Switchfoot

Jon and Tim Foreman & Chad Butler of SwitchFoot

Switchfoot's three members -- drummer Chad Butler, bassist Tim Foreman, and guitarist Jon Foreman -- approach their music with wide-eyed, youthful openness and the wisdom of the old souls. They incorporate everything from guitar driven pop to insightful ballads into songs that can pound like the California coast or turn quietly introspective. Like many musical families that create their own unique harmonies, brothers Jon and Tim display an almost telepathic ability to communicate on their instruments and play off the rhythmic foundation Chad provides.

The Story Behind the Song, Love Is the Movement:                                       (By the way, this is one of my favorite songs!!)

     When Switchfoot frontman Jon Foreman was a boy, his dad read to him from C.S. Lewis’ "The Chronicles of Narnia." A portion of the tale left images in Foreman’s mind of frozen statue-like people who were lifeless and cold. Years later, Foreman captured these images in the song "Love Is the Movement."

     In 1999, Foreman, his brother Tim and fellow bandmate Chad Butler were a long way from their California home, staying in Nashville to put together their sophomore album New Way to Be Human. Foreman remembers staying up one night, alone, working on the album.

     "I remember it being real late, and I was whispering the music," he says. That night Foreman remembered those frozen, broken images his dad read about years ago. To him they seemed to embody the lifelessness of those who are caught up in having and doing, what he refers to as the "lifeless motion."

     "Our work and enslaving lusts can freeze us from true motion," Foreman says. "And that was what I was trying to write about. I know that when I get caught up in the hustle and bustle of life, I forget what I am living for and what has given me life."

     Foreman says Los Angeles’ culture represents a society caught up in empty motion—typically on the cutting edge of what’s trendy, but often of very little substance. "A day in L.A./And millions of faces/Are looking for movement/’Cause everything’s stuck/And everything’s frozen/And everyone’s broken/And nobody moves/And everyone’s scared/That the motion will never come."

     Foreman says the words to the song came quickly that night, but the finished product didn’t seem to fit with the other songs on the album. The group decided to hold the cut for its latest release Learning to Breathe. Over two years later, Foreman admits he is still learning how lifeless our world can be, even when there seems to be a lot of movement around us.

     "For me motion is a positive thing," Foreman says. "It’s about change, and change for me is a positive thing. If we are created in the image of God, we must clearly represent who He is when we are loving one another. That would be true motion."

Learning to Breathe CD Review:

     The maxim "the third time’s a charm" was surely invented for the latest offering from this San Diego-based surfing trio. After two albums that displayed great promise and potential (1997’s debut The Legend of Chin and the follow-up New Way to Be Human), Switchfoot blows down the doors and hits a major sprinter’s stride with Learning to Breathe.

     This is a brilliant record. Musically it’s infinitely inventive—yet much more accessible than previous efforts. Lyrically it’s intelligent and poetic—yet more spiritually expressive than previous efforts. What’s more, the themes explored are quite global and broad—yet there’s still room for personal stories among the 11 songs.

     The Foreman brothers—Jonathan on guitar, Tim on bass—and drummer Chad Butler have always excelled instrumentally. In fact, they’ve always been a bit too good, a mite too progressive and offbeat for wider acceptance. But on Learning to Breathe, Switchfoot manages to retain its inventive, jam-oriented style, in the context of catchy pop hooks and melodies.

     The very first song, "I Dare You to Move," is about as far from quirky as you can get. It’s the kind of sweeping, grand anthem that a band like Delirious would write, complete with a goosebump-inducing vocal chorus that’s destined to take up permanent residence inside any number of brains.

     Next, the title track employs the ethereal-type guitar harmonics that made U2 famous, along with electronic and acoustic drums, combining to create the backdrop for an insightful song about repentance and dependence upon God. "You Already Take Me There," a driving track that borders on grunge metal in the choruses yet showcases Switchfoot’s Squeeze-like vocals, continues the aforementioned theme.

     The most evocative track on the album, "Love Is the Movement," wins the day with standout elements like the chorus’ gospel-tinged vocals and the bass guitar’s high-note riffing. The melody ain’t bad, either.

     Switchfoot has more than come into its own with Learning to Breathe. And the band should win a whole new flock of fans because of it.

CCM Magazines Article, End of Innocence:

     In his Poetic Manifesto, revered 20th century British writer Dylan Thomas talked about deconstructing poetry like this: "You can tear a poem apart to see what makes it technically tick... [But] you're back with the mystery of having been moved by words."

     The members of Switchfoot know what it's like to pick something apart—namely, their band—to see what makes it tick, and in that deconstruction, find out what it's like to be moved. In fact, that theme of movement is found all over their third record for re:think, Learning to Breathe, a theme which frontman Jon Foreman says only became apparent after the songs were written.

     "It's the type of thing that when you're living life, you have certain themes that come up," Jon says. "It wasn't a conscious decision where we sat down and said, 'Hey, let's write an album about movement.' But when we were trying to figure out which songs to pick, we realized, 'Hey, they all kinda have this theme in common.' It was definitely something that just fell together."

     Jon, along with his brother Tim Foreman (bass) and drummer Chad Butler, all admit a lot of movement needed to and did take place to get Switchfoot where it is now, and on several different levels: as a live band, as a recording outfit and, maybe more importantly, as young men growing up in a very volatile era.

     That need for growth comes as no surprise considering Switchfoot got its start when this trio was barely out of high school... literally in Tim's case, as the band's first record, The Legend of Chin, released just four days after he graduated. Looking back, the three Californians can clearly see their youth and relative inexperience.

      "When we first got signed, we had only been a band for about six months," Tim says. "We had played a couple dozen shows, not a lot at all. I guess ignorance is bliss. That ignorance is what kept us positive and kept us going because had we been aware of our inadequacies as a live band, we would have done things differently, which I think would have been a mistake. Looking back, I can see that we really weren't a good live band at all. We just spent a lot of time with that: we practiced a ton, two or three times a day, sometimes running an entire practice with a beanie pulled over our eyes so we couldn't see our fingers. We took it really seriously, and I think it's been worth it."

     That commitment to making their live shows better has given the Switchfoot members the confidence to try new things, like bringing another cohort into their recording universe. On Learning to Breathe, Switchfoot split the tracks down the middle, working on five with longtime producer Charlie Peacock and five with Jacquire King, who has engineered for bands such as No Doubt, Third Eye Blind and Smash Mouth.

     Moving to a two-producer system not only forced the band to discover a new way to work but also brought their producers in under the same roof. "This was great because we had a shared facility at points of the record, where Jacquire and Charlie were both working out of Charlie's studio," Chad says. "I don't think you could do that with most producers, whether it's because of ego or need for personal space... It was amazing. We'd be working with Jacquire on a song in one room, and Jon would be singing on a track for Charlie just in the next room. It was an experiment, for sure, and I'm happy to say that I think it worked in our favor."

      But it's the songs on Learning to Breathe that convey the greatest sense of movement, be it through the titles themselves (the opener "I Dare You to Move" and the anthemic "Love Is the Movement"), the frenetic energy of the tracks ("You Already Take Me There" and "Poparazzi" come to mind) or the mood set by the lyric ("Playing for Keeps" and "The Economy of Mercy").

     As principal songwriter, Jon knows that many of Switchfoot's songs mirror his own experiences. "If you're a carpenter and you're doing that every day, it becomes second nature to you. It's going to be kinda hard to distinguish between what's a fact of life for you and what's part of a job you've been doing," he says. "I think most of my songs are written for me. You know no one more than you know yourself. All the songs that are about 'who are you going to be?' they most certainly apply to me."

     The stresses of being in a working rock band—with all the pressures of the road and studio life—can get to even the most experienced musician. Being in said band with your brother and a friend from high school (Chad and Jon met on a water polo team) can be doubly difficult, even several years down the road. But Jon says the benefits definitely outweigh the drawbacks.

     "A friend and I were talking about some of the bands he's been in and what he's been through, and I came to the conclusion that I'm the luckiest guy in the world. I can come to Chad and Tim with a new song I've written, and they're so supportive of the songs I write, and we get along so well. Then we get to travel around and play for people who want to listen to our music! It's totally a blast.

     "We had a really tough year a couple years ago," Jon continues. "We learned a lot about trust and relationships with people. I know I don't have a picture perfect view about [being in a band], but at the same time, I've had real jobs before."

     Jon says that learning about being a part of the music business, like anything else, is learning about your limitations. "You can't do everything at once, especially in regards to seeking out different things. We signed with Charlie [Peacock's re:think label] for the reason that his record label believed in promoting records to both the Christian market and the mainstream at the same time, which we definitely thought was an admirable idea.

     "When it was sold to Sparrow, we didn't really understand the implications of that. It was definitely a time of learning for us, what does this mean, what does that mean, what exactly does management entail. It was really a trial by fire."

     Tim Foreman expands on his brother's views: "This past year on the road, we had a lot of time between the three of us to really sit down and discuss what we were all about as a band, where we were headed individually, and sit back and examine the music we were making from all different aspects. We were really pushing each other to desire music on a much deeper level and to say things that our generation really needs to hear.

     "There were times where we were very aware of what God was doing through our band, blessed by those times and by the feedback we were getting after the shows," Tim says. "Then there were the other times when it was exactly the opposite, where you're discouraged and you're really looking for where God's hand is in all of this. Questions like, 'Is this really what God has intended for us?'

      Ultimately, it is those times where the members of Switchfoot are able to make some sort of connection that keeps them on this path of both hard work and fun times. "Every night, you'll hear something where you think, 'Wow, that's incredible.' We've had kids tell us that they were thinking about committing suicide, they heard our songs and decided not to," Jon says. "Sometimes you talk to kids and the reason that there's a bridge there is because they've heard your songs, and the whole commonality is there. Other times it's just because you're both human beings in the same place."

     "I think it's through those times of discouragement and doubt that we've grown in our faith," Tim says. "Every time we've been in a place like that, God has proven to be more than faithful. Through each of those valleys, we've emerged stronger people and closer friends."

     In the end, it comes down to movement, be it from a place of needing to learn to one of knowledge, or from a place of discouragement to one of resolution and peace. The guys in Switchfoot think that movement is going to manifest itself for this generation in a single, powerful way.

     "I think it's going to be God showing himself for who He is," Jon says. "I think that contemporary Christian culture is just as guilty as the outside world of being stagnant and completely complacent with our situation. I put myself in that category.

     "I do think that God is stirring the hearts of our generation. I don't want to say that it's going to be through song or the evangelism of groups like us, but in the long run it's going to be through people and their faith. It's God work, and He is going to make it happen."

Some of Switchfoot's Success:

  ASCAP San Diego Music Award for "Best New Artist"
  Switchfoot songs featured on Dawson's Creek (4 songs), Party of Five (4 songs), Popular, Jack and Jill, Time of   Your Life, Felicity, and the Disney movie Model Behavior
  Appearance in a FOX TV film with Jason Priestly called Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye, which features two Switchfoot songs and a live performance.
  Four Dove Award Nominations
  1999 Modern Rock Song of the Year, New Way to be Human
  Nominated for three ASCAP San Diego Music Awards, including Best Alternative Rock Album and Album of the Year