deep-feeling anthems with a spiritual conscious like “Brother” (feat. Gavin DeGraw), “Who Am I,” “TESTIFY” and dozens more. And they’ve done it all while filling venues across the globe, either as headliners or with a diverse array of superstars like Taylor Swift, Train and Tim McGraw.
Continuing to defy categorization, the renewed quest on CAVES comes partially from that unusual trajectory, as they seek to cement their mainstream crossover. But with a lineup that now includes bassist Seth Bolt, keys player Josh Lovelace, drummer Randall Harris and guitarist Tyler Burkum, the bold, rock-first approach of CAVES was also in some ways inevitable.
The project was written in two post-pandemic phases – first during a getaway in Utah where the group was finally able to get together again, and then again after they returned to the road, re-acclimating to massive crowds alongside OneRepublic. And according to the band, that dichotomy had an undeniable impact.
CAVES follows the 2021 “surprise” album, Into the Mystery, they say – an intimate portrait and new-beginning created in the midst of COVID-19 – and in Utah, they kept that inward focus, working hard to mix emotional heft with a sense of straight-talking directness. But then, out on the road, they remembered what it feels like to connect with 15,000 friends, and the result was an intriguing fusion of the two. These are some of the “best” songs of their career, the band proclaim – a reintroduction to a group with the same soul as before, but all the accumulated wisdom of their travels added in. And it’s definitely their most robust production to date.
“This is the most ambitious record we've made in a long time,” Reinhart explains. “We felt like we were sitting on a bunch of really good songs, and when we started it was like, let's not get in our own way here. Let's turn over every nook and cranny and see how big we can make it.”
“At the beginning, we were trying to beat everything we've ever done – which is hard to do when you're making your ninth record,” Lovelace adds. “But as the process went on, I realized I was comparing the present with what we've done before, instead of what the future could bring. Halfway through I was like, ‘What if this was our first record? What if the fans had no preconceived ideas?’ And that was really freeing, that mindset of just doing what feels good for this group of people right now, in this moment.”
Rinehart points to the title track as a breakthrough. “The Cave” was the first new song that felt truly original, he says, feeling like it captured the both the “mystery” of the band, plus the stadium-sized scope they eventually zeroed in on. Tapping into the spiritual need for self-discovery – and the impulse to escape the pressure of modern life – anticipation builds with a swell of foreboding fiddle and otherworldly harmony, before exploding in a swirl of electric guitar and pounding drums. All along Reinhart’s defiant, resolute vocal bellows into the darkness, coaxing the listener out of the metaphorical “the cave” and into the light, to reclaim their humanity.
It’s a theme of self-exploration and resilience that runs throughout the project – a worthy setting for one of rock’s most fearless writers, and an inspirational vocalist with unparalleled tone.
“Bear’s bravery and vulnerability are nothing short of inspiring to me,” Bolt explains. “He’s not afraid to sit and marinate in the uncomfortable silence of his own humanity in a way that helps the rest of us put language to the things that we feel, but struggle to articulate. The way he distills those emotions in a song is truly the fabric of a lifetime's weaving, and the rest of the band see it as our duty to accompany those words with the perfect soundtrack that will carry that heartfelt message to the world.”
With tracks like first single “Everknown,” that soundtrack is epic synth-pop production and even more rafter-moving energy, as Reinhart delivers an empathetic tribute to the world’s unsung heroes. People “like the teachers and janitors and police officers, and the lasting impact they have that they didn't get much credit for,” he says.
In “Wasting Time,” the band teams up with country hit makers Old Dominion for a true Southern rocker, leaning in to R&B, soul and gospel for an upbeat instant classic with a live-for-the-moment strut. In “Temporary Tears,” Irish bard Foy Vance joins for a quiet-but-soulful ballad of resounding hope, “Dreams” (featuring Judah & the Lion) brings their arena-sized ambitions into the real world – sonic proof of the magic of self-realization – and although “Fall On Me” is more intimate than explosive, its simplicity leaves room for emotional power.
Elsewhere, “How Wonderful We Are” celebrates love’s saving grace with a grooving chamber-pop singalong, and the empowering indie-rock anthem “When You Forgive Someone” highlights the lessons learned over 20 years of music. Both make sure the beating heart within NEEDTOBREATHE is never drowned out, no matter how big and bold they become.
“When I hear the record, I think, ‘There's no way a young version of ourselves could have made this,’” Rinehart says. “We didn’t have the talent or skill or songs. And so I think there's a level of that – it’s like, ‘We have these great songs, let's let them be what they what they want to be.’”
That’s sound advice for making music – and probably for a running band as well. All together, CAVES finds NEEDTOBREATHE refusing to rest on their laurels, and still looking to prove themselves after undeniable success. If there’s a core value of the creative class, that’s it, and in truth it’s what fans truly crave, deep down in some inner cave.
Bigger and brasher than before, but still thoughtful in a way that’s always set them apart, it will undoubtably help create the perfect soundtrack for their upcoming world tour with Judah & the Lion. And from there, it’s on to the next.
“I played football in college, so sports analogies are part of my life,” Rinehart says. “We think of records like seasons – it doesn't really matter whether you won the championship last season, it's what you're going to do this season. That's something we feel on every record, and certainly this time.
“We wanted to go in and make the best thing that this group can make, and believe in the connection of that – that music has a way of finding people,” he goes on. “When people hear this album for the first time, we want them to be blown away.”