Switchfoot headed for BG

There’s a bit of a swell on the ocean in Orlando, Florida.
That’s enticing to Chad Butler and the other surfing member of the band Switchfoot. Unfortunately they
packed so many guitars there was no room for surfboards.
The band was founded by brothers Jon and Tim Foreman, vocals and guitar, and Chad Butler, bass, all
surfers who grew up in musical families in San Diego, and now travel the world with the Grammy-winning
Switchfoot.
"We try to find waves when we can," Butler said.
The highlight of the band’s year is the Bro-Am, a charity event that brings together their love of
surfing and music and their desire to do unto others.
They’ll have to make their own waves when they visit Bowling Green for an Oct. 5 concert at the Stroh
Center with Anberlin.
After earning a 2011 Best Rock or Rap Gospel Album Grammy for "Hello Hurricane," Switchfoot is
on the road to introduce a new effort "Vice Verses."
The new album is something of a shift for the band, which includes Jerome Fontamillas, keyboards and
guitar, and Drew Shirley, guitar.
In the past, Butler said in a telephone interview,
The songs of Jon Foreman, an inveterate writer who pens a song a day, usually serve as the launching pad
for a session. Here though the band decided to build the songs on top of the grooves of the bass and
drums. "This is very different for us," Butler said.
The result was "a more soulful sound," he said, with touches of Motown and hip hop mixed into
the alterative rock beats.
Not that they stinted on the thematic content. Indeed, "Vice Verses" is a tightly constructed
explorations of the polarity of life.
The whole session was inspired by the title tune. Butler said it was originally intended for "Hello
Hurricane," but it was such a "fierce song"," they decided to build an entire record
around it.
Fittingly the song opens along the Pacific with the singer contemplating the dichotomies of life. "I
know there’s a meaning to it all," he sings, "a little resurrection every time I fall… every
blessing comes with its set of curses."
This leads him to question: "Where is God in the earthquake? Where is God in the genocide?"
Despite the spiritual content, Butler said they don’t want to be pigeonholed as a Christian band.
"I’m a believer," he said. "It’s always an honor to be associated with the name of
Christ."
But they don’t want to label the music in any way that would exclude listeners. "It is important for
us that everyone feels welcomed."
"Your art is going to reflect your beliefs," he said. The band strives to make "honest
songs for everyone."
Butler said he learned the power of song early on.
"Some of my earliest memories were of being on tour with my dad’s band," he said. It was his
father who introduced him to Bob Dylan and it was Dylan who made him realize "you can dive into
some of the deeper questions of life."
Those aren’t necessarily issues that come up in every day conversation "but through a song you have
that artistic license" broach questions for which there are "no pat answers."
Switchfoot is on a journey to try to find an understanding. "We’re on this journey together… We
want to push the conversation."
On the new record that push that conversation, he said, "Jon’s lyrics are more honest, more
vulnerable, more confessional than on any of our records."
Listeners are part of this conversation as well. "I’ve always felt that the people who connect with
our songs are the ones who most want to connect with the dialogue," he said.
Those songs evolved as the band performs them live before their fans. "We’re almost co-producing
these songs with the audience. The version live is very different from what we played on the
record," Butler said. "Each live show is a living breathing experiment… That’s why I play
music because it’s always changing."