NeedtoBreathe
Nature or Nurture? Is a great rock band born or bred? In the case of NeedtoBreathe the answer is both. Three of the central band members are PK’s – pastors kids – to very successful fathers who have learned how to produce a great show every Sunday morning. In addition, their families are musical. Bear and Bo borrowed a few of dad’s trumpet licks from the days on tour with the Gaithers (never heard of them? Look in the gospel section – they’re still bestsellers after several decades). Joe inherited his mother’s classical training and combined it with his father’s razor-sharp intellect and deep smooth voice. If a band was ever born with a head start, it is this one.
But if NeedtoBreathe are students of their fathers, they are also students of rock. Joe knows every word to every rock song written within the last 30 years (plus every drum lick). Bear studies image and marketing in an attempt to create a band with a huge look, a huge sound, and a huge draw. Seth first captured NTB's sound as a high-school student and now holds a degree in recording engineering. They have studied and mastered performance, sound, and showmanship and consequently earned a remarkably faithful and fired up audience of "Breathers."
On stage nature and nurture converge. Bear is up front, big as a mountain, singing breathy John Mayerish vocals with fifty extra pounds of testosterone and muscle. Joe is in the back adding smooth bass harmonies and a thunder of rhythm. Nick to the left banging the keys off his monster Triton. Seth to the right with a bass, retro glasses, and a "this is too cool for words" grin.
The two brothers are the center of the show. Bo is an electron orbiting the stage in a crazed frenzy, eyes wide and wild. If Bear is a rock, swaying with his low strung guitar; Bo is his otherworldly antithesis tethered to earth only by a microphone, where he will pant a few background vocals before launching back into orbit. Bear is the brains. Bo is the art.
After a midnight show in an empty bar I once overheard the frustrated question posed to the young guitarist who simultaneously feeds and feeds off of a crowd, "Bo, what happened tonight? You didn't go nuts!"
These days, Bo is always nuts. A huge rock show in an empty room is long gone. So are the all-day garage rehearsals on Sunday afternoons in Seneca. No more lunch shifts at Macaroni grill, road-trips in a dingy brown van, or pre-game meals at Kyoto express. The time has come for sharing the stage with the likes Switchfoot and Collective Soul. The long awaited contract with Atlantic/Lava records arrived, and a summer of recording in England awaits. Dreams are becoming reality.
Between you and me, though, I will miss the days of sneaking in through a side door to avoid a $3 cover charge. I will miss watching with a wide-open mouth, knowing full-well where this band is headed and smugly sharing this knowledge only with the doorman and sound board operator at an empty club.
The next time I watch NeedtoBreathe, it may be through binoculars at the back of a crowd of thousands. But I'm certain that even from that distance, their music and perfomance will still be, as it always has been, larger than life.
Catch a sneak preview of NTB's music on purevolume or myspace.com
But if NeedtoBreathe are students of their fathers, they are also students of rock. Joe knows every word to every rock song written within the last 30 years (plus every drum lick). Bear studies image and marketing in an attempt to create a band with a huge look, a huge sound, and a huge draw. Seth first captured NTB's sound as a high-school student and now holds a degree in recording engineering. They have studied and mastered performance, sound, and showmanship and consequently earned a remarkably faithful and fired up audience of "Breathers."
On stage nature and nurture converge. Bear is up front, big as a mountain, singing breathy John Mayerish vocals with fifty extra pounds of testosterone and muscle. Joe is in the back adding smooth bass harmonies and a thunder of rhythm. Nick to the left banging the keys off his monster Triton. Seth to the right with a bass, retro glasses, and a "this is too cool for words" grin.
The two brothers are the center of the show. Bo is an electron orbiting the stage in a crazed frenzy, eyes wide and wild. If Bear is a rock, swaying with his low strung guitar; Bo is his otherworldly antithesis tethered to earth only by a microphone, where he will pant a few background vocals before launching back into orbit. Bear is the brains. Bo is the art.
After a midnight show in an empty bar I once overheard the frustrated question posed to the young guitarist who simultaneously feeds and feeds off of a crowd, "Bo, what happened tonight? You didn't go nuts!"
These days, Bo is always nuts. A huge rock show in an empty room is long gone. So are the all-day garage rehearsals on Sunday afternoons in Seneca. No more lunch shifts at Macaroni grill, road-trips in a dingy brown van, or pre-game meals at Kyoto express. The time has come for sharing the stage with the likes Switchfoot and Collective Soul. The long awaited contract with Atlantic/Lava records arrived, and a summer of recording in England awaits. Dreams are becoming reality.
Between you and me, though, I will miss the days of sneaking in through a side door to avoid a $3 cover charge. I will miss watching with a wide-open mouth, knowing full-well where this band is headed and smugly sharing this knowledge only with the doorman and sound board operator at an empty club.
The next time I watch NeedtoBreathe, it may be through binoculars at the back of a crowd of thousands. But I'm certain that even from that distance, their music and perfomance will still be, as it always has been, larger than life.
Catch a sneak preview of NTB's music on purevolume or myspace.com
posted by David and Ari at 11:40 PM
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