NEEDTOBREATHE to make tour stop at IU

Little boys want hot rods. Teenage boys want girls. And rock ’n’ roll boys ... they want only the need to breathe.

Scaling the Adult Rock charts with the hit single “More Time” from its current album “The Heat,” NEEDTOBREATHE is performing tonight along with Third Day at the IU Auditorium.

“From what I’ve heard from the students that I interact with, they are very excited for them to come,” said Maria Talbert, events manager for the IU Auditorium.

NEEDTOBREATHE, a self-claimed rock ’n’ roll band, has had numerous songs in big-name TV shows, such as “Oprah’s Big Give” and “The Hills.” The band’s hit single was featured in the award-winning romance “P.S. I Love You.”

“We’re just trying to write honest music and make it as good as we can,” said founding member and drummer Joe Stillwell.

IU is one of 12 stops on the tour. From catering food to stage setup, the Auditorium is handling much of the event, Talbert said.

“Everywhere we go, we try and find some nice local places to get some good food,” Stillwell said. “And I’ve heard some good things about Bloomington, so I’m pretty pumped.”

For these artists, music is life.

“We’ve been together for about eight or nine years now,” Stillwell said. “We started when the lead singer and I were freshmen in college in South Carolina and have been going strong ever since then.”

But NEEDTOBREATHE goes deeper than finding great food or college friendships. Its name came from a story Stillwell once heard.

“Socrates is teaching his students beside a pond, and one of his students asks, ‘Teacher, how do I know when I’m really seeking after my purpose in life?’ and he doesn’t answer him. He just gets up and walks over to him, and he grabs him and holds his head underwater,” Stillwell said. “He just keeps holding him down for a while until he’s on the verge on drowning, then he lets him back up and he’s gasping for air. And he says, ‘When you need that purpose as much as you need to breathe, that’s when you know that you’re really seeking it.’”

Stillwell promises a good time for audience members.

“It’s not just playing songs straight from the record,” he said. “We change things up and respond to the audience.”


Third Day / NEEDTOBREATHE
When: 7:30 Friday
Where: IU Auditorium
More Info: Show tickets start at $28.50 for the
general public. There is a group price of $23.50 per ticket for groups of 10 or more.