Musicpix.net

NEEDTOBREATHE
Radio Radio
Indianapolis, IN
08/22/2009
Live Photos

NEEDTOBREATHE performed to a sold-out Radio Radio, Indianapolis, Indiana crowd in support of their latest release "The Outsiders."  Hailing from Possum Kingdom, South Carolina, NEEDTOBREATHE delivered a super entertaining set.  Prior to the show, Musicpix sat down with guitarist Bo Rinehart to talk about musical brotherhood, their music and its magical quality.  Read on...

Musicpix:  We talk to a lot of bands that are ‘family.’  Talk about the dynamics of brotherhood in a band…

Bo:  There's definitely the sibling rivalry thing going on...We have a rule.  We don't allow punching in the face but other than that, everything else goes... we're pretty competitive.  That started out pretty early on as my brother (Bear) played football at Furman University and broke a lot of records and was kind of a big shot.  I played in high school too but I also played a football player in a movie called "Radio" with Ed Harris and Cuba Gooding Jr.  Bear was a real football player and I played one in a movie....we've always been competitive.  I'm the youngest so I’m the one with a chip on his shoulder.  We're eighteen months apart.  It's been good though... I felt privileged when he asked me to be in the band when I had been playing guitar for about a year.  We've carried that mentality with the rest of the guys because we've all known each other since we were ten years old.  We are basically all family.  If somebody does something that we don’t like, we just say it sucks.  There's no being nice.  We say how it is.  It's been awesome.  I think it's an edge that we have that a lot of bands don't because they have to tiptoe around subjects.  We're a critical band and we're hard on ourselves but we like to have fun.  We were all friends before we were in a band and it's an extension of us hanging out together.

Musicpix:  Do you think that trait comes from your athletic background, i.e. never being satisfied with yourself?

Bo:  Yeah.  I minored in Art and have always been the creative visual side of NEEDTOBREATHE...doing t-shirts and posters but yes, I think that in sports and in art, there's a big emphasis in knowing what people really think.  In football, you watch video.  In art, you do a presentation and get graded on how you present it.  The critique is big for us.  We've filmed shows in the past to see how we might improve ourselves to make a better show.  That stuff always helps so you just don't get out there and play a couple of songs and hope that people like it.  We take what we do seriously and we feel very blessed to be doing what we are doing and we try to micromanage to improve.

NEEDTOBREATHE Concert Photos

Musicpix:  This is your third album.  “The Outsiders” is your latest release and I’ve read that you think it’s your best work.  Why?

Bo:  It's far and away our best.  The first record we made, we were really young and naive.  We came from a really small town called Possum Kingdom, South Carolina and there was no music scene there whatsoever.  People didn't go to shows for fun because they didn’t exist.  We always felt like we were too far away from a big city so we did gorilla marketing and we did everything we could possibly do to make it to the next level.  Part of the record is about the fact that we're outsiders.  I don't feel like we're a part of any particular genre.  I think that's what the record is about and the song itself is about us being okay with that and coming to terms with that...We appreciate where we're at.  On the first record, they (the label)  treated us a bit like outsiders.  The label termed us, or what they wanted us to be like was more 'international.'  That's a nicer way to say, less redneck.

Musicpix:  Let's see we've got Bo, Bear, Possum Kingdom South Carolina…so where's Bubba?

Bo:  He's our guitar tech...I probably know 15 guys named Bubba!  But in making the first record, we made the record we wanted to make but it was influenced by people's opinions that now we realize they don't matter.  On the last record, "The Heat,' we took a large step toward doing what we want to do and doing it our way.  We moved to Charleston about eight months ago and got a studio and our bass player is a recording engineer and we just hung in the studio everyday and we tracked and we demo'd and we had a good time.  There's no limitation when you're doing that...nobody was there to tell us what to do.  We could make sounds that we wanted or use stuff that we wanted without people telling us it wasn't a good idea.  We just took a lot of chances and did what we wanted to do without any pressure.  That's our way because it's the most us and most genuine.

Musicpix: You talked about how producers can’t make a band and that the magic has to come from within…talk about NEEDTOBREATHE’s magic.

Bo:  Magic doesn't have a formula.  Some of it is about surrounding ourselves with people who want to find the magic rather than make it.  You stumble upon it and you never know it until it happens.  It can be as simple as a sound and then the words fall into place.  I think that happened a lot of this record.  Me and Bear are the songwriters.  Bringing back that competitive thing when we're always trying to outdo each other.  We write a lot and a lot of songs that have a chance for magic because there is strength in numbers.  We would work every song and if all four of us don't feel it, we just moved on.  We've got more songs...we've got plenty of time.  Basically as soon as a record hit stores, we write for the next one.  We write on the road...we're always writing.  I imagine that some bands hate going into the studio to come up with twelve songs.  We hate having to narrow it down to twelve.  I think the more you write, the better chance of finding that magic and you never know when that's going to happen.

Musicpix:  Knowing your background, it takes faith to do that.  Let the magic come to you.  Talk about your background.  You grew up in n a Church Camp environment.  Talk about how this experience shaped your music.

Bo:  The camp was crazy.  We were just a couple of kids who were completely wild and free.  We had a lake and he (Dad) built this thing called a 'Screamin'MeMe" which you could never get away with now because with all the legal stuff...it was a zip cord that flew out over the lake.  He would have bands come in and they'd have concerts for the kids at the camp.  We lived so far out in the woods and we'd have friends for about six weeks and they'd rotate every week.  I think it opened us up to a lot of things.  People came in from all places it was a fairly cultured upbringing beside running around in our underwear and playing in the woods.  After the camp, our Dad was a pastor for about sixteen years and music was a big part of our lives.  Dad played the trumpet for Roy Clark and Glen Campbell and the Gaither's so he knew a bit about the lifestyle.  He's one of those guys who would wear a NEEDTOBREATHE shirt every day if he could  He's a very very proud Dad.  Music was a big part of the church.  When you're growing up, it's not cool to say you learned about music in church.  Maybe if you’re a Rap artist but if you're in Rock and Roll, it's not as cool.

Musicpix:  Was there any tendency to move toward a Christian oriented group/label?

Bo:  When you're young, you can't go out and play in a club.  For us, Gospel music is the most genuine and sincere form of music there is because you're singing about something.  But, that's something we wanted to do.  We wanted to be about something.  Because of our background, through music, we have a chance to get it out there and talk about it.  We feel strongly about it but we don't want to make music just for Christians.   We’re Christian guys but that’s not we're trying to do.  Third Day is a great example.  They've influenced a lot of bands… The Fray, Mute Math...more mainstreamers.  For us, from the very beginning, we had deals offered to us from the Christian market probably five years before we got a mainstream offer but it wasn't what we wanted to do.  We wanted to make music that was credible, no offense to the Christian market, but we wanted to make music because of the music and not based on lyric.  It crossed out mind but we had a bigger picture in mind.

Musicpix: You’ve been making music your entire life…formally a band for ten years.  What’s the best part?

Bo:  It’s the whole cycle.  I'm the left-brain artist guy and I love making music but I also love performing.  If you go too hard at one, you can get burned out.  That’s what's so great about this job.  You can go hard and hit every city in America and then go hang out in the studio and make music.  After a while, you want to get to the next thing.  You want to record and you want to perform.  But I love turning on a new fan to our music.  You can see it in their faces.   There first couple of songs they seem stunned and by the end of the show, they're sold and you can see them transform through the course of the show.

Musicpix: Where does your inspiration come from?

Bo:  Bear is completely different than I am.  He's a workaholic.  He'll go to the drawing board and work things out.  Me on the other hand, I'm a dreamer and if something comes to me, I work with a little recorder and mumble my thoughts.  Something will hit me.  I like to be really inspired before I write a song instead of pushing it through.  It's everywhere though....sometimes if I see a great movie that makes me think differently.  Anytime you think differently, it opens up a while new side of songwriting.  For example, a new guitar.  We always joke about there being a certain number of songs in that guitar...and until you get that guitar, you don't know what those songs are.

Musicpix:  A predetermined inventory if you will....

Bo:  Right exactly.  But Bear is different than me.  He's more Black Crows and Brian Adams and I love that too, but I also like movie soundtracks and atmospheric things….sounds and melody.

Musicpix:  You talked about fan-rolling over.  Talk about your fan connection…

Bo:  Early on, you play shows and songs and sometimes it's hit or miss.  But what we've figured out is that genuine songs make the most connections.  It's obvious when someone is singing about something that they're passionate about vs. singing about a subject they thought was cool.  "More Time" on our last record was about being on the road and missing our family.  This song connects.  We had a couple tell us it saving their marriage!   This is the connection.  Everybody goes through a lot of things.  We're not trying to connect.  We're writing genuine songs that makes sense to us.  The magic and power of music is that people interpret it for themselves.  Those connections make what we do really really cool.

Musicpix:  How did you get discovered in such a small town?

Bo:  It took a really really long time before we got any bites.  We played everywhere we possibly could.  We took every small show we could.  We put up thousands of flyers in the smallest of places thinking that the odds are,  we would run into someone who could help us.  Bear and Joe went to Furman University and there was a kid there whose Dad was a Manager in Nashville and we sent him our demo.  It was just weird.  His Dad just happened to be a Manager.  His name is Kip Krones and he managed the Outfield and The Moody Blues.  He ran Sony in the UK for a while and he stuck with us.  For us, to have someone whose apart of the business and likes what we do, was huge.  It took another two or three years to get signed but he was our mouthpiece.  We probably weren’t ready before and there weren’t any other bands around us so we were lucky.  If yu do it long enough and hard enough, you're going to get noticed. 

The Band:

Bear Rinehart - vox, gtr, piano
Bo Rinehart - guitar, bgv
Seth Bolt - bass, bgv
Joe Stillwell - drums, bgv

Discography

2006                       Daylight
2007                       The Heat
2009                      The Outsiders

The Tour

AUG 25 2009      RECORD BAR      KANSAS CITY, MO
AUG 27 2009      RHYTHM AND BREWS     CHATTANOOGA, TN
AUG 28 2009      40 WATT CLUB   ATHENS, GA
AUG 29 2009      GREENFIELD AMPHITHEATER WILMINGTON,NC
AUG 31 2009      HEADLINERS MUSIC HALL             LOUISVILLE, KY
SEP 1 2009           THE BASEMENT COLUMBUS, OH
SEP 2 2009           MUSICA               AKRON, OH
SEP 3 2009           SONAR BALTIMORE, MD
SEP 4 2009           PHEIRLOOM ARTS THEATER         DANBURY, CT
SEP 5 2009           REVELATION FARMS       FRENCHTOWN, NJ
SEP 11 2009         DISNEY HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS   ORLANDO, FL
SEP 12 2009         SIX FLAGS NEW ENGLAND           AGAWAM, MA
SEP 16 2009         THE STATE THEATRE        FALLS CHURCH, VA
SEP 18 2009         THE NOTE            WEST CHESTER, PA
SEP 19 2009         THE PARADISE   BOSTON, MA
SEP 20 2009         HIGHER GROUND            BURLINGTON, VT
SEP 21 2009         HIGHLINE BALLROOM    NEW YORK, NY
SEP 23 2009         IS VENUE             CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA
SEP 24 2009         THE SQUARE ROOM        KNOXVILLE, TN
SEP 25 2009         CAT’S CRADLE    CARBORO, NC
SEP 26 2009         THE MUSIC FARM            CHARLESTON, SC
OCT 1 2009          THE LOFT             ATLANTA, GA
OCT 2 2009          EXIT/IN NASHVILLE, TN
OCT 3 2009          WORKPLAY         BIRMINGHAM, AL
OCT 7 2009          DIXIE CLASSIC FAIR          WINSTON SALEM, NC
OCT 8 2009          VISULITE THEATRE           CHARLOTTE, NC
OCT 9 2009          THE HANDLEBAR              GREENVILLE, SC
OCT 10 2009        THE HANDLEBAR              GREENVILLE, SC
OCT 13 2009        BLUE GILL            SPANISH FORT, AL
OCT 14 2009        HOUSE OF BLUES             NEW ORLEANS, LA
OCT 15 2009        PONTIAC GARAGE @ HOUSE OF BLUESDALLAS, TX
OCT 16 2009        THE MARQUEE  TULSA, OK
OCT 17 2009        WAREHOUSE LIVE            HOUSTON, TX
OCT 20 2009        HARD ROCK CAFE             SAN DIEGO, CA
OCT 21 2009        TROUBADOUR  WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA
OCT 22 2009        CAFE DU NORD SAN FRANCISCO, CA
OCT 23 2009        HAWTHORNE THEATRE  PORTLAND, OR
OCT 24 2009        CHOP SUEY         SEATTLE, WA
OCT 25 2009        THE BIG DIPPER                SPOKANE, WA
OCT 27 2009        BLUEBIRD THEATRE         DENVER, CO
OCT 29 2009        VARSITY THEATER            MINNEAPOLIS, MN
OCT 30 2009        SCHUBAS (2 SHOWS - 7 & 10)      CHICAGO, IL
NOV 1 2009         BLIND PIG           ANN ARBOR, MI
NOV 2 2009         INTERSECTION  GRAND RAPIDS, MI

By

Gwyn Tyme