INTERVIEW JOSH LOVELACE FROM NEEDTOBREATHE – by: Janel Spiegel | The Valley Ledger

The band NEEDTOBREATHE will be at THE SANDS EVENT CENTER on May 5, 2017. “NEEDTOBREATHE is a GRAMMY-nominated rock band hailing from South Carolina, comprised of brothers Bear Rinehart (vocals, guitar) and Bo Rinehart (guitar, vocals), Seth Bolt (bass, vocals), and Josh Lovelack (keys, vocals).” Josh took some time to speak with THE VALLEY LEDGER for an exclusive interview.

Hi Josh, How are you?

Josh: Awesome, hey Janel, how are you doing?

First off it is an honor to talk to you and everyone in the Lehigh Valley is so excited that NEEDTOBREATHE is coming to Bethlehem.

Josh- Awesome, we are excited to hit the road and come see everybody! It’s going to be fun!

“Happiness” is such a beautiful, strong song. I was reading some of the YouTube comments and fans have said they just want “sing and shout the song from mountaintops!” How does that make you feel when you hear such amazing comments like that?

Josh- It is still pretty crazy to us. Whether we are in a studio or backstage working on new songs. These songs are the soundtracks to people’s lives and it is a huge honor for us to even be included in someone’s conversation in their daily life, whether it be in their ear buds on the way to work. It is crazy that we get to go with people and be part of their everyday life. I’m a dad so I have music playing a lot in our house. The things that we are passionate about, other people get excited about that too. It is a huge honor for us.

Does family inspire all of you?

Josh- They definitely do. I think the way we grew up and the people around us and the people in our lives keep us going. We try our songs on our parents. There are family ties that kind of go all throughout what we do and of course two of the guys are brothers.

The Sands Event Center is such a great place in the Lehigh Valley (Bethlehem, PA), what do you want to say to the fans and possible new-comers who may have not heard NEEDTOBREATHE before?

Josh- I think for a fan that has been around for a while, this is going to be fun. We have been touring for a long time and for the first part of our career we would play in rock clubs and we were just giving it everything we got. This tour will be us playing longer sets. We got a band called Colony House out with us. We just hope that if you have seen us before, we hope we can play as many songs as we can. If you are a new fan, we hope you have the best time. We have the best fans in the world and I feel like if you come to our shows, hopefully it is infectious. The people that are there are music lovers and they love rock concerts. We hope it is a great night and you can come out, leave the worries of the world behind and just enjoy a night of good music and get to be out with some good music loving people.

What songs are you guys most excited to perform live?

Josh- We were in rehearsal just last week and the last tour was a shorter set for us. This tour we get to play a little longer which is really fun for us so we will be bringing back a bunch of songs that we haven’t played in a while. And some older songs that the fans have been asking for. We are still figuring out the set-list but for me there is a little bit of rumor that we might end up trying to play, “Drive All Night,” which is a song from “The Reckoning.” We are going to play songs from everything.

With every ticket purchased a $1 is going to www.oneworldhealth.com, what can you tell us about that and why you chose One World Health?

Josh- We have been in partnership with One World Health for a while now. It is an organization that we have been inspired by for a long time. We have some friends that helped to start it. It is out of Charleston where the band is based. It’s an awesome thing. What they do is provide sustainable health-care in places in the world that don’t have any. They come in and not only do they build clinics and serve the people in those communities but they staff the clinic with people from the community. It is an amazing thing that we got to be a part of. We got to go to Nicaragua earlier this year and open the very first NEEDTOBREATHE clinic that was funded by that dollar from ticket sales. It is an easy for us and for our fans to say there are people all over the world and if we can do anything to help. It is really a way that we can give back. We went to the grand opening and we got to see the clinic and it is beautiful. We did a clinic there in the town, we helped out and got to serve the community. We got to do a lot of things in our careers and all kinds of crazy stuff that we will tell our kids one day but opening that clinic and seeing those people’s faces was the best thing for us. It was the best day ever.

What was it like singing and working with the amazing Andra Day on “Hard Love?”

Josh-It was amazing. She is one of the most talented people we have ever gotten to collaborate with. We got to go to L.A. and track the song with her. We got to watch her do her thing and it is unbelievable how good she is and how much control she has with her voice. She knocked it out of the park. Everything she sang in the vocal booth was more than good enough to put on the record. She is just a sweet person and she took the song to another level. We love the song and it is one of our favorite songs on the record.

Do you have anything you do special before a show that you can share?Josh- That we can, okay let’s see. It is kind of crazy to say it but before we walk out, we always raise our hands in the air. We just raise our hands in the air kind of like the ROCKY statue in Philadelphia. It is just us preparing to go into battle. That gets our blood pumping, we throw our hands in and somebody decides what the thing is that we will say every night. It brings up the energy. We are very serious about what we do but we walk out and have a good time. Once we walk on that stage we hope we can conquer the world.

The music NEEDTOBREATHE is so positive and actually tells a story to me. What was the process like making the “HARDLOVE” album? I feel a lot of Gospel, Country, and Rock. What musicians inspired you growing up?

Josh- As a piano player, I have always been inspired by anybody that was breaking the rules with piano playing or guitar playing. I grew up listening to old Ray Charles records and Elton John and later in life The Black Crowes. Then as a college kid, I tried to listen to anything where they were pushing the envelope a little bit musically. I play by ear and I wasn’t formally trained. I think I have a decent ear. I try to pick up on different things and pick up a different instrument.

I love Elton John and Ray Charles. Do you have a favorite song by Ray Charles?

Josh- I grew up playing music in church and playing the organ and different things. If there is a spirit about the song.

You also have started learning the saxophone. What other instruments would you like to learn?

Josh- I am inspired by all kinds of stuff. I can play enough. It is kind of like learning a foreign language. When I was a kid, I played piano. That was my first instrument so I kind of figured out how to use my ears to play what I wanted to play. If I could hear it, I could understand it with my ears. I try to do that with other instruments like the saxophone. I play harmonica at some of our shows. I play guitar, the drums and I would love to learn the violin or the cello. I’ve tried to pick it up a little bit. If I ever get some times to lock myself in a room where no one can hear me that would be something try and work on.

Did you always know you wanted to do music?

Josh- It was. I grew up in a very musical household. My parents were musical and my grandparents were as well. When I was young my grandparents would sing songs with me. I learned a lot through that and about myself. I was really inspired at a young age to want to do this as a career. In elementary school when kids were pretending they were firemen, police offers or astronauts I knew then that this is what I wanted to do. I look back and if I were to do something else, I had no back-up plan at this point and when you decide when you are seven to be a musician you are committed. I have always wanted to do this.

What is next for NEEDTOBREATHE after the tour?

Josh- Well, you know we are actually in the process of working out what we want to do.

What advice would you offer to someone who may be scared to just go for it and accomplish their dream?

Josh- If you love it, you’ll never give up on it. It is not an easy business but I will say I cannot imagine doing anything else. I would never give up on it because it has never given up on me. That is a very Southern thing to say but that is true.

Music saves a lot of lives so thank you. Even if you are having a bad day. Music is universal.

Josh- It is, it’s very powerful. We feel very lucky and we take it seriously. You never know who is going to need that song.

Find NEEDTOBREATHE online: