Over the years, Needtobreathe‘s Bear Rinehart “always wanted to do a solo record.” But the self-titled inaugural release from his new project, Wilder Woods — whose video for the track “Light Shine In” is premiering exclusively below — became something even more involved than he could have imagined.
Rinehart acknowledges he “didn’t know what it was going to be” when he started writing songs at a friend’s house across the street from where he lives in Nashville. He wound up with two complementary approaches: “A wilder side that was lighter, dancey, flirtatious, and the wood stuff, the heavier things talking about experiences and stuff like that. It felt like two sides of a record, or two EPs. But put together it felt like a cohesive statement.”
The unifying factor, Rinehart adds, is his singing. “I wanted to build a sound around my voice, in a way,” he explained. “It sounds crazy, but we kept saying the works ‘smoky soul’ — the first minute of the Isaac Hayes song ‘Walk on By,’ or maybe an Otis Redding song or Ray Charles. And then with the production we brought some more alternative, modern elements into it. The only place I could not go was into that Americana, folk thing that (Needtobreathe) does. So I had a lot of room to branch out and experiment.”
“Light Shine In,” whose swelling, spiritual chorus also nods to Hozier, “was the hardest one to cut,” according to Rinehart. “I wrote the lyrics kind of as a manifesto away from music, in terms of consciousness. This is what I want to say now, things I’m feeling. It feels like the most Marvin Gaye-ish thing on the record, and I love that. It has that sort of swagger to it. It became the first song on the record, the opening argument for what Wilder Woods is.”
With the album out Aug. 9, Rinehart has plans to take Wilder Woods on the road with what he calls “a big show, kind of a high-energy, James Brown meets Childish Gambino kind of show.” He acknowledges, however, that, “I’m not sure all the Needtobreathe fans will actually like this record or tour. I think it’ll be shocking, for sure.” Nevertheless, Rinehart promises that Needtobreathe is still in business, even with he and bandmate Josh Lovelace both releasing solo projects.
“I think we all love the band,” Rinehart says. “My thought is all of this makes us stronger as musicians and better as people. We’ve got a lot of songs we’re pumped about for what’s going to be the next Needtobreathe record. It’s just a matter of time, ’cause we want to give these (solo) things our best effort, too.”