It’s a time of change for NEEDTOBREATHE after years of touring, and collecting awards
South Carolina natives Needtobreathe hardly need an introduction to most observers of any Triangle concert calendar from the past few years.
Hailing from Seneca, S.C., the four-piece first gained notice on the Christian rock charts, although they have fought against any attempt to label their music in a way that puts them in a niche genre. That hasn’t stopped the hardware from coming, however. With one Grammy nomination to their credit, and 10 wins from the Gospel Music Association Dove Awards, the battle continues.
Perhaps the oddest part of this issue is it’s evident that audience members are there for a good time, not a sermon. That includes the band’s members. Over the past 20 years, the musicians have honed their craft at venues across the country.
Perhaps that explains why 2018 appears to be the year of recorded experiments. Their summer tour, which stops Aug. 22 at Raleigh’s Red Hat Amphitheater, takes place behind the strength of their latest release, the four-song EP, “Forever On Your Side,” which is slated to be followed by this fall’s release of their first acoustic live album. Cleverly titled “Acoustic Live Vol. 1,” it captures the band’s finest performances from the acoustic tour they embarked on in the latter half of 2017.
It would be easy to say the band is challenging itself to keep performing interesting, but we’ll let them answer that question. The News & Observer spoke with vocalist Bear Rinehart on the phone before their Triangle stop to touch on how 2018 marks a year of change for Needtobreathe, if only on record.
Q: You recently released the new EP “Forever On Your Side.” What led to decision to release this as 4-song collection?
A: The biggest thing was that we didn’t record enough to release a full-length album, and while usually we would have just held onto (the songs) until we had enough in a year to release them altogether, the EP just felt more immediate than that. We wanted to get these songs out to our fans as quickly as possible. Plus, going out on tour in the fall, it’s always nice to have some new music out to play for everyone. It helps spice up the setlist.
Q: Another departure with the EP was that it was recorded at Niles City Sound recording studio in Fort Worth, Texas. What made you guys decide to venture outside of the Carolinas to record this time?
A: The guys at Niles were behind one of our favorite albums of the past few years, Leon Bridges’ “Coming Home.” (Bridges also will play Red Hat Amphitheater on Aug. 27.) Most of the time we spend recording, we spend it in our own studio (in Charleston), but sometimes it’s just a good idea to get outside of your own element. It allows you to look at things in a different way than if you were just doing it at home.
We didn’t want to do the New York or Los Angeles thing, and Fort Worth falls in the middle of being a small or big town, and that was the type of vibe we were looking for on this album. The drums on this album sound like early ’60s soul, which is tough to capture in our studio, and is something we’ve only been able to record in Fort Worth.
Q: The EP was recorded in “real time,” as well, which is the first time you’ve ever experienced that method of recording on one of your projects. What did you find different by doing so?
A: There’s a certain life to it. Whenever someone records like that, little things like one member playing at a slightly different speed tend to happen, so the finished song isn’t necessarily perfect. By recording like that, the song almost feels like a living thing, and that is the mood that I think most bands try to capture by recording this way. There’s a skill in it, too, because then you have to learn to trust your judgment; if you can pick out a mistake someone made, but the song itself sounds great, do you go with it?
Honestly, I think that’s why a lot of people like to hear their favorite bands recorded live. They tend to play a little bit faster, just put more into it in a way that you can just tell, and that’s what we were trying to get across on these recordings.
Q: “Acoustic Live Vol. 1” is slated to be released this November. I understand the EP was released to coincide with the current tour, but why schedule the live album to drop so quickly after the EP?
A: We had been wanting to do the acoustic tour for years — literally since we started playing together — but it always came down to an issue with timing. The band just kept getting (more popular) with every tour, which meant playing larger venues each time out, until it finally just felt like the right time (this past year). We went out on our first full acoustic tour, doing somewhere between 12 and 15 dates, and we knew after the first night that we were going to release a live record from the tour. I don’t think we knew that going into it, but after we saw what the response was and how different the versions (of the songs) were, we knew we had something there.
Not everyone is an acoustic fan, but the people that are loved that stuff, so I felt like it was a good change-up for us.
Q: Wouldn’t it be easy to assume that your fans have been eagerly awaiting a project like “Acoustic,” as you guys have made such a name for yourselves as a live act over the years, though?
A: When we first started playing clubs, we always ended up playing some songs with just the instruments, and all of the PAs turned off. That became something we were known for at that small level, and then our fans kept asking for an album like this. It went very well, especially since we didn’t know what the public response would be, or if we would even like it. I’m sure we’ll go out and do another acoustic tour again.
Details
Who: NEEDTOBREATHE with JOHNNYSWIM and Billy Raffoul
When: 6:30 p.m., Aug. 22 (The band will play Charlotte Metro Credit Union Amphitheatre Aug. 21.)
Where: Red Hat Amphitheater, 500 South McDowell St., Raleigh
Cost: $25, $45, $65
Info: 919-996-880 or RedHatAmphitheater.com