Needtobreathe Explain U2, Springsteen Like Musical Change.

(Radio.com) Needtobreathe surprised longtime fans with the sound of their new album, Hard Love, which shows the rock band experimenting with beats and synthesizers (which you can hear on the single, "Happiness"). It's sort of their Actung Baby moment, and in an interview with Radio.com, the band agreed that the classic 1991 U2 album was something of a touchstone for their new sound.

Guitarist Bo Rinehart says, "[Bruce] Springsteen's Tunnel of Love was another example," noting that that 1987 album seemed like a big departure from Springsteen's earlier catalog. "And you go back and listen to that record, it's an amazing record."

As far as the backlash for sounding different, Bo says, "He survived it. And I think he had to make that record, and U2 had to make that record and do something different." Similarly, the band say that they needed to try something different this time around.

Singer/guitarist Bear Rinehart admits, "It's a little bit scary, to put something out that's that different. I don't think we chose it, it kind of chose us. The last record was really stripped down and acoustic, [it was] live takes, old school. And it was partly because we were fighting; we wrote the songs separately. [On] This record, we're in a completely different place, we got to spend a lot of time [together], we got a mountain house, and had a vision quest. We woodshedded, like we did back in the day. We put in a lot of the synth, and the beats; [it was] the opposite of what we were doing before. It felt fresh to us, and different. We didn't really think about being scared about it until it was all done."

Bo adds, "A couple of weeks before the release of the record, all of our families were telling us, 'This does not sound like you guys at all.'"Read more here.

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