Audience of One
Switchfoot's Jon Foreman used to fret about what people thought, especially when the band hit it big in the mainstream and some wondered: "Are they still Christian?" They are, and he is. And here's the story.
by Collin Hansen | posted 11/27/2006
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You might say things have changed in the nearly four years since Christian Music Today last spoke with Switchfoot. That was in January 2003—before The Beautiful Letdown, which would go double-platinum, was released. Mainstream success came as the San Diego band continued to earn Christian acclaim. Switchfoot frontman Jon Foreman won six Dove Awards at the 2004 GMA Music Awards. Christian Music Today chose the band's next release, Nothing Is Sound, as the top Christian album of 2005. Christianity Today associate editor Collin Hansen talked with Foreman about success, Christian criticism, the gospel, and Switchfoot's December 26 release, Oh Gravity!
Jon Foreman (center) and his friends in Switchfoot are less concerned with satisfying the status quo than they are an 'audience of One'.
What do you think will surprise Switchfoot fans about Oh! Gravity?
Jon Foreman When you're around the music, it's like watching a kid grow up. If you're around the kid every day, you don't really see changes. But everyone outside of the family notices dramatic differences. It's been really interesting to see other people's reactions to the songs where, for us, I think it's been a real honest effort to try and get the energy live onto a CD. It's almost been this dichotomy in our band where we record music one way and then play it live a completely different way. In the recording, you tend to be going for perfection. And a lot of times perfection can stifle the song itself. With this record, we made a conscious effort to leave mistakes in, to leave the first take in if it felt better.
I can only speak from the inside, but we felt freedom making this record. We were really thankful to be in a spot where we couldn't care less what the outside world thought. That's a really liberating place to be as a musician.
When did you get to that point?
Foreman We had a few things that happened over the past year that were frustrating for us as a band—copy protection on Nothing Is Sound that was incompatible with iTunes, spyware on our listeners' CDs without their knowledge. It put a lot of things between us and the people who bought our music. Nothing Is Sound was the best record we had ever made, and we were really excited about getting it out there. We still really believed in our songs, but to have all of those things kind of working against us in our attempts to get the music out there was a really troubling time for us as a band.
So we went into the studio halfway through last year in between tours to work on an EP without plans for what to do with it. It really felt like a newfound freedom in the studio that we hadn't felt in a long time.
It's been a while since publicists have allowed Christian Music Today to talk to you guys. What was the biggest change since moving over to Sony/Columbia a few years ago?
Foreman It was initially a realization of something that we'd wanted to be from the beginning. When we were signed to re:think Records, the goal was to get the music out to everybody. When Sparrow bought re:think Records, it was evident that our music wasn't going to be in the hands of everybody. As a Christian, I have a lot to say within the walls of the church. But also, as a Christian, I've got a lot to say just about life in general.
I've always been a little bit leery of putting "Christian" as a tagline for anything. If you're going to attach the name of Christ onto something, then you'd better have thought about it for a long time and really feel like that particular product, whether it's a CD or a church or whatever, is worthy of that name. So to be able to be on Columbia and on Sparrow felt like the realization of the two sides of what we had to say. It's a dream come true to be able to have songs that are outside of the box. Because it can be really troubling when your music gets labeled as one thing or another. All the goals that you're trying to achieve suddenly become boiled down into this really simplistic box.
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