Switchfoot

After early successes in the Christian rock scene, Switchfoot first gained mainstream recognition with the inclusion of four of their songs in the 2002 film A Walk to Remember.

After playing a few shows including the Foreman brothers' dad's megachurch North Coast Calvary Chapel in Carlsbad, California, the band was contacted by music industry veteran Charlie Peacock and eventually signed to his indie label Re:think Records under the current moniker, Switchfoot.

Consequently, the band was mostly marketed to Christian radio and retail outlets early in their careers, a time Jon Foreman has described as when "half of who we were was lost.

The shift sonically could be attributed to the fact that the album was the first to include keyboardist Jerome Fontamillas, formerly of industrial bands Mortal and Fold Zandura.

The Beautiful Letdown has since been certified double platinum, selling more than 2.6 million copies[12] behind constant touring and the huge mainstream radio hits "Meant to Live" and "Dare You to Move".

Although it had virtually no play on mainstream radio, the accompanying band-funded music video song received over one million hits on YouTube in less than three months.

Jon Foreman began working on his own set of solo EPs (one named after each season of the year); the first of these was released on November 27, 2007, the last on June 10, 2008.

[28] Foreman also began a side project with Sean Watkins of Nickel Creek which was originally called “The Real SeanJon” but later renamed “Fiction Family“.

[31] In March 2008, the band wrote and recorded a new song called “This Is Home“ for the film ‘’The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian‘’.

[33] Later that year, Columbia Records/Sony Music released a Switchfoot greatest hits compilation album titled ‘’The Best Yet‘’, a sort of “final farewell from Sony.”[34] Prior to the label split, Foreman had announced in a March 17, 2007 MySpace blog that Switchfoot had begun pre-production for a new album; he said that “the new SF record is underway.” On October 12, 2007, Foreman also announced that the band had begun construction of their own studio in their hometown of San Diego.

On August 7, 2009, the band announced that lowercase people records was licensing the album to Atlantic Records, ensuring “these tunes are heard around the world.” As a promotion for the new release, the band took a hands-on approach with their lead single, “Mess of Me”; they hid copies of the single all across the world and encouraged fans to share it by finding the discs and making copies of their own to hide.

That was followed by the release of “The Sound (John M. Perkins' Blues)”, which went on to become the band’s first Top 10 Modern Rock hit since “Dare You to Move”.

[43] A release date of September 27, 2011, was announced on AllAccess, with "Dark Horses" hitting modern rock radio on July 20.

[44] In an interview with CBN.com, bassist Tim Foreman calls Vice Verses a cousin to Hello Hurricane, not a sequel to their last album but related in some ways.

Tim, speaking of his brother (Switchfoot's lead singer, Jon) said, "It features some of his best lyrical work," and said that he is happy with the musical component of the project as well.

Two songs on the EP, "Who We Are" and "Love Alone Is Worth the Fight", were released in different radio formats as the lead singles promoting the upcoming album.

Switchfoot's ninth studio album, also titled Fading West, was released on January 14, 2014 through lowercase people and Atlantic Records.

[47] In February 2014, in a YouTube Interview with Relevant magazine,[48] Jon Foreman hinted that a new album was coming out in late 2014 or early 2015 which would mostly consist of the songs that were cut from the Fading West film.

On December 6, 2016, Switchfoot revealed through an email newsletter and on their website that the premiere of their new film, Live from Hollywood Palladium, would coincide with their 2017 Summer Getaway event.

On December 15, 2017, Switchfoot announced via their website and mailing list that, after returning home from their fall tour, they would be taking a hiatus "for the foreseeable future".

[citation needed] On August 9, 2018, the band's song "You Found Me" was released as the single promoting the drama film Unbroken: Path to Redemption.

[61][62] In spring 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Switchfoot started working on an EP titled Covers, containing the band's take on songs by Frank Ocean, Vampire Weekend, The Chainsmokers, The Verve, Harry Styles, and Jon Bellion.

[73] Switchfoot's frontman and guitarist Jon Foreman cites his musical influences as U2, The Beatles, and Keith Green;[74] he said that he admires the vocal "strength and vulnerability" of Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash.

"Meant to Live", the band's runaway hit, was inspired by T. S. Eliot's poem "The Hollow Men",[80] while "Stars", the lead single off Nothing Is Sound, briefly "looks at things from the Descartes perspective," according to Foreman.

The band has always philosophically disagreed with this label; "We're Christian by faith, not genre," Tim Foreman explained to Rolling Stone magazine in 2003.

[87] Switchfoot has been involved in a number of humanitarian causes including with DATA, the ONE Campaign, the Keep A Breast Foundation, Habitat for Humanity, Invisible Children, and To Write Love on Her Arms.

[88][89] Before recording Nothing Is Sound, the band made a trip to several South African villages in January 2005, which inspired the album's song "The Shadow Proves the Sunshine".

In 2008, Switchfoot also got involved in the musical movement to spread awareness about 21st century slavery and human trafficking, performing "Awakening" for the documentary film Call + Response.

Jon Foreman has released several solo projects, and is also involved in an acoustic collaboration called Fiction Family with Sean Watkins of the band Nickel Creek.

[96] In 2017, Switchfoot joined forces with the fellow rock band Lifehouse, to help raise funds for Hurricane Harvey victims through their song "Shine Like Gold".