Formation and early years (1996–2002) Switchfoot was founded in 1996 as Chin Up, consisting of Jon Foreman and his brother Tim along with Chad Butler on drums. 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. Re:think went on to distribute the first three Switchfoot albums,
The Legend of Chin,
New Way to Be Human, and
Learning to Breathe. Because Re:think was bought by Christian giant
Sparrow Records before Switchfoot's first release, the band's and Peacock's intentions of being marketed outside of the
Contemporary Christian music scene and reaching a wider audience were put on hold. 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." Of Switchfoot's first three albums,
Learning to Breathe was the most successful, receiving a Grammy nomination for
Best Rock Gospel Album. Later in 2002, Switchfoot's music was featured prominently in the movie
A Walk to Remember, starring singer and actress
Mandy Moore, who sang Switchfoot's song "
Only Hope" during a scene in the movie. In addition to Moore's
cover of "Only Hope", Switchfoot's songs "You", "Learning to Breathe", and "I Dare You to Move" were showcased in the film, as well as their own original version of "Only Hope" towards the end of the film.
The Beautiful Letdown (2003–2005) After the exposure which came from
A Walk to Remember, Switchfoot attracted attention from multiple record labels and eventually they signed with
Columbia Records/
Sony BMG. Their major label debut,
The Beautiful Letdown, under
Columbia Records/
Red Ink, represented the band's evolution from the predominantly
lo-fi,
indie rock sound of their early albums, toward a more layered, synth-influenced sound that helped launch the band to mainstream popularity. 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. Fontamillas had been touring with Switchfoot since 2000, following the release of
Learning to Breathe.
The Beautiful Letdown has since been certified triple platinum, selling more than 3 million copies behind constant touring and the huge mainstream radio hits "Meant to Live" and "Dare You to Move". A live DVD depicting one of the band's live concerts,
Live in San Diego, went platinum as well and a third single, "
This Is Your Life" was released to radio. In addition, the song "
Gone" received major airplay on Christian radio stations as well. After the runaway success of
The Beautiful Letdown, a compilation titled
The Early Years: 1997-2000 was released, which featured Switchfoot's first three indie albums released under Re:think records including the original artwork for all the albums. The collection has since been certified
gold with total sales of over 500,000 copies. Switchfoot also received five 2005
Dove Award nominations,
and won four, including Artist of the year.
Nothing Is Sound (2005–2006) In 2005, prior to the release of
Nothing Is Sound, Switchfoot announced that guitarist Drew Shirley (previously the guitarist for
All Together Separate) had joined as the band's fifth member after touring with the band since 2003.
Nothing Is Sound was released on September 13, 2005; with Shirley's inclusion Switchfoot's sound became even more densely layered and guitar-heavy, resulting in an album which was edgier and darker than any of their previous work. "
Stars" was released as the first radio single to promote the album, and was a solid hit on mainstream and alternative rock radio stations. It was used in ads for HBO. "
We Are One Tonight" was released as the second single in early 2006; it was also featured in ads for the
2006 Winter Olympics in
Turin, Italy. , BC The album debuted at No. 3 on the
Billboard 200 albums chart, an all-time high for the band, while bassist Tim Foreman attracted headlines by speaking out against the copy-protection used by the label and providing fans with a detailed workaround on the band's message board, which was quickly deleted by Sony. The copy-protection is known as
Extended Copy Protection, which has been identified by leading anti-virus companies as being a
trojan horse and a
rootkit. During the spring 2006 leg of the Nothing Is Sound Tour, the band introduced "a video diary of life on the road" in the form of free video
podcasts available via iTunes and streaming online on
YouTube. In addition to featuring snippets of upcoming songs and live performances, the videos gave fans an inside look at the more casual and humorous aspects of the band members' touring lives; it features footage of the band working on their follow-up to
Nothing Is Sound.
Oh! Gravity. (2006–2007) Switchfoot's next album,
Oh! Gravity., was released on December 26, 2006, to considerable critical acclaim. It entered the Billboard chart at No. 18 and peaked at No. 1 on iTunes' Top Albums chart. Before the release of the album, Switchfoot e-mailed a newsletter on June 2 which contained a free download of the song "Daylight to Break", a statement from Foreman implying that the band wanted to have a new album out by the end of the year, as well as a thanks to their fans for helping keep the band together for ten years. The band tried to involve their fans in the creation of the album, setting up a webcam in their recording studio and running a contest for a chance to play the
cowbell in the studio with the band. Promoting the album the band first released the song, "
Dirty Second Hands", as a "preview" single via iTunes on September 26. The title track "
Oh! Gravity" was also released to iTunes on October 21 and was sent to radio on October 31 as the lead single for the album, seeing limited success at alternative and modern rock radio. The album's second single, "
Awakening", was released in early 2007. 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. When
Oh! Gravity was pre-ordered a 3-song EP called
Oh! Switchfoot was included. The short CD included three songs: "The Sound in My Mouth", "C'mon C'mon", and "Oh! Gravity (Acoustic)".
Major-label independence, ‘’The Best Yet’’ (2007–2008) Later on August 10, 2007, Jon Foreman revealed that the band had severed ties with
Columbia Records in order to release music as an
Indie band. “Neither party has any hard feelings,” he said of the split a few months later. “I think for us, the reason why we signed with Columbia was because of the people that were there. So it’s very understandable when all those people are gone, you don’t hold any real bad feelings or good feelings towards a company name. I think that’s part of the problem with the corporate entity as a whole is that there’s no true responsibility.” In October 2007, the band announced that they had created a new record label called
lowercase people records, in order to better make a direct connection with their fans. 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. “Your Love Is Strong” is the most well known from the string of releases. Each of his EPs contained six songs. At the end of the process, he released a sort of “best of” album called Limbs and Branches. Foreman wrote two additional songs for this called “Over the River” and “Broken from the Start”. Once all four EPs were released, they were re-released on vinyl in limited quantity. Foreman also began a side project with
Sean Watkins of
Nickel Creek which was originally called “The Real SeanJon” but later renamed “
Fiction Family“. With their new status as an independent band, Switchfoot embarked on their 2007 fall tour, playing shows with
Relient K and
Ruth. The tour, dubbed the “
Appetite for Construction Tour“, was designed to benefit
Habitat For Humanity with the bands donating one dollar per ticket sold to the cause. In addition, Foreman wrote the song “
Rebuild“ with
Matt Thiessen from
Relient K, and released it as a way to raise additional money for Habitat. By the end of the tour, the bands had raised over $100,000 for Habitat for Humanity. With no new album to promote, the band continued touring for philanthropic causes, booking a short national tour in March through May (titled the Up In Arms Tour), partnering with and benefitting the organization
To Write Love on Her Arms. In March 2008, the band wrote and recorded a new song called “
This Is Home“ for the film ‘’
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian‘’. The song was included on the film’s
official soundtrack and an accompanying music video was also filmed, with footage from the film. 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.”
“Hello Hurricane” and “Eastern Hymns for Western Shores” (2008–2010) 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. The studio, named Spot X Studio, was completed in the spring of 2008, and the band began recording their follow-up to 2006’s “Oh! Gravity.” In April, the band announced that instead of one studio album, they had actually been at work on 4 albums’ worth of material, and had decided at the time to release them one after another, starting with the first one on November 10, 2009, titled “
Hello Hurricane”. When “Hello Hurricane” was completed, the band began searching for “the right partners” to distribute the songs globally. 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. Through this, the single spread all across the world in grassroots fashion in advance of a traditional radio release; On December 1, 2010, it was announced that “Hello Hurricane” had been nominated for a
Grammy Award for Best Rock or Rap Gospel Album. It won the Grammy on February 13, 2011. Late in 2010, Switchfoot announced via newsletter, that they would be releasing an EP of songs that they wrote and recorded between “Nothing Is Sound” and “Oh! Gravity.” It was called “
Eastern Hymns for Western Shores”. For a time the location of the masters of these tracks were unknown. Once found, Switchfoot announced that the EP would be available as part of their holiday fan pack which also included a Switchfoot calendar, poster, sweatshirt jacket, and limited edition post cards with one for each of the songs on the EP. In their newsletter the band described these songs as showing their “darker” side. The EP included five never before heard songs along with a different cut of the “Oh! Gravity.” song “Dirty Second Hands”.
Vice Verses (2011–2012) Switchfoot's eighth studio album,
Vice Verses, was released on September 27, 2011, and debuted at No. 8 on the Billboard 200. According to Butler, the core of the record rests thematically in the idea of the polarity of life. A release date of September 27, 2011, was announced on AllAccess, with "
Dark Horses" hitting modern rock radio on July 20. 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. "From the very beginning, we set goals, one of them being to make a very rhythmic record, a very soulful record, and a very hard-hitting record that really pushes the boundaries, the highs and the lows," he told CBN.com. Switchfoot performed a song for the
Hawaii Five-0 soundtrack, released October 4, 2011, titled "Out of Control". On
Record Store Day 2012, Switchfoot released their latest EP record,
Vice Re-Verses. The digital download of the EP was later released on May 1.
Fading West album and film (2013–2015) stop on the Fading West Tour –
Buckhead Theatre, 2014 In May 2013, Switchfoot was on tour and filming a movie,
Fading West. The band's guitarist Drew Shirley said that it was "a surf documentary mixed with behind the scenes footage of the band" and that "the soundtrack will be released as a CD and it will be [their] next album". On September 17, 2013 Switchfoot released
Fading West EP containing three songs from the full-length album. 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. The
Fading West film premiered during the Fading West Tour which started in September 2013, and was released digitally on December 10, 2013. Switchfoot's ninth studio album, also titled
Fading West, was released on January 14, 2014 through
lowercase people and
Atlantic Records. In February 2014, in a
YouTube Interview with
Relevant magazine, 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. The album, an EP titled
The Edge of the Earth, was released on September 9, 2014. Foreman also announced that he would be releasing between 30-50 new songs for his solo albums most likely during 2015. Switchfoot toured in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the Netherlands in May and June 2015. In July and August 2015, Switchfoot toured with
Needtobreathe,
Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors, and
Colony House during the second leg of the 2015 "Tour De Compadres" tour.
Where the Light Shines Through and hiatus (2015–2017) In August 2015, it was reported that Switchfoot would be releasing their tenth studio album in 2016. On April 29, 2016,
Concord Music Group announced that the band had signed a worldwide recording and co-publishing deal with
Vanguard Records imprint and Concord's sister publishing unit, The Bicycle Music Company. On May 12, 2016, Switchfoot announced that the album, titled
Where the Light Shines Through, would be released on July 8, 2016. It was produced by Switchfoot and
John Fields, with whom the band has worked on
The Beautiful Letdown,
Nothing Is Sound and
Oh! Gravity.
Native Tongue and Covers (2018–2021) On March 30, 2018, the band posted a clip on YouTube; they said that they had come out of their hiatus and were working on "Project 11". They previewed a
heavy metal version of "
Meant to Live", claiming it was their new sound. Two days later on April 1, it was revealed to be an
April Fool's Joke. On August 9, 2018, the band's song "You Found Me" was released as the single promoting the drama film
Unbroken: Path to Redemption. The soundtrack album for the film was released on September 14, 2018. On October 19, 2018, Switchfoot announced the release of their eleventh album
Native Tongue on January 18, 2019 through
Fantasy Records. In support of the album, the band embarked on a 2019 concert tour of the United States, supported by Colony House and Tyson Motsenbocker. The first single "Native Tongue" and its music video were released in conjunction with the album announcement. 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. It was released on June 19, 2020 via
Fantasy Records. They also played a monthly livestream concert called the "Fantastic Not Traveling Music Show" during which they played a variety of song requests spanning their career.
Interrobang and Drew Shirley departure (2021–2022) On May 7, 2021, Switchfoot released "I Need You (To Be Wrong)" as the first single from their twelfth studio album
Interrobang. The album was released on August 20, 2021. A "deluxe" edition of the album was released on July 8, 2022, the six year anniversary of their 2016 album "Where The Light Shines Through". Switchfoot returned to live touring opening for
Needtobreathe on the "Into the Mystery Tour". They also collaborated with Needtobreathe on an Amazon original Christmas song titled "Hometown Christmas". On February 21, 2022, the band announced that Drew Shirley and the band were amicably parting ways.
Christmas album and The Beautiful Letdown rerecording (2022–2025) In September 2022 the band announced their first Christmas album
This Is Our Christmas Album. The album was released on November 4, 2022. In May 2023, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their album
The Beautiful Letdown, the band released
The Beautiful Letdown (Our Version) and went on a tour playing the entire album live. In June 2024, the band hosted the 20th annual Bro-Am, which featured a guest appearance of former lead guitarist Drew Shirley. The band are confirmed to be appearing at
Welcome to Rockville taking place in
Daytona Beach, Florida in May 2026.
Forever Now (2026–present) In March 2026, while performing at
SXSW in
Austin, the band announced that a new album titled
Forever Now would come out on June 26, 2026. The album's lead single, "Wake Up, Mr. Crow", was released on March 27, 2026. The announcement also confirmed that Boaz Roberts, who had been touring with the band since 2021, had officially joined as their new lead guitarist, once again expanding the band's line-up back to a quintet. ==Style and influences==