Chris Mountford talked to Josh Lovelace of hit Southern rockers NEEDTOBREATHE

Needtobreathe

With Needtobreathe making a whistle stop visit to Britain, to play gigs in London and the monumental Big Church Day Out, Cross Rhythms recognised a chat with the rockers from Seneca, South Carolina, was long overdue. I talked to the band's keyboardist, Josh Lovelace.

Chris: I understand you're packing your bags.

Josh Lovelace: "I am. You should see the hotel room I'm staying in: it's a mess. I'm getting it all ready to go."

Chris: You've just completed the first leg of Tour des Compadres.

Josh: "NeedToBreathe have always been a band that loves to play live; we've loved playing songs for people. This time around we were thinking about what we're going to do for a tour, maybe we'd bring out all of our friends - people we'd toured with in the past, or just people we love and want to hang out with. Being on the road gets kind of lonely when you're away from family, so we thought, 'How fun would it be to have your friends out with you and hear them play every night?' It was kind of a wild idea that turned into something that's been really fun for us, and it's done really well here in the States. We just finished leg one, taking a little break from that to come see you guys; then heading out with leg two, first week of July, bringing out our buddies in Switchfoot for some shows. We couldn't be more pleased with how it's gone."

Chris: Do you enjoy your UK visits?

Josh: We've had some great shows here in the States, playing close to home, but every time we come to the UK we always feel like we're coming home. We've always loved the crowd and the fans over there: it's been a really sweet relationship every time we come back. We're excited to get over there and see everybody. We came over in December to do an all-acoustic tour. We just brought over a simple set - stripped back the lights, didn't bring our drummer - and we've never done that before: we love to play acoustically, but never a full tour. That was extremely fun for us, but we're ready to bring the full show back to the UK and play these new songs for people."

Chris: Your latest album, 'Rivers In The Wasteland', reached number three in the US charts. Did you expect that kind of position?

Josh: "It's crazy! It's been wild to see that happen. We've seen a lot of new fans recently, listening to the record and grabbing onto the songs. It's been really cool for us."

Chris: "Feet Don't Fail Me Now" is one of Cross Rhythms' favourite songs in the last year, and in his 10 out of 10 review our writer said it "has a guitar riff to run on hot coals for."

Josh: "That's one of the best reviews for that cut I've ever heard. We went in wanting to do the record live. We wanted to sit in a room, five of us, and grab the moment as much as possible. These days, when you make a record, sometimes it doesn't feel organic. You're not playing at the same time - the drummer comes in one day and puts down his parts, then the next guy comes in. We wanted to go back to the roots of recorded music, and 'Feet' was one of those. The part on the record is one of the first couple times we ran the song. Bo and Bear had that guitar riff - we would play it in sound-checks and people would look up at us and say, 'What is that?' It felt like it would be a really fun song - adrenaline-pumping, tackling your enemies, ready to go kind of thing. We play it live and get a little crazy on it."

Chris: What would be your particular favourite?

Josh: "For me personally, 'More Heart, Less Attack', which is the song that closes the record. Same kind of thing - we were all in the room and Bo brought in this song. It was so beautiful and unique in a lullaby sense, I knew right there it was going to be one of the more special songs the band ever released. We dimmed the lights and played it a couple times; it was a pretty heavy moment. The band had been going through a lot during the whole process of the record. We were at each other's throats - there were times we thought the band was going to hang it up - and we didn't know if the record was going to come out. That song was the last thing for the record, coming out of the time where we were starting to communicate, clear up some things, and make a fresh start. So, for me, that song is the one that's the period at the end that says, 'It's all going to be okay, and we're going to keep doing this - hopefully for a long time'."

Chris: The other song at that end of the album, "Brother", has been reworked and released as a single.

Josh: "That was the one, for us, that started the process of figuring out how this band's going to operate in the future. Bear and Bo are brothers - they've done life together forever - so to work together, to write songs together, it's not easy. That song came out of a moment where they had been fighting and it turned ugly. We all went home for a long time, they weren't talking, and we didn't know what was going to happen. Bo wrote that song as a love song to Bear, to mend the relationship that had been somewhat broken in the past. We put it on the record, one of the last songs. It's been an amazing song for us to play live every night, and we had the idea, 'What if we put the song out and brought in a guest vocalist on it?' A buddy of ours, Gavin DeGraw (the singer/songwriter whose five albums have all been US chart hits) - we've toured with him in the past and has a brother as well. We thought, 'Let's send the song to him'. Within five minutes Gavin was on board and excited about the collaboration. We're extremely proud of 'Brother'; it's a statement song for us - where we were, where we are now, moving forward. It's one of our favourite songs on the record."