NEEDTOBREATHE returns to Birmingham

Few artists have been able to seamlessly cross over Secular and Christian music lines. Elvis Presley, Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard were able to do so, but it’s a short list by any measure. The South Carolina-based quartet NEEDTOBREATHE can be added to the crossover conversation, finding popularity with both audiences. On Monday, February 20, the band will return to Birmingham for a performance at the Alabama Theatre. Ben Rector opens the 8 p.m. show. Recently, we caught up with NEEDTOBREATHE guitarist Bo Rinehart – brother of band mate Bear Rinehart – by phone from his South Carolina home.

Brent Thompson: Bo, thanks for your time today. We are enjoying the new CD, The Reckoning. If you will talk about your writing process for the album.

Bo Rinehart: We try to write as much as possible. We carry around all these smart devices now and anytime you get a song idea you can get the idea down quick. The whole idea of that is to strike while it’s hot. Anytime we came home – we have our own home studio – we would try to get in and make the most of it. A lot of times that called for no rest from the road, but at the end of the day you’ve got a basket of songs that you can choose from. On this record, we decided the way we would go about it was, “Let’s do fewer songs and spend more time on them and give them more attention.”

BT: How do you feel about the current climate of the music industry, especially with technology’s impact on listening and distribution?

BR: I literally think about that and talk to people about that everyday. I feel strongly about Spotify and how these things are shaping up and what they do to the industry. I obviously care about record sales, but not because of the money – it’s because of the amount of fans. They say for every record bought, there are five people that stole it or borrowed it. That doesn’t bother me as much as the point of the clutter. It’s so easy these days for bands to do their own music out of the garage and it’s easy to self-promote. But there’s a massive tipping point because of social media. I think it’s hard for new bands to break through and get to that tipping point where those things turn into real fans.

BT: How has NEEDTOBREATHE been able to find fans in both Christian and Rock music when it’s so rarely been done?

BR: It’s always been a funny question to us because we don’t call ourselves a Christian band and we didn’t start in the Christian market. We grew up in a Christian home and our dad was a pastor and we got into church music early. But the thoughts and goals of the band were to – not to knock Christian music – set a higher standard to where it’s not a label defining what we do. From the very beginning, we certainly felt like the music was for a lot of people.

Tickets are $25 – plus service charge – and can be purchased at www.ticketmaster.com