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These days, Jon Foreman has been known to arrive late for the bus call after a Switchfoot concert. It's not that the singer/songwriter is scatterbrained or overly chatty with fans. Instead, the guy's got such a voracious musical appetite, he's been known to stage an intimate after-show solo concert. And we're not talking about the stage or an officially booked coffeehouse, but rather the sidewalk or parking lot outside the venue. It's an opportunity to share quieter songs that Foreman considers too personal in scope for Switchfoot. With encouragement from the band, Foreman has recorded these songs for a series of four EPs—Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer, all available as individual download, or packaged in stores as pairs of EPs. The friendly frontman called from his band's studio to discuss his ambitious solo material, as well as Switchfoot's upcoming endeavors (including their contribution to the soundtrack of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian).

Why did you break up your solo material into four EPs rather than release them at once as a double-disc?

Foreman I just hate the whole solo thing to begin with, and that may sound odd because I'm doing it! But the decision to go with the EPs was my way of saying, "Well, let's find a way of doing this where it doesn't feel like that big solo record side project." Every time a band breaks up and one of the guys goes solo, and it's always such a big hype, which I wanted to avoid. I really liked the solo material from Richard Ashcroft [of The Verve] and Sting had a good time with his solo work outside of The Police, but I kind of wanted to avoid too much attention since Switchfoot isn't breaking up. The EPs allow me to slip under the radar.

What do each of these projects represent in relation to the seasons?

Foreman I think the seasons are kind of a great metaphor for the decay and rebirth we experience in our own lives. It was one of those things that felt really natural in the process of recording them. Fall is kind of my favorite because it feels like the most honest, entering into a season of decay. Then winter acknowledges death, spring signals rebirth, and summer has everything coming to fruition. I felt like it was a great way to divide the songs lyrically as well as production. So the concepts are not really intended as a metaphor or something clearly delineated like a math equation. I just wanted to evoke the sentiment of fall with the Fall EP and so on. I have a friend who hears music that way and puts music into his own categories. Instead of jazz, hip-hop or rock, he separates them by all different moods and organizes them by season. So somewhere along those lines, I wanted to evoke a feeling of driving down the road listening to this record and thinking of a particular time frame or season.

Were the songs written in their respective seasons or did you have to transition towards that frame of mind with each EP?

Foreman A lot of the writing was done in the concurrent season, though obviously there were some songs that have been around for awhile and landed on that slot because they fit so well. So it was a little bit of both. When I wasn't in the season, I tried to find myself there by closing my eyes and picturing what it's like. It's amazing what your mind can do if you set it to the task.

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