Switchfoot finishing up a song called "Red Eyes"

Twitter:

March 26, 2009: Finishing a song called red eyes, an appropriate song title for late night recording. -tim http://twitpic.com/2gehj



I think some may recognize the name of the song. well, that's probably because if you've paused the Switchfoot Podcast 6 at the right moment, you would've seen this:



...from the Oh! Gravity. song selection session. "Red Eyes" was considered for that album, but it looks like it's finally getting its chance here. I'm sure that if it was able to stay around since the Oh! Gravity. sessions, it'll be a great track.

For more about the New Album, click here!

Oh, and here you can watch Podcast 6 again, for old times' sake.

LOBH/FOTF reports the Switchfoot albums "THIS CLOSE" to being done!

From Land of Broken Hearts:

The new Switchfoot album is ALMOST DONE! The guys posted a new video on Friends of the Foot, letting everyone know the album was *this close* to being finished. They've just got some "overdubs and a little bit of tracking" left. According to Tim, "it's coming in REAL hot."

And, speaking of those overdubs, the Switchfoot guys twittered about some gang vocals they recorded yesterday with local San Diegan surfing legend Rob Machado.

March 11: Gang vocals with some help from rob machado, who sounds almost as good as he surfs. Record is feeling really great... http://twitpic.com ...



(New Switchfoot Album timeline updated!)

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This is great news; I'm pretty sure it's a safe bet to expect this album to be done by the end of this month. This will give them a month to set up a long-term marketing plan, and possibly put out a brand new single in mid-April or May.

Then again, this is traditionally what would've happened on a major label, but considering that Switchfoot is independent now, this whole process might actually be accelerated. It will depend on what ATO has in store. In all honesty, I hope they give Switchfoot a harder push than they did with Fiction Family. I've been toying with the idea of writing up a piece about how incredibly important the success of this album could be for the guys' future. We'll see how that turns out...

What do you all think??

Switchfoot "rounding 3rd base" and nearing home plate (for the new album)!

Chad Butler posted a blog for the Friends of the Foot. It is here for all of us non-fotfers, courtesy of Land of Broken Hearts.

Stu stu studio! Here's a look at the day from the lens of a drummer. We are home recording with our new friend (and ace engineer) Ryan Peterson. Some friends stopped by to listen last night and asked how far along in the recording process we are... it felt good to say we are rounding 3rd base and can see homeplate coming into view. When the dust settles I hope you guys enjoy these songs as much as we are enjoying the process. Ok, gotta go play some beats...
-Chad



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Another engineer to add to the mix. He's also a producer and drummer, and you can check out/find out more about him on his myspace

He's done mixing work for the Highschool Musical 2 soundtrack, and has played drums on several Hanson tracks.


So we are nearing the home stretch, the album is almost done. The long-awaited seventh studio album by Switchfoot is on the horizon, or almost. Need to get caught up on how this album got made? Check out our comprehensive time line, which has been updated with this new information!

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Keep voting for Fiction Family on mtvu. We have two more days to catch up, and are at 19%! Vote vote vote!

New Switchfoot.com Splash Page; Andy Barron updates on the new Record

It's glorious!



Thoughts? Opinons?

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Also, Mr. Andy Barron has updated the Daily Foot with a post about the new album



well hello daily footees. the guys are up here in my neck of the woods working on new songs. they have been hashing and cutting and chopping. no song is safe. frontrunners are now on the backburner. new songs are taking the lead as favorites. it's pretty crazy.

in case any of that makes you nervous, just know that new switchfoot music is being played in the background of me typing this, and it is good.

cheers.

andy.

EDIT: Podcast 37 is finally here!


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Things are a-buzzin' in Switchfoot land again. The final song list has been determined, so perhaps the recording process has begun to wind down. Of course, there's a long way to go. The album has to be mixed, edited, and prepared for marketing; but the new Switchfoot record is so close to being finished.

Does the new website layout have anything to do with the upcoming album artwork? And perhaps an album title will be emerging soon as well! Welcome back Switchfoot... we can't wait.

Switchfoot Tweeting on Twitter!; announces that they have put together the final Song list for the New Album!

Yupp! That's right. Thanks Susie from the message boards for breaking the news. We've got a few tweets from the band, and if you're not a twitter maniac, we'll post them all here for you. But do follow them if you are on twitter.

- "This is the official first post for Switchfoot" 7:58 AM Jan 7th from web

- "Just posted 4 new dates on the site... including Guatemala City" 11:01 AM Jan 10th from web

- "Just about ready to launch new splash page" about 9 hours ago from web

- "Just added new tour dates, visit http://www.switchfoot.com for more info" about 9 hours ago from web

- "Spread the love! To share this feed...let other know they can follow us here @switchfoot"about 8 hours ago from web

- "hi all, tim here. this is my first twitter, my maiden voyage if you will. we are in the studio, the final song lineup has been chosen! -tf" about 3 hours ago from web

- "... including one that we just wrote this morning!!! peace and love to you all, -tf" about 3 hours ago from web

http://twitter.com/switchfoot

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I believe the signs of life from Switchfoot we have been waiting for is starting to emerge. The highlights about the new album have been added to our New Switchfoot Album page. Check it out for a timeline of everything the band has done with the upcoming album so far, from the early rumblings to right now!

Fiction Family Sells 7000 first-week copies; featured on MTV blog

Variety.com reports:

Fiction Family, featuring Sean Watkins, formerly of Nickel Creek, and Jon Foreman of Switchfoot sold 7,000 copies of their self-titled ATO debut to start at No. 71.

I would say those are solid numbers, nothing extraordinary, but nothing shabby either. It was outsold by several other noteworthy releases last week, like Andrew Bird, Animal Collective, and Bon Iver. But let's keep telling our friends about it and spreading the word about it.

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MTV Buzzworthy posted a blog about Fiction Family, highlighting the project and video:

Fiction Family is what happens when the soaring, epic rock of Switchfoot collides head on with the romantic, modern bluegrass of Nickel Creek. Well… sort of. Back in 2005, Switchfoot frontman Jon Foreman started laying down some tracks on the side with Nickel Creek guitarist Sean Watkins. To begin with. they called themselves “The Real SeanJon,” hoping Diddy would sue and give them a huge publicity bump.

Alas, no lawsuit, but Sean and Jon have completed a full-length album called Fiction Family (go figure), out on ATO Records as of last week. The first single’s called “When She’s Near,” and it’s kinda just what you’d expect. A hooky ballad mellowed out with intricate fingerpicking, heartfelt lyrics and power-pop harmony breaks. Pristine pop sensibilities filtered simultaneously through arena rock and country sweetness. Switchfoot meets Nickel Creek. Listen up!

Fiction Family - New Music - More Music Videos

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Some reviews/articles about Fiction Family:

Tennessean
Holland and Sentinel
Slant Magazine (3/5)

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And, in the latest entry of the Fiction Family tour blog, (which, if you haven't checked it out, you better do so soon) Jon Foreman says something rad about the new Switchfoot album:

talked about the new record a bit with the fellas, I hope to be finished with it in two months.

YES! (New Switchfoot Album Timeline page Updated!)

"Trying to kind of go to 'Where the Streets Have No Name'..."

StandinOntheEdgeofMe from the official Switchfoot Message Boards found a great interview with Jon Foreman on ShineFM, where he talks about the new Switchfoot record with some more exciting news. I've transcribed some of it below:

Basically, we've tracked about 70 songs, probably more than that, but we've sorta narrowed them down. And I think, with that, there are several directions we can go to. One's a lot more beat driven, one's a little bit more what one of the guys has called "punchy," which is maybe a little bit more traditional, what we've been doing. And one's a little bit broader, ethereal. Trying to kind of go to "Where the Streets Have No Name" type of thing. So yeah, its just a matter of where or what song we want to play for the next ten years, and so I think its gonna be some sort of amalgam between those three elements.

Listen/download the whole interview clip here

To here the rest of that radio show, go here

(New Switchfoot Album Timeline Page has been updated!)

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TWLOHA posted a high-quality video of Jon and the rest of the crew on their encore performance at the "Heavy and Light" TWLOHA benefit show.

With a Little Help From My Friends


Still epic as ever.

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Here is a review of Fiction Family's album by Paste Magazine with a not-so-shining cap on Sean Watkins' voice.

PASTE Magazine (64%)

Note: the page is currently down for some reason.

The softly orchestrated “Betrayal” and the creaky “Mostly Prove Me Wrong” could be B-sides from Foreman’s Winter EP (a fourth of his moody solo project based on the seasons). In his own songs—a majority of the record—Foreman’s M. Wardian vocals share the spotlight with his sentimental but gritty lyrics. He goes wild with similes and metaphors and other literary devices you learn about in middle school (her eyes were like the winter, love is red, love is a dollar that’s already spent, we were both drinking fiction, there’s war in my blood, etc.), but it’s rarely trite, and otherwise cryptic lyrics balance his sometimes-precious wordplay. “Betrayal” typifies Foreman’s lyrical style: “I watched her as you put me in the dirt / She had my wallet wrapped inside her skirt / And I went numb, I went numb / So I’m not dead if what you did don’t hurt.”


Watkins’ lyrics, on the other hand, are cute at best and egregious at worst. In the pitchy “Elements Combined,” he sings, “You are elements combined / Earth, air, fire wine / Someday you’ll be mine.” First of all, how cheesy. Secondly, what is fire wine (other than NOT AN ELEMENT)? Maybe he’s trying to pull off some sort of metaphor a la Foreman, but either way, it just doesn’t work. The mopey “Not Sure” is as bland as its title: “How long will it take / For these ties to you to break / They’re much stronger than I thought / I’m not sure that I’ll get over you / I’m not sure that I want to.”


While Watkins’ higher voice harmonizes well with Foreman’s, his lead vocals aren’t as strong. The three songs that are entirely written and led by Watkins feel like wet rags—hearing Foreman’s voice at the beginning of a song is more of a relief than it should be, considering that the guys are supposedly equal partners in this Family. Foreman says in the band’s bio, “We came up with a few cowboy rules for the project: No double tracking. No pussyfooting. No tuning of vocals. etc.” The no-tuning rule is admirable, but it becomes a distraction because Watkins sometimes has trouble singing on-key. And the “no pussyfooting” part is debatable.

Ouchhh...

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Another: Kentucky.com (4/5)

When you're listening to new music and names like Lennon and McCartney, Difford and Tilbrook, and Neil Finn start rushing to mind, you know you have something good in your earbuds. When you mix that songwriting prowess with the instrumental dexterity of leaders of two of the most accomplished bands currently open for business, you have the first unqualified triumph of our young year.
090124FictionFamily

Fiction Family is the collaboration of Switchfoot frontman Jon Foreman and Nickel Creek guitarist and singer Sean Watkins. The two reportedly met at a gig played by their respective bands plus R.E.M. and Wilco, which is to say Fiction Family was born of some great music.

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IndieVision Music (8/10)

Jon Foreman is a busy guy. His main band, Switchfoot, has been seeing significant mainstream rock success since they released “The Beautiful Letdown” in 2005. Then, over the past year, he released four solo EPs, with six songs for each season. Now he’s been collaborating with Sean Watkins of Nickel Creek to create a 12 song album for their new band, Fiction Family.

This record is more of an art project than it is another album to be put on the market. Everything sounds very organic, as each singer takes the lead for a number of songs and each offers something unique to the mix. Jon’s influence is more along the lines of his solo material, with tender vocals and diverse instrumentation over acoustic indie-folk-pop, while Sean brings the bluegrass/ roots rock feel, including some harmonica and the classic harmonized vocals. Now, I’ve never actually listened to Nickel Creek, but what I do know about each of these artists would lead me to believe that this album is something new for each of them, as they push themselves towards artistic growth and greater creativity, rather than a basic combination of what each of them already had. While my press copy of the album didn’t come with lyrics for me to fully examine, they seem like they’d also be a strong point to the album. One of the things I appreciate most about Fiction Family right now is that there are a lot of quality loves songs on here, which is something most new music I’ve acquired lately seems to be lacking.

While the duo may have been unexpected, this release is exactly what I expected after finding out the two were working together. Two great voices and two great songwriting styles come together for what will surely be enjoyed by a wide range of music fans. While you can typically tell which artist each song belongs to, it doesn’t sound like they just threw together a split EP or something. It definitely works well together to created a blended style and a consistent overall feel.

Fiction Family Launches new Tour Blog!

Fiction Family have started a Typepad account, a la Daily Foot to recount the past tour.

Here are the first two posts that Jon Foreman have posted up:

January 13, 2009

show numero uno - ann arbor
well well well...

there is a first for everything and tonight was the first true show for our fictitious family! 

other firsts today include: 
my first time playing the ark. 
my first time eating at zingerman's. 
and my first fictional "blog" entry. 

(I'm not sure that I like the word blog,  incedently). Tonight was truly a crazy ride for me I haven't been that nervous/excited in a long time. It felt like caffeine... It was most certainly the deep end of the pool, or maybe like a musical bun-jee jump- where every song could quite literally smash into pieces on the rocks below: I loved it! So far the bun-jee chord is holding just fine. But the risk is always there- and I think that's wahat makes the whole thing so enjoyable. Sean, Aaron, and Tyler are such great guys. Together with andy, ryan and marshall off stage I have a really incredible feeling about this tour... 

Also, It feels so great to be out in a van again. I was talking to my friend Dustin about how nothing brings a band together like a van tour. As always, the only problem is the van itself. The belts are squeaking like a flock of birds, it has about 300,000,(000,000) miles on it, the door broke tonight, and it's uber, uber cold up here... We're taking it in to get looked at tomorrow. Well, off to the the rapids that are grand tomorrow in- we'll keep you posted!

peace,
jon 

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January 14, 2009

day two - grand rapids
yes
it's starting to come together... spent the first part of the day stuck in a red roof inn cause the van died on our way to grand rapids. Spent the second half of the day in an incredible old theatre in GR. The show was beginning to feel much more comfortable- much more intentional. loving it... playing a set of entirely new songs!


three things about today:
consumed: (among other things) two shakes. 
confessed: (among other things) an undying love for ice cream
conversed about: (among other things) the way to make ice cream from fresh fallen snow, lemon juice, and milk. 

I'm skeptical about the third item but I do sense a trend of sorts.

jon

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Some press about Fiction Family's full album stream:

Absolute Punk
Indie Vision Music
Driveby Media
Swearimnotpaul.blogspot.com

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And, here's an article from Relevant Magazine, interviewing Jon about his solo ep's, Fiction Family, Switchfoot, Kierkegaard, and the meaning of life. We've posted the entire thing below:

RELEVANT Magazine

There are only a handful of “Christian bands” who have crossed over into the mainstream without losing their roots. Jon Foreman and Switchfoot have been playing rock music full time, and surfing on downtime, for about 13 solid years. And even though the band has gone from Christian labels to majors and elsewhere, they’ve not yet fallen into musical (and spiritual) obscurity.

Before playing a solo show for To Write Love On Her Arms in Orlando, Foreman reminisced about the various projects he’s taken on over the past few years. “You do all these songs with a band, and you have an identity with them," he says. "But I think in music you’ve got all sorts of different styles and ideas that you’re always coming up with. Every artist that makes music listens to a variety of different sounds, and sometimes it’s amazing to venture off into new territory and explore some new places. That’s what the EPs are for me.”

Foreman’s EPs were released throughout the course of 2007 and 2008, and eventually came to be known as Limbs and Branches. Each EP was released under the name of a season—four total made for a complete year of acoustic music. “Switchfoot pays the rent, but I love doing the EPs,” Foreman says. “After Switchfoot shows for years, I’d go out and play another set at coffee shops or a bar down the street. I think the EPs were kind of the fruition of that. All of these 'I wish I were Bob Dylan' songs that I could just let slide out.”

Limbs and Branches was one of RELEVANT’s Top 20 Albums of 2008, and has garnered him respect as a singer-songwriter capable of subtle introspection. Most of the songs Foreman played at the To Write Love On Her Arms show were from his solo album.



But that side project is so 2008.

On Jan. 20, 2009, Foreman will release an album called Fiction Family. “Fiction Family is myself and Sean Watkins from Nickel Creek," he says. "We did it several years back, and we were hoping to get signed by a certain ... coffee company that puts out music. But then their music department fell apart. So it has actually been done for almost three years now and we’ve just kind of been sitting on it.” Starting tomorrow, Fiction Family will be touring the country. Foreman is excited to finally release the album: “It feels really great to be partnering up with ATO Records. To have My Morning Jacket and Paul McCartney as label-mates is not a bad thing! We’re amped.”

The album is another that sees Foreman in singer-songwriter mode. Sounding a little more Nickel Creek with acoustic guitars and strings, Fiction Family requires Switchfoot fans to put away their rock fists for the sake of a more mature folk rock. But one thing that is as present here as with all of Foreman's projects is a clear lyrical search for deeper meaning. “The real project is just figuring out how to live," he says. "That’s the ongoing project.”

Influenced by the time-tested soul music of Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder, Foreman’s music is an existential journey for the spirit. “One of the best verses ever written is the dialogue between God and Abraham on [Bob Dylan's] 'Highway 61 Revisited,'” he says.

The song reminds Foreman of how Soren Kierkegaard brought Abraham and Isaac to the philosophical world in Fear and Trembling. “Kierkegaard is pretty hard to nail down, and I think he would want it that way," he says. "He wrote from so many surnames and pseudonyms and different perspectives, sometimes satirizing the very things he had said in the past. But he was against Christendom, which is kind of everything about the Church sans Christ. I think that’s something I can relate to in our times, when the church has become a business. You’ve got CDs and magazines and all these 'Christian' things. The question is, not only as a consumer but as a human being, how do you find your soul and dig underneath the veneer? I feel like there was quite a commonality between Kierkegaard’s time and ours.”

Like Kierkegaard’s restless dread of the Christian life, Foreman continues to ask life questions through song. “Kierkegaard stressed the ever-present now, the pressing needs of the moment that we have right now that will never transpire again," he says. "He was very specific about what a great honor it is to be in this moment. The fear and trembling that you face standing up on the cliff that is now.”

And for this reason, we will not see Foreman tire of music-making anytime soon. “I think the bottom line is that I’ll be doing music whether I get paid for it or not. I’m still digging...”

All of these projects have not gotten in the way of Foreman’s day job, though. “We are making a Switchfoot record," he says. "We wanted to start with a clean slate because the last couple of records felt kind of compromised.” Switchfoot recently left their major label deal to become a truly independent band again. Foreman explains, “With Sony, they fired people so quickly that it was hard for us to develop any sort of traction, so we fired ourselves. We got off the label because music is very sensitive to the place that it’s coming from. We wanted to create an environment where we were going to be with the same people for a long time and trust is established. We built our own studio and we’ve just been honing in on people we love to work with.”

The next Switchfoot album should prove to be something new altogether. “We’ve tracked about 75 songs in our studio and now we’re weeding down, working with engineer Daryl Thorpe who is Nigel Godrich’s right hand man for Radiohead, Air and Beck," Foreman says. "He’s incredible, he’s really helped us find some new territory. Another place we’ve gone for inspiration is our producer Mike Elizondo—he’s worked with Mary J. Blige and Eminem. He’s, like, Dr. Dre’s right hand man. We’re trying to find a new playing field for the next 10 years to throw the ball around in.”

With the soulful influences and the new producer, will the next Switchfoot album top the R&B charts? “I’m as white as it gets, but I love hip-hop! ... But, no, I’m not going to be spitting any phat beats.”

Foreman never runs out of brilliance, I swear...! But, the new Switchfoot album tidbits have been added to the New Switchfoot Album page. Be sure to check it out! It's a timeline of everything that's happened in the recording of the album so far. Enjoy!

Side Note/P.S.: The move to work with Mike Elizondo sounds interesting... we've got Radiohead's engineer and Dr. Dre's right-hand man! It sounds like a rock-meets-hip-hop fusion. Interesting!

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CHARTS

Fiction Family's "When She's Near" is still No. 45 from Triple-A, but it's starting get spins from these two stations. Be sure to call-in, request, or email them to play the song!

WFPK/Louisville, KY:
E-mail: studio@wfpk.org
Call: (502) 814-WFPK (9375).

WXPN/Philadelphia
Phone: 215-573-WXPN
Email: requests@xpn.org
Web: http://xpn.org/requests



Any other ways you can help, like posting the Fiction Family Street Team banners everywhere you can, and posting the video and sending it in to music video sites, anything would be amazing! Call in to your radio stations as well, to let them know about the new song! Anything we can do will help! Thanks friends!

Crazy, Ridiculous Big-time news about Fiction Family (oh, and SWITCHFOOT too!)

(Thanks LOBH friends for this)

A website called Stereo Subversion just recently conducted two incredible interviews with both halves of the Fiction Family. The first half is with Sean Watkins, the other half is with Jon Foreman.

Sean talks about writing with the Jon:

"Jon is a great songwriter. He’s got very thoughtful lyrics and he’s not afraid to be honest. He’s very intuitive about what is catchy. I hate to say that word, but he knows where the song should lead. Writing with Jon is very different than writing with Sara or Chris, which is my other experience with Nickel Creek. With him, it’s more about crafting a song and less about technical arrangements. So these recordings are just our attempt to make a good demo of each song, to capture the spirit of each song. On my other endeavors, there was an equal emphasis on the
technical side of things, so this is much different.

(Read the rest here: Part 1)

In part two, Jon talks about Sean as a writer, and his unique abilities:

"His songwriting has a real depth. He knows so many different covers. He’s the type of guy who can learn a cover song every day of the week just to learn it and know it and has a deep appreciation for the history of American music and rock and roll in general and bluegrass and all these different forms. So he has a deep springboard to jump from in different places than a lot of songwriters would.

I think whenever there’s somebody who’s really talented at playing quickly, the danger is that becomes the only thing they have. You’ll have these incredible geniuses on the fretboard that play too many notes potentially and Sean definitely can play really quickly but he has an understanding of when not to play as well. With his talent and his background, it’s an elevator that allows him to reach highs and lows that others wouldn’t be able to get to."

He also talks about the new Switchfoot record, and boy, is this interview filled with juicy, juicy tidbits!

Here's the one that really caught my eye:

"But on the new Switchfoot record, I’m trying to write these immortal anthems."

STOKED.

(Read the rest here: Part 2) Plus, more on the new Switchfoot studio tidbits later...

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Also, Fiction Family got its own feature on Billboard magazine! the guys blogged about it, and here is an excerpt below:

ATO product manager Jaclyn Bertsch credits Red Light Management's Bruce Flohr (who co-manages Fiction Family with Watkins' management Q Prime South) with bringing the music to the label's attention. "You're talking about one guy who has sold 5 million records and another guy who has sold 2 million records," she says of Foreman and Watkins respectively. "But the whole record was made in truly independent fashion. There were no label restraints. ATO wasn't involved until way after the creative process was completed. It just came from a really true place."

The label is now pushing "When She's Near" to triple A radio in advance of a North American tour that begins Jan. 13 in Ann Arbor, Mich.

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Now, some charts news:

(Mediabase is currently down, or not updating properly. We'll post today's results later if that is sorted out)

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Oh! Here's a video of Jon's performance last night for TWLOHA's Heavy and Light benefit show. Appropriately, it's titled "Light and Heavy":



HOLY... CRAP... that was brilliant!

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And last but not least, here's some summarizing about the new Switchfoot album, according to Jon:

*About the writing for the new record: "For me, for a little while there, I was afraid of anthems. I was afraid of the big songs. Fear can be a strange thing to try and describe, but I think that the past few years, I’ve really been set free from those fears. I’ve been able to write these quirky, mellow, side project types of songs. But on the new Switchfoot record, I’m trying to write these immortal anthems."

*About taking their sweet ol' time: Well, we’ve written and recorded about 60 songs that we’re just sifting through. I went out yesterday to write a song with a few friends in New York and we’ve worked with a bunch of different producers. Basically it’s on our dime and our clock and in our studio. We feel that this next record will represent the next 10 years of who we are as a band and so we want to make the best record we’ve ever made. We want to take our time and decide what are the songs that we want to sing for the rest of our lives and put them on this record.

*About Darrell Thorp, and the "landscape" sound Switchfoot is going for: We enlisted Nigel Godrich’s main engineer who has worked on our favorite records - some Paul McCartney records, some Radiohead, some Air records, some of Beck’s stuff. He definitely took us to a place where I feel like this record has a much wider scope - the darks are darker and the lights are brighter and the lows are lower and the highs are higher. That was our goal was to create such a landscape. That’s where my head is at is figuring out how to make sure that horizon is in every song.

*About the trickiness of a release date: We’re shooting for late spring. That’s our goal, but it’s been a little tricky. For the Fiction Family tour, we’re going out in January. Then as Switchfoot, we’re heading to South America right after that. We’re out right now as a band with Three Doors Down, so trying to fit in the recording schedule between all these tours is a little tough. [Laughs] But I think we’ll be able to squeeze it out by summertime or springtime.

All of these paragraph/points have been duly updated on the New Switchfoot Album page! Check it out here

Switchfoot taps Darrell Thorp for the New Album

The mysterious Thor that has been spotted on the Switchfoot Studio Webcam in recent days has finally been revealed. "Thor" is actually the great music engineer Darrell Thorp, who has won a Grammy Award for "Best Engineered Album" for Radiohead's "Hail to the Thief" and an "Album of the Year"for his work with Outkast.

Check out his complete work here and look him up on Myspace.

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I'm especially excited now to see where this move will take the upcoming album. Thorp has also worked with Thom Yorke on his eccentric solo, non-Radiohead project. Outkast also has quirky, interesting music, so we'll see where Thorp will take Switchfoot. If it nets the band a Grammy, I'd be thrilled! Hey, who knows, right?

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SITE NEWS

Has been duly update on our 2008/2009 New Switchfoot Album Page. If you haven't checked it out yet, it's a comprehensive time line of what has happened so far in the production of this new record, from Demo sessions with Charlie Peacock to the current situation. If you'd like, check it out!

A whole lotta new Switchfoot Album Chatter! - Chad Butler talks to Alternative Addiction about the "Surprising" new record

SOURCE (full article)

San Diego rock band Switchfoot are hard at work on a new album, their first independent release on their new imprint label. As for the new album’s sound, drummer Chad Butler says fans can expect to be “surprised” when they hear it.

“It’s some new territory for us musically,” Butler told Alternative Addiction in a recent interview. “I think people are going to be surprised when they hear it, that it’s Switchfoot. I’m thrilled about it, to finally have the capacity and the freedom to do it.”

That freedom is something the band rarely experienced while signed to Columbia, where they released their previous three albums. The band has also benefitted from working on their own schedule, also a rarity for the band while on Columbia’s roster.

“There’s a certain schedule that you had to keep,” said Butler of the band’s time with Columbia. “Right now we don’t have anybody looking over our shoulder while we are in the studio; it’s completely on our own time

The band has been recording the new album in their new home studio in San Diego in between tour dates this summer. Butler says the album over 50% complete, and that they have 3 to 4 songs to still record. The album is expected to be out in the spring of 2009.

Also, listen to or download the audio interview here:

It has a lot more incite into what the Music Builds Tour has been like, as well as a lot of new information what the experience has been like while recording the brand new Switchfoot record.

Here are some highlights:

-Chad says he has been recording with as little of the full drum kit as possible. He's been using maracas, drum machines, and hip hop beats. Wow!

-Jon Foreman has been writing some songs on the piano. Wow2!

-They aren't really working on a huge hit "single" at the moment (big surprise there...), but are really focusing on the art and the album as a whole. When the time comes, "We'll figure out a song for radio."

(Site note: These highlights have been added to the "New Switchfoot Album" page.)



This is all exciting news, and I can't wait to be surprised by what the band is doing with their record. Hip hop beats... really?!

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Also, for Music Builds coverage, check out the newly updated Daily Foot!

Switchfoot New Song Titles!!

Yes, the Switchfoot studio webcam is abuzz with information! The guys gave us all a glimpse of the song lists for this upcoming album. And boy, are there some crazy names! One of our writers, amylynnequist, posted screen caps of this moment, for those who missed it, on the Switchfoot Webcam 08 blog!

Here's the caps:












And check out all the ridiculously awesome song titles!

Above the Roar
Always Yours
Anymore
As Wide As the Grave
Baby, Please Don't Cry
Blood is Soul
Bluebird
Bullet Soul
Contradiction
Dirty Streets of Gold
Dontcha Know
Fading
Fluorescent
Halfway
Hello Hurricane
Holding On (CROSSED OUT)
I Can't Let It Go This Time
I Dug Myself
I Saw Satan Fall
Light and Heavy
Meantime
Moving Lips
Mr. Hyde
Needle + Haystack
New Streams
People, Put Your Hands Up
Promise
Push (The Human Race)
Red Eyes
Running From Me
Selling the News
Sleepwalking
Someday
Souvenirs
Sun In Your Eyes
Sunrise to Sunset
The Weight of the World
There's Still Time
These Missing Things
We Walk Alone
Weapon
Whatcha Gonna Do For Deal?
Wide Open Spaces
Wolves
Wound Up
Yet
You Were Made For Love
Your Body Follows


Some of them are familiar friends from previous recording sessions past, like "We Walk Alone," "Wolves," "Red Eyes" etc. from the Oh! Gravity. sessions. Others have been highly buzzed-about and anticipated, like "Running From Me," "Blood Is Soil," and "People Put Your Hands Up."

I'm really liking the title, "Hello Hurricane." Of course, we'll have to reserve judgment for when we actually hear songs.

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Speaking of the webcam, we have a new writer in the fold for the Webcam blog! Say hi to Jess :)!

Here's her first entry!

Big News: Switchfoot targets a Spring 2009 release!

Note: sorry everyone for lack of updates. I was gone the whole weekend, and there is little in the form of Switchfoot news. However, Billboard had an article posted with TONS of Switcfoot news, the biggest of which is that the new record is to be released sometime in the Spring of 2009. Because it's such a great article, I've posted it in its entirety here. Enjoy!

August 01, 2008 , 2:05 PM ET

Amid a flurry of group and individual projects, Switchfoot is eyeballing a spring 2009 release for its next album -- the San Diego rockers first since 2006's "Oh! Gravity" and since leaving Columbia to start its own label, the ATO-distributed Lowercase People Records.

Switchfoot has been working in a studio it constructed in San Diego, chronicling some of the sessions via webcam on its Web site. "There are so many different directions we can go in," frontman Jon Foreman tells Billboard.com. "One of the songs has a (Led) Zeppelin feel. One of them has more of a Devo feel. So it's Led Devo, or something along those lines. I feel like the headspace we're in now, the glass ceiling's been shattered. We're excited to see how far we can take this thing."

Foreman says Switchfoot has tried working with several producers, including Failure's Ken Andrews and Charlie Peacock, but ultimately decided to produce the album itself. "I feel like we've got a fairly firm grip on what we want do," Foreman says, "and I feel like we can get there on our own."

Switchfoot may have some new material to showcase when it sets out on the Music Builds Tour, a 23-show road trip supporting Habitat For the Humanity that includes fellow faith-based groups Third Day, Robert Randolph & the Family Band and Jars Of Clay. It kicks off Aug. 21 in Clarkston, Mich. The band has also taken an active role in helping Columbia compile a greatest hits album for release this fall, which will likely include "This Is Home," Switchfoot's contribution to the soundtrack of "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian."

"We want to make sure if it's got our name on it (that) it's a product we like," Foreman says, "so we're trying to steer (Columbia) in the right direction."

Foreman, meanwhile, has been busy on his own. He recently completed a series of four seasonal-themed EPs and is allowing fans to help him choose their favorite tracks for a compilation, "Limbs and Branches," that's also expected out this fall.

And he and Nickel Creek's Sean Watkins are putting the finishing touches on the first album by their side project, Fiction Family, which they hope to get out before the end of the year in front of an early 2009 tour.

SOURCE

I'll weigh in later on tonight or tomorrow. Peace out. This information has been added to our New Album News page. Go there to check out what else has happened so far in the development of this new album!

Jon Foreman Summer EP Reviews

First of all, here's a Bro-Am recap blog by Jon Foreman on his myspace.

Link

post bro am thoughts...

hola mis amigos!
thanks for the kind words about the summer EP! (and thanks for getting it to number ten on I tunes... crazy town!) I'll dive into that in a little while. Right now, I'm still in Bro Am-ville... digesting a full weekend. Here's a few thoughts:

To me, the Bro-Am is a day where pro surfers, pro skaters, and musicians come together to acknowledge some of the bravest heroes I can think of: homeless teens and the folks who help support them. I feel incredibly honored to stand alongside of some of these amazing kids this weekend: kids who are fighting for hope, fighting for love, fighting for shelter- fighting for the bare essentials.

Against all odds, these kids refuse to give up. They refuse to believe that their lives are meaningless. They have the strength of character to pursue their dreams in spite of their present situations. It was a privilege to join StandUp For Kids in their efforts to support these young fighters in their quest for hope and truth and love.

The Bro-Am is truly one of my favorite days of the year- a day that combines surfing, music, and friends around San Diego- all for a cause bigger than ourselves. Thanks to everyone who made this years event such an amazing experience. Let's continue to ensure that StandUp For Kids feels our support all year long.

jon

Oh, and btw, Andy Barron posted a new daily foot for the Bro-Am with a crapload of pics. Go check it out now!

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Now for some Jon Foreman Summer EP reviews.

The Album Project

As the weather begins to warm and school is letting out, the new record from Jon Foreman is released just in time to accompany the coming sweltering months of innocence.

‘Summer’, although different in style, closely resembles the first solo EP ‘Fall’, both with their hard hitting, brutally honest lyrics. Specifically “Instead Of A Show” wastes no time flat out saying too many people are focused on style rather than substance. The song is moves along, mid-tempo, with a catchy melody that really sticks in your mind.

This article has an interesting title from "Into the Hill": Why is Foremean still wasting his time with Switchfoot? (not only because of the misspelling of Jon's last name)

Into the Hill Article

This collection of songs is so near to perfect musically, lyrically and spiritually that it makes criticism difficult. Your blood pulses through “Resurrect Me”, feeling the desperation, pain and hope of self-mortification and new life. The prophetic damnation of “Instead of a Show” creates chills. (At one point, in “…Show”, Foreman even manages to evoke the strained vocals of Conor Oberst.) All this, and there is an apparent cameo of Ron Burgandy on “yazz flute” in “Baptize my Mind.”

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CHARTS

"This Is Home"

Hot AC: 78
Radio Disney: 31
Christian CHR: 18
Billboard Hot Christian Songs: 22 (-2 from last week)
Billboard Hot Christian AC: 25 (+1 from last week)

"The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian Soundtrack"

Billboard 200: 101 (-51 from last week)
Billboard Top Soundtracks: 6 (-2 from last week)
Billboard Top Digital Albums: 21 (-10 from last week)

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Site News

We are pleased to introduce to you a new section where we chronicle all the news pertaining to the upcoming, brand new Switchfoot record. So far, we've got everything we've heard so far, and we will be adding anything new there. Consider it your No. 1 source for viewing all the new album news as it happens.

So without further ado, here it is!