The past three years have been especially productive for Needtobreathe. The band has released three albums in that span, while also leaving quite a few extra songs in the vault.
Keyboardist Josh Lovelace says the wealth of music reflects where Needtobreathe is at after more than two decades as a band.
“It’s us dealing with our baggage and the things we have in our lives, in our human experiences but also just being comfortable enough to be vulnerable with the other guys in the band creatively and also just spending time together,” he said in a recent phone interview.
The group is performing at Live Oak Bank Pavilion Saturday with Judah and the Lion. Lovelace said the band is tighter than ever, enjoying one another’s company in such a place that making music no longer feels like a job. As well, they’ve “checked off a lot of boxes,” such as attaining success or fame.
“Everybody’s just in a good space where we love the band, we love making music, but we don’t have to,” he said. “We’re enjoying it enough to let that fruitfulness come out, which is really cool.”
The mood in Needtobreathe is especially striking within the big picture of the band’s career. For large chunks of time, conflict existed, specifically between founding members, chief songwriters and brothers Bear (lead singer, guitar, keyboards) and Bo Rinehart (guitar). Both Rineharts are talented songwriters; it became a problem within Needtobreathe as the group embarked on creating albums.
They initially were welcomed on the Christian-rock scene with their first two CDs, “Daylight” (2006) and “Heat” (2007), before breaking through to mainstream rock in 2009 with the band’s third album, “The Outsiders.” By the time Needtobreathe notched their first top 10 album on the “Billboard” magazine album chart — 2011’s “The Reckoning” — the dynamic between the brothers had grown toxic. Rather than pushing them to write better songs, competition reared its head. It corroded the brothers’ relationship and the dynamic within Needtobreathe as a whole.
The Rineharts eventually agreed their sibling relationship was more important than bickering over songs and ought to de-escalate their writing relationship. For a time they succeeded, and Needtobreathe notched two top-five albums, with 2014’s “Rivers in the Wasteland” and 2016’s “Hard Love.”
But issues returned and in April 2020 Bo exited the band.
Four years later, a more positive, creativity-driven atmosphere exists in Needtobreathe, Lovelace said. But that shouldn’t be mistaken for lack of motivation or ambition.
The band’s latest album, “Caves,” is evidence. Lovelace said with this album, he and his bandmates hope to elevate the group’s sound to where they consistently headline arena, ably touring at that level for some time.
The band, also including bassist Seth Bolt, drummer Randall Harris and guitarist Tyler Burkum, appears to be closing in on that goal on their current outdoor arena tour. “Caves” is intentionally meant to translate to the biggest concert stages.
“When we went into this record cycle, I think we all intentionally said to each other we want to make a record that feels anthemic,” Lovelace said. “We want to play more arenas. We want to do more of those kinds of shows where we can bring in our production, and we can bring in more lights. We love that part of our job, the creative of the live thing. We play arenas now, but we want to add 10 more on the tour and kind of go to the next level.”
The epic pop-rock songs on “Caves” don’t take Needtobreathe into uncharted territory. Several albums in the band’s catalog — “The Outsiders” and “Reckoning” — have had this sort of character. But “Caves” represents a contrast — and perhaps a return to form — after a 2022 album, “Into The Mystery,” that scaled back on the Needtobreathe sound.
“‘Into The Mystery,’ was made during the pandemic, when we weren’t able to do much,” Lovelace said.
They tucked away in house in Columbia, Tennessee, living together and recording the album in roughly 14 days.
“And it sounds like that, a little bit,” Lovelace said. “It’s more of an acoustic-driven record and very stripped back.”
By comparison, he said the bigger-sounding records, “The Reckoning” or “The Outsiders,” took more time and resources: “It was the band stretching to try to take it one extra notch up or one level up.”
“Into The Mystery” was a more simple endeavor — focusing on what was available to the band in the moment, amid Covid-19 shutdowns and social-distancing measures.
Work on “Caves” began when the band convened at a house/studio in Utah to write and do some preproduction and really accelerated last summer; the band wrote the songs while on the road in 2022. Lovelace said it came together organically.
“Because the people that are creating it are humans going through life and those things kind of blend in with your experiences and create this thing that kind of feels more cohesive than you ever intended it to be, as you’re going through it in a timeline sort of way,” he explained.
They recorded at Pachyderm Studios near Minneapolis before Needtobreathe declared “Caves” finished. Now Lovelace and his bandmates are ready to take the new songs to the live stage. They include an epic U2-ish “When You Forgive Someone,” to urgent rockers like “By and By,” “Wasting Time” and the title track, blending measured balladry with spacious rock on “Dreams” and “Everknown.”
“I think we love painting with all kinds of different colors and palates and so this is kind of going for it in some ways, throwing the whole kitchen, not just the kitchen, but the entire house, at the project,” he said.
Needtobreathe’s “The Caves World Tour” stops at Riverfront Park on Saturday, April 27, 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available here.
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