NEEDTOBREATHE (from left to right): Seth, Joe, Bear, Bo; courtesy of Atlantic

Southern beats aren’t just all banjos and harmonicas, though the brothers of NEEDTOBREATHE do play mean ones. Hailing from Seneca, South Carolina, the rock band comprised of Bear Rinehart (vocals, guitar, piano ), Bo Rinehart (vocals, guitar), and childhood friends Seth Bolt (backing vocals, bass) and Joe Stillwell (drums) is taking the world by storm—if not by their Southern charm, then by touring with Taylor Swift and their soon-to-be-released fourth record, The Reckoning, out September 20th. We had the pleasure of speaking with the Rinehart gentlemen about their “incredibly country” childhood, learning from Elvis, and the struggle to find manly guy’s jewelry. If their Southern accents don’t hook you, their music will.

ELLEgirl: Bo, your real name is Nathaniel. Where does Bo come from?

Bo: When I was really little, my parents always thought I was kind of a clown, so they called me BoBo, which I probably should not have told you (laughs). Growing up we also played a lot of sports, and it was right around the time  Bo Jackson blew up and everybody knew about him—you know, the “Bo Knows” campaign—so my dad thought it would be good marketing.

EG: And Bear?

Bear: After football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant.

EG: Those are great names. Where does your band name come from?

Bo: That was actually a name that the drummer Joe came up with. He went to some conference when he was a teenager and a story kinda stuck with him: Socrates was teaching some kids down by the water, and one of the kids asked—

Bear: “How do I know my purpose in life; how do I know if I’m doing the thing I’m supposed to be doing?” And instead of answering, Socrates held him under the water until he was gasping for air and said, “When you need that thing in your life as much as you need to breathe then you know it’s the right thing.”

EG: Your dad was an Assembly of God Pastor, and your mom taught piano. Did what they do influence your own musical careers at all?

Bear: When we were kids, we grew up in a very rural country area—we were probably really weird. We were actually home-schooled at first because we were so far out we couldn’t get to the school in time. It was kinda insane. My mom would teach me piano in the afternoons. The love of music definitely came from them: music was in the house all the time.

EG: Does religion play an important part in your music?

Bear: I think it does. Something we’ve learned in the  past seven, eight years when we really got into songwriting is that the more honest you are, the more it translates to people. The way we grew up is definitely in our music and our own beliefs are in our music. Sometimes it’s Bo’s beliefs and not mine. We try to put the band together and all of us decide if it is something we are behind or not. I kind of feel like if we had grown up with our dad as a truck driver we’d be writing songs about the road.

EG: I watched your acoustic version of ‘The Outsiders.’ Bo, you played banjo and Bear, you played harmonica, there was clapping, and the song just genuinely made me feel happy. But the song is titled ‘The Outsiders,’ so it’s a little ironic, no?

Bear: Yea definitely. When we first started off we weren’t sure who we were as a band. People wanted to know like, oh are you an emo band or something, I don’t know. The outsiders thing, it’s an upbeat song cause we are proud of it. [But outside our circle], we didn’t know how that would translate. I think we were nervous about it and in a way shying away from being ourselves. And I think that was a coming-of-age sound for us. So this was like look, it’s cool to be an outsider and a lot of people relate to that.

EG: You guys grew up in a little town in South Carolina called Possum kingdom. What did you guys do growing up?

Bo: We lived the definite redneck dream life. We had a lot of woods. We would take our shirts off and just run around until sun down.

Bear: When I look back on our youth, it was a different time. I remember our parents knowing [that at least] we’d come back before dark cause we’d be hungry. We would just go out there and say, “see ya later on.” We got into tons trouble doing stunts, and we were very violent with each other.

Bo: Yea, It’s amazing our parents let us kids go off with a three-wheeler. Those are illegal now. They had one wheel in the front making it likely to flip over, which we did often.

EG: Any broken bones?

Bo: You know what, we were pretty fortunate.

Bear: We did however have a lot of facial lacerations, things like that.

Bo: We would set up the trampoline in the gymnasium and jump off the roof. It doesn’t hurt when you land on the trampoline; it’s where the trampoline throws you cause you’re not going land on the trampoline the second time. So yea, it was incredibly country.

EG: Did you both share an interest in the same kind of music when you were younger?

Bear: I think at first we did—our parents were really strict. We could only listen to a lot of Christian music, and that was kind of intense because we were just like, not happy with it—not what it was about but just that the music wasn’t out-there enough for us like the rock bands we were into. At some point our mom said if you want to do that kind of music, you got to write it yourself.

EG: Wise words from your mom then, huh?

Bear: So that led to that. Once we got into high school, we were the ones secretly taping the radio in our bedrooms. All our tapes were recorded…

Bo: …On the jam box. We were very proud when we got a clean recording from like the very beginning of the song with no talking, then to the end of song. We did a good job.

EG: Who is your favorite artist right now?

Bo: Arcade Fire. Bear: I’m probably a Springsteen fan.

EG: Who would you say really influenced your band’s sound now?

Bo: I feel like I’m all over the board. I am constantly on Shazam trying to find anything fresh and new. That really gets me going. But I love when somebody can control a crowd. Growing up, I was always entertained by Elvis and just somebody whose performance was a big thing. So it’s a little bit of indie and stuff that is very, very left of center and then some that is straight down the middle.

Bear: I’m kind of like old rock—soul rock I would call it. I’m a big Joe Cocker and Ray Charles fan. I like the gritty. Black Grudge was the first real rock band I saw and I was like I have to do this.

EG: What was you guys’ first concert?

Bear: Probably some bad Christian rap.

Bo: Yea, probably.You know, the ever present Christian Rock.

Bear: You know, when we were seven years old. Those were some dark times (laughs).

EG: Other members Joe Stillwell and Seth Bolt are childhood friends. How did you all come together?

Bo: We moved to a slightly larger town than Possum Country, Seneca, and our dad was a pastor and I guess it’s how we met Seth.

Bear: He might have been seven, and his parents went to the church. So basically, we moved to their town. And Joe, the drummer, moved there in 8th grade.

Bo: It’s a small town so everybody knew when Joe moved. It was like hey, he’s a new kids who plays the drums.

EG: You guys are on tour with Taylor Swift. Describe that experience so far.

Bear: It’s been cool; it’s a new experience with venues that size. We’ve been around for a long time, but we have never played stadiums before, so it’s a lot to learn. Like how do you make a 50,000 people concert feel intimate, you know? So I think we’re learning a lot, and Taylor Swift is great.

EG: I heard she “hand picked” you guys. What does this mean?

Bear: We don’t “make business-sense” for the tour because we aren’t a country band, and our fans aren’t as young as hers. It was kind of out of the blue a little bit, but she just likes the band a lot. I think it’s really cool, and she’s a genuine fan. The first time we met her, she talked about the songs and what we were gonna play and that made us feel good about it.

Bo: I think that the only thing that really made sense was that she really dug it, and she made us feel welcome on the tour. She’s into music which is cool, and all the conversations we have with her are about new music and who’s out there and who we’ve seen live, so we connect in that way. If you’ve ever seen a Metallica concert, it’s nothing like that (Bear laughs). But it’s a lot of fun.

EG: Your last album The Outsiders was a great success—#20 on the Billboard. You have a new album coming out September 20th entitled The Reckoning. What are you hoping for with this album, and how does it differ from the last?

Bear: It’s our fourth record so for us, we put a lot of pressure on it. For a lot of our favorite bands, their 4th album is big, so we looked to this record to kind of define us as a band,and I think it’s the best record we made by far. But there’s a lot of crazy stuff: I think we used ten drum kits on a song; we just kitchen-sinked it any time we wanted and we also stripped it way down too.

EG: How do you feel about being compared with Kings of Leon?

Bear: It’s strange ’cause I guess we got signed a little before their band hit it on the scene, and I remember seeing they had a video about them being preacher kids and from the south, and I was like WHAT!

Bo: It felt like they stole our story.

Bear: But no, I think they’re obviously a great band. I think it’s great for music in general right now, the south is coming back to rock and roll. For a while when people thought of southern rock, they would think of Skynerd but now people are  hip enough in the south these days to figure it out, which is cool. So I definitely feel like we are a part of that.

EG: So, is the term Southern Gentleman true? Are you guys gentlemen?

Bo: I’m southern, I’m not that gentleman (laughs).

Bear: I would hope so, yeah…I would say so.

Bo: We’re pretty smooth. We’re classy fellas.

EG: How would you describe your style?

Bo: I like stuff that looks like it’s from a different time. Not just an old piece like a costume but something that is timeless, and there’s a lot of movies to me that [inspire my taste] like Shawshank Redemption and Gangs of NY.

Bear: I think as a band we do a lot of that. We just try to have modern elements, and it kind of ties into the music. There’s some southern things sprinkled in like cowboy boots, or jeans high rolled up, so its a little Huck Fin or something, but we also love henleys and stuff like that.

EG: I noticed your necklaces, Bear, those are great.

Bear: Thanks, thanks, I love the jewelry thing. A couple of these are new; I try to put a little collection together. It’s hard cause dudes don’t have a lot of places to buy guy’s jewelry that is manly. So you got to find something. Anytime there’s a photo shoot we ask the stylist to bring something, you know, the rare things that are hard to find.

EG:You also have some songs in movies like PS I love You and When in Rome, and TV shows like The Hills, etc. What’s that like hearing yourselves through the screen?

Bo: Its weird, for some reason your kind of like, oh wait I know this band. We obviously play the songs everyday but we don’t listen to the record version of it, so when it comes out it’s like this faint memory of what the song was. So when it comes on you’re like, this is strange.

Bear: I’ll be at Home Depot or something shopping for a hammer, and it comes on and I’m like, what?

Bo: It’s like a home movie, and you think; I don’t sound like this, it’s totally weird.

Bear: Especially in movies. Bo was actually in this movie called Radio.

Bo: It was a football movie about a guy who grew up in a town 20 minutes from us. I went and tried out with 300 other guys trying to be on the football team, and I started off as the stunt double for the running back and star athlete so I got to do all his stunts.

Bear: It was funny when it came out: we were in our home town so everyone was in the theater, but when he came on screen everybody started laughing. You know this wasn’t the desired effect because it was a serious scene, but that’s what it’s like when we hear our songs on there. NEEDTOBREATHE’s fourth album The Reckoning is out September 20!