“Better Days Ahead: The Josh Lovelace Story”

Today, Josh Lovelace of the Grammy nominated rock band NEEDTOBREATHE announced his new full-length solo album SHELTERS, due out October 25th, 2024 via Stonycroft Records/Missing Piece Records.

The album is an 11-song suite of original and achingly personal tracks that will resonate with anyone who has ever dealt with loss. Along with the announcement, Lovelace has shared the album’s inspiring first single and video “Miracles,” a rumination on just how much young minds are able to trust and hope — and an appeal to return to those days.

The video for the song premiered with Americana Highways who describe the clip, “Hazy in black and white, with occasional red colored scenes, there are sharp and unfocused areas contrasting as the video (and the song) delve into the imagination and parts of our inner selves. Josh hears broken records wasting our focus and expresses that universal feeling that we are running out of time within the social noise all around us, and steps out to say: I want to believe in miracles, I want you to cure the cynical.” A voice of reason piercing through the haze.

Josh Lovelace - “Miracles” (Official Video)

Josh is also the singer, songwriter and musician best known as the keyboardist for the rock band Needtobreathe. Shelters follows Josh’s three-album stretch into family-oriented music, under the moniker “Young Folk;” Moonwalking (2022), Growing Up (2019), and Young Folk (2017).

Needtobreathe (stylized as NEEDTOBREATHE) is an American rock band from Seneca, South Carolina. The group first gained fame for their Christian themes, eventually reaching crossover success.

I recently caught up with Josh and before we started, I wanted him to know that his new solo album had jumped to the top of my Best Album of 2025 list and that I cannot see anything toppling it! That it was, simply put, one of the best, all-encompassing musical entities that I have personally had the pleasure to listen to (and multiple times now), so I first asked him what had initially sparked its creation for him and at what period of life was he himself existing within?

“Thank you so much! That is super kind of you to say. This record is a long time in the making for me. Through a lot of self-discovery and therapy over the past few years, I began to put my feelings down on paper. I started writing songs 2-3 years ago but didn’t have a real home to give them. I have done a few records for kids and families but the songs that were coming out didn’t fit in that space. Also they were too personal to be Needtobreathe songs so I decided to create a home and space for them and make a solo record.”

Given that it is made up of personal stories from your life, good, bad and ugly, was it always your intention to pour your heart out on this album, or was it just something that organically happened as time progressed? - “I think for me it happened pretty organically. I went away to a cabin up in Washington state by myself to reflect, write and spend some time with my “story”. Through that, an overflowing of sorts happened and I ended up writing the bulk of Shelters while I was there. I used it as therapy in a lot of ways so I didn’t allow myself to edit my words or filter anything down. I wanted to be as real and honest as possible and take it from there.”

Entitled Shelters, where did that title itself originate? - “There is a line in the song “Soul” that says “I need shelter from the storm, trading sorrows in for joy.” I loved the picture of that where in all of the chaos, there could be a safe place to ride out the story weather of life. So I was going to call the record Shelter originally. As the songs came together, I realized a thread throughout all of them pointed to different safe places to run to. So I added the “s” because sometimes it’s not as easy as running for cover. You need help from different people & places to get through it.”

Taking aside just three of the tracks, please sum up what they mean to you personally:

High Throne = “This song is about thinking before you speak. We’ve all been in situations where people say and do things that make others feel less while making themselves seem greater. None of us have all the answers and we are trying to navigate tough and choppy waters. We need each other and we need to listen before we speak. Loving people who think or believe differently than you is where unity begins.”

Not The Best Version Of Myself (Right Now) = “In the last couple of years, I have struggled with crippling anxiety and depression. It got so bad for awhile that I didn’t want to leave the house and playing concerts was extremely challenging. I had a feeling inside that I knew I wasn’t the best version of myself and didn’t know how to break the cycle. This song is me battling with my inner voice that kept trying to tell me I couldn’t change. It was a lie.”

I Stopped Drinking Yesterday = “I gave up alcohol almost 2 years ago and it was the best decision I’ve ever made for my health. When you are spiraling and feeling lost, it’s easy to numb yourself to what is happening. I did that for many years. As I started dealing with things in my past that I had buried, it felt like in order to truly meet them face to face, I needed to be fully alive and present. This song is that journey and attempt at expressing how it felt to try and quit.”

And with regard the cover art, please tell us more about what it represents to you and why it was chosen? - “The photo was taken by my good friend Jessie DeFlorio in Nashville. We were playing with light and trying to experiment with different setups and this one stood out to me from the beginning. We tried some different photo options but this one kept coming back. I like how it’s a little distorted but through the lines you can still see the picture of who it is. Life feels like that sometimes. It also looks like I’m getting rained on which fits the shelter narrative. Saying that, it was accidental.”

You’ve said that having grown older, you don’t necessarily believe all the things you did when younger, so to showcase just that, what couple of examples of this from your life can you bring forth today? - “I think I used to think that grownups weren’t able to really make mistakes. Especially your parents or close friends and family. No one has it all together and it took me growing up to realize that I’m a mess just like we all are. Also I grew up as a preachers kid so I think some of the things I believed about God when I was a kid don’t make sense to me today. I still search for meaning and purpose in a higher calling but I am learning more and more to look up instead of looking across the aisle at other humans only. We’re all a mess and I think I allowed myself to put others on pedestals just to get let down.”

There seems to be quite a few NeedToBreathe albums being, and having been released/re-released in the past month or so (The Outsiders, Live From The Woods, Acoustic Live Vol. 1), not to mention this solo album of yours, so is this one of the busiest months for you/NTB, music release wise? And what do you put that down to? - “We never stop that’s for sure. We are always working on new music and projects which I love. We put out 3 studio albums, 3 live albums and a few singles in the last 4 years. We love making music together and feel lucky people care enough to listen to what we are making. We are about to start writing for our 10th studio album coming up which I am so excited about.”

Interestingly, NTB originated as a band performing Christian-themed music, before reaching crossover success, so I was wondering was that an accidental switch, so to speak, or one rigidly decided upon, perhaps? - “The band always wanted to be a band anyone could listen to no matter what you believed in spiritually, politically, or anything for that matter. Early on, the band decided to put their music in Christian bookstores so kids who grew up like them, preachers kids, could access the records. We love that our music is bigger than genre. While we consider ourselves a rock and roll band, we want people to listen to the music and make the call for themselves. We just want to be your favorite band.”

And the bands name, NTB, originates from Greek mythology, and Socrates in particular, but only because you had nothing better to run with, so the story goes. So if that is indeed true, still to this day are you happy with your choice from back in 1998, or would you rather it have been a different name all this time later, perhaps? - “Ha! I think we would have changed it many times. I’ve heard many people mistake the name for NEEDTOBREED so maybe we could have a second career there.”

In closing, and taking a huge sidestep, we here at Exclusive Magazine love penguins, and are putting together a children’s book that includes the best quotes from musicians and actors alike about their own penguin thoughts/experiences, et al. So, do you have any penguin thoughts? - “Penguins are the coolest of all time. Imagine waking up every day in a full tuxedo, ready to party at anytime!”

If you would like to win an AUTOGRAPHED copy of Josh’s brand new solo album Shelters, just answer this question about his band NEEDTOBREATHE: They have focused on using their music platform to reach others and to support charitable global initiatives that are important to them for a while now, and on their Impact page state that they would like those that are also driven to join them to make a difference at home and across the globe. But what year was this Impact Statement and Pledge first instituted? [Hint: Check out their link below for the answer].

Send us your answers and if you’re correct you’ll be in the running to win one of these new AUTOGRAPHED CDs! Just send us an e:mail here before December 1st, 2024 with your answer and the subject title CONTEST: JOSH LOVELACE NTB SIGNED CDs to: exclusivemagazine@flash.net

www.joshlovelacemusic.com

Josh Lovelace @ Facebook

Josh Lovelace @ Instagram

Josh Lovelace @ YouTube

www.needtobreathe.com