Check out the new Drewcast titled: Jon plays trumpet!?!
^Not bad at all!
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Hearitfirst.com posted a video of Switchfoot playing "Always" acoustic from Spot X. I feel like we've seen this thing before somewhere else, but anyways, our friend Brad uploaded it to Youtube:
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Check out a video of "Mess of Me" from the Albuquerque show back in February:
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Apparently S.F. did an interview w/Youth Walk Magazine. Check it out! (thanks to Jana for a the full transcription)
The Art of Switchfoot: an interview the surfboarding sages of Switchfoot
by Laurin Makohon
How did your journey with God affect the direction of Hello Hurricane?
JON: The word journey is an incredible word to start with, because my experience with anything transcendent—whether it’s poetry, a worship service, or a walk on the beach—is that it feels like it’s a journey. And this record was certainly a journey. We’re what, five records into our career? Is this our sixth one?
TIM: This is our seventh.
JON: Okay. So enough records to forget how many we’ve done. (laughs) And before this record, we kind of stepped away from things for a while. We cut ties with our label, we cut ties with management, and we built our own studio. That extra breathing room in our lives allowed us to look back and reflect and say, “Wow, it’s incredible that music has been such a huge part of our lives. Music has taken us to Japan, Singapore, the Philippines, Europe, India, South Africa—places that we never thought we’d go.” Then we were able to look forward and say, “Well, what do we want to do? What do we want to say with our music? What’s worth singing about? What’s worth being in Atlanta when our families are all in San Diego?” Because there’s a price to pay for all of this.
We recorded about 80-plus songs for the record, and I think what came to me at the end of the journey is the punchline of the reason why we play music. And that’s this: Music is one of the few things in life that gets under the skin without asking for permission. And because of that, it’s an incredible honor to sing a song of hope for someone else because many people have sung those songs for us. So because of the reflection that went into the journey of making this album, I think that this record has a potency that our last few haven’t.
In “Your Love Is a Song” you sing about how God’s love is a symphony playing all around you. Can you explain what you mean by that?
JON: Music helps me understand the world because there are a lot of parallels between what I see in a song and what I see in existence. There are certain notes—blue notes you can call them, accidentals—notes that might clash. There’s this dissonance in a song, a tension. And then there’s release. So when I see the world and I see Darfur and I see human rights struggles in India and I see sex trafficking here in the U.S., I think that it’s only right to have your heart broken by these things, to recognize it for the dissonance that it is, for the absurdity. These elements shouldn’t be happening—they make no sense, they’re absurd. And yet I feel like it’s only within the context of harmony that I can even understand these to be dissonant elements. Because if there weren’t such a thing as harmony, of notes going together and sounding right, I wouldn’t know what dissonant notes sound like. The constant of the scale puts all these things in perspective, just like we know deep in us that there’s a rightness in life that’s found in God. And so for me, “Your Love Is a Song” pictures this Master Songsmith who is writing the world into existence, continuing to create and re-create, to redeem these wrong notes.
Since God is the Author of everything good, true, and beautiful, how do you see God in the world?
JON: I feel as believers we like to divide up our lives into segments. I think it’s absolutely a fallacy to think that you can’t find beauty or truth in something that doesn’t have a Christian kosher stamp on the back of it; that if it’s somehow not sold in the Christian department or the Christian this or that, then redemption doesn’t exist for it. And the moment we put redemption in that category, we’re degrading the very faith that we’re afforded. God isn’t limited to labels.
So I feel like it’s a disservice to view art in that perspective. I think that Radiohead has some incredibly worshipful moments. I think Picasso’s got some incredibly poignant elements and things to say to everyone. And to put Christianity into a box is wrong. How does your faith influence your art?
JEROME: Well, as far as music is concerned, music has gotten me through a lot growing up. To do music and to affect people, us singing our songs and them singing back to us, it’s encouraging but it’s also pretty powerful. Music can affect people in a positive way, which means we have an opportunity to communicate the hope of God in our songs.
DREW: My faith affects everything in my life—and art is one of those areas. I think my faith has given me much more of a freedom than I would’ve had without it. For instance, in the Psalms, there’s a very wide range of highs and lows. That’s an example in Scripture of the range that art can have. We believe in a God who is much more expressive than anyone here is, He’s much wiser than anyone here is. And we don’t even see Him clearly now—we see as in a mirror that’s faded and gives a dim reflection of Him. I think that as an artist, you’re reaching for those things that are just out of reach; you’re reaching toward an infinite God who is so incredibly diverse. I mean, just look at the animals He created. No human could make all of these amazing creatures up—God is incredible. Knowing that there’s a God who’s that creative and diverse has freed me up to allow greater highs and greater lows in the art that I make. It has taken the barriers away.
CHAD: When it comes to faith and art, I think there’s freedom to express the challenges and the hardships and the doubts in life. When you know there’s a hope that’s deeper than the wounds and the pain, you can dive into that and express that through all kinds of different mediums. I’ve seen incredible theater that has taken me to emotional depths that were uncomfortable but really challenging and beautiful. I’ve seen paintings of a woman crying over her dying baby that have stirred me and haunted me, but I know that there’s truth in that—we live in a broken, painful world. I’ve heard and played songs that have moved me and that were difficult to play, but because there’s truth in it, because there’s honesty in it, there’s beauty and those things resonate.
I think this is something that I’ve grown to realize. I grew up in the church, and I think that there are a lot of words thrown around about being positive or to view the world through this filter. It’s really freeing when you realize that you can see the world in its highs and lows, as Drew said, without fear of leaving your faith behind. Because of the hope that’s in our faith, we have the chance to experience life in its fullness, knowing that we take with us that hope and that freedom through God and His Truth.
What advice would you give to students who want to create great art?
JON: As creations of God, ultimately your worth is in your unique position in life, to be able to sing from that position and sing your unique song. And when we do that, we’re essentially joining in with the song of creation. Our creative God created everything with just words. He said: “Let there be,” and there was. To be an artist is an invitation to put the words God has given you into that song. Your unique location, your language, your attitudes—all of these things are yours alone. So to create good art, you first have to be honest with yourself.
Then there’s the craft of just plugging away every day. Write a song every day. Why not? You’ll get better at it. Paint a painting every day. Why not? You’ll get better at it. Don’t be afraid of it. Dive in; play as much as you can around town. Anywhere that you can play, that they’ll let you play, play a song. TIM: I think art is about storytelling—whether it’s a painting or a song or a book, I think the story is very important. It’s key to acknowledge that we’re all part of a much bigger story. That’s exciting to think that we get to write a small chapter, maybe even just a paragraph, in a much larger story. What is the story that you want to tell?
What would you say to people who want to be influencers of culture and not just consumers of it?
JON: I think ultimately to be influencing the people around you and the culture around you is to have a deep understanding of your place in the world, which as a believer, is to have a deep understanding of your Creator. We all need to be connected with the greater story that’s unfolding. And the greater story is that we have a God who wants us to bring His Kingdom to earth—and then He’s going to bring it in full when He comes. We all have these little stories and at times we get distracted from the greater story. You know, you see an infomercial on TV about how this product’s going to do such-and-such. And you buy in, and then you get the product and you remember that you don’t have a need for the product at all. We lose the bigger story for the smaller one. I think we do that with our lives in much less comical ways, where we see a very small glimmer of light and we chase that for years, rather than the sun that’s rising behind us. I think that to be influencing people around you is to step away from the small pictures for a moment, to catch what the bigger picture is.
TIM: To add to that, I think it’s very difficult to affect change outside of love, and actions without love, like Scripture says, are like a clanging cymbal. Love should be informing all of our actions and all of our thoughts and what we say and how we interact with each other—that’s the most powerful weapon that we have for change.
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"Sabotage" video UPDATE:
We got front page last night!
Also, the video has gotten these honors so far:
#23 - Most Discussed (Today))
#2 - Most Discussed (Today)) - Music
#75 - Most Viewed (Today)) - Music - Australia
#43 - Most Viewed (Today)) - Music - Canada
#73 - Most Viewed (Today)) - Music - India
#39 - Most Viewed (Today)) - Music - New Zealand
#48 - Most Viewed (Today)) - Music
#84 - Top Favorited (Today))
#27 - Top Favorited (Today)) - Music
#26 - Top Rated (Today)) - Music
#100 - Top Rated (This Week)) - Music
Switchfoot is also: #31 - Most Viewed (Today) - Musicians
GREAT JOB footsoldiers!
We have until 6:00 PM PST today to promote this thing. Let's keep it going guys! Watch it here
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