Following up their sophomore album The Heat, Needtobreathe is out with another record entitled The Outsiders. Three albums in, the band has assembled a sizeable following but not one that fans of the band think that they're deserving of. In a recent interview with Alternative Addiction, lead singer Bear Reinhart talked about the band being considered a well-known secret.

"Sure, it's weird. We definitely feel like in certain circles people definitely know about the band, but then we show up in some towns and people have no idea," explained Reinhart.  "With us it's been a real bizarre time over the last year and half or two years...it's kind of like slowly happened for us. I definitely agree with that statement...but I do think that it's all starting to come together around this record."

Their sophomore record, The Heat was a successful one for the band, reaching number 2 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart.  The album also helped the band gain a sizeable amount of radio play in the AAA format thanks to their song "More Time." While Reinhardt is proud of the record he also noted that it was a learning experience, just like everything in life.

"I think The Heat was a big step forward for us, in terms of us just having a lot of confidence to try new things," said Reinhart.  "I think that we found a lot of things that work.  Where we probably made some mistakes on The Heat was just trying everything, I think we honed in on some things that we felt that what we were good at and what we thought we were actually best at, that's what The Outsiders is an extension of."

They may have lightened up on the experimentation but that doesn't mean they've abandoned it.

"This record is all over the place," says Reinhart.  "After a couple of months going back to it, I'm really proud that we tried a lot of things. I'm glad we fought for every inch we could get."

The Outsiders isn't just the title of the album and the title track, it's also an anthem for a band that has been moving up in the ranks of the industry for the past few years.

"It's us figuring out that we are a little bit of an outsider band," said Reinhart. "We're from a small town, always been on the outside looking in. Not just culturally, but musically and in all kinds of ways. This record is about embracing that and having confidence in it."

The attitude of being an outsider is an edge that's heard on the record, something that Reinhart is especially proud of.

"I really like the attitude of the record. I feel like records aren't good unless the band sounds like they have a chip on the shoulder. To me, I feel like we had a chip on our shoulder and you can tell, that's important. Once you lose chip on your shoulder, you might as well quit. I'm glad we still have it. I'm glad we're still young enough, mad enough, and passionate about it enough to have it."

The Outsiders is out now.  Needtobreathe is on tour this fall, full tour dates are available at the band's website at: www.needtobreathe.net

Listen To Alternative Addiction's Interview With Needtobreathe