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| photo: Erick Frost |
Switchfoot’s
compelling 14th studio album Forever Now! includes some of the hardest hitting tunes from the San Diego alt-rockers in
recent memory.
Thematic and narrative-driven, the lyrics center on the
emotional difficulties of someone’s last day on Earth and internal questions we
might ask if faced with such a reality. To that
end, lead singer and songwriter Jon Foreman described his Forever Now!
creative process in a press release as “trying to unearth the things we
want to keep buried and the parts of ourselves that inevitably surface in other
ways.”
For the
past 30 years, Switchfoot – comprising fellow founding members Tim Foreman
(bass) and Chad Butler (drums), plus Jerome Fontamillas (keyboards) and more
recent recruit Boaz Roberts (lead guitar) – have adeptly made thought-provoking,
often spiritual-minded songs with widespread appeal.
The
quintet’s popularity reached an apex with 2003’s The Beautiful Letdown,
which went triple platinum in America, and spawned multi-format hits “Meant to
Live” and “Dare You to Move.” Follow-up album Nothing is Sound and the ’05
single “Stars” (both certified gold) continued the momentum. Successive
releases have kept Switchfoot in the upper echelons of the charts.
Earlier
this month, the band’s 22nd Annual Bro-Am Beach Fest took place in
Encinitas, Calif. More than 15,000 people attended the music and
surfing-centric event, which raised $335,000 for The Switchfoot Bro-Am
Foundation (total to date: $3.35 million+). The charity gives back to the San
Diego community by spotlighting and providing grants to nonprofits that support
services for unhoused at-risk and disadvantaged youth with a focus on music, art,
and surfing programs.
We caught
up with Chad Butler from his home in San Diego, right before a planned
afternoon surfing session and the Bro-Am festivities started. The interview was
lightly edited for clarity.
Rock
Cellar: Is everyone prepared for Bro-Am? I’d imagine it’s quite an undertaking
to host a festival.
Chad
Butler: Yeah.
We’ve still got to practice our surfing, practice for the show and new songs we’re
going to debut.
Rock
Cellar: Last year’s event raised a record amount for the various charities.
Chad
Butler: It has been
an incredible 20+ years of helping kids in San Diego and become something that’s
much bigger than Switchfoot. It’s this community group hug; a celebration of
San Diego, generosity and just helping kids. Everybody wants to invest in kids,
so it’s a great unifier - people from all different walks of life coming
together to help kids.
Rock
Cellar: Forever Now! arrives soon. What was your mindset going into it?
Chad
Butler: This is a
special record. It has taken us a long time to make it - more than we’ve spent than
I can remember on an album. Also, I think it has reminded us of why we loved
rock and roll in the first place.
All of us
discovered rock and roll and playing in bands in our teenage years. Falling in
love with bands that were power trios or really heavy guitar riffs. I got to
see Nirvana live when I was in high school and it changed my life. I saw the
power of that music, how it moved me, and I said, ‘I want to do that.’ I wasn’t
even thinking professionally. I just wanted to be in a band and play loud music
with that kind of energy.
In the
process of making this album, we kept referencing bands from when we were 14-15,
picking up the guitar or the drums for the first time, and trying to get back
to that. All these songs have been sparked by that love.
Rock
Cellar: Several of the new songs are more aggressive in nature. Was that a
reaction to the moodiness and atmospheric vibe on your last album, 2021’s Interrobang?
Chad
Butler: Yeah. As
an artist, you always want to challenge yourself, pushing your sound, and
trying new things. Working with producer Tony Berg on that last record was a
real experience. We took a different approach. He was very much into
pre-production. For months, we just rehearsed together in a room with him
coaching us and figuring out the parts. Then, we tried to capture it in one
take. The songs that he was gravitating towards were a little bit more outside
the box of our sound typically.
For this
album, working with Mike Elizondo was a [totally] different process. We had worked
with him on Fading West and some other albums along the way.
Rock
Cellar: Like Hello, Hurricane, which delivered you guys a Grammy Award.
Chad
Butler: Yeah. Hello,
Hurricane was the first one. We’ve been friends for a long time. He posed
the question: ‘What are the songs that only Switchfoot can make?’ And for us, it
was a reminder that we do love heavy guitar riffs, big drums, and these more
aggressive sounding songs.
Rock
Cellar: Did this new album being the first all-new studio effort with Boaz on
guitar have a big effect on the sound?
Chad
Butler: We’ve
known Bo for a long time. He grew up on the same street as Jon and Tim Foreman.
We’ve surfed and played music together for decades. It was a natural thing for
him to get involved with the band on the last couple projects.
He helped
us with the This is Our Christmas record a few years ago. Then, when we
re-recorded The Beautiful Letdown, he was a big part of that. We have
been developing a rapport in the studio with him. He’s been playing live with
us for [about five] years now. But yeah, Boaz had an influence on tones and guitar
parts and is a big part of the team.
Rock
Cellar: When you first heard the lyrics the Foreman brothers wrote for the new album,
what were your thoughts? Some of them really tap into the zeitgeist of
everything going on in today’s society.
Chad
Butler: Yeah. I’m a
lyric guy - someone who has to read it, process it and absorb it to really fall
in love with a song. I think the biggest disagreements we ever have are [about]
which songs make the record. When I say disagreements, it’s that artistic
friction that is really healthy for the art. It elevates the songs that do make
the album because we all care so much. Songs mean different things to different
people. We’ll spend hours debating ‘What does that lyric mean to you; to me? What’s
the feeling it’s trying to embody?’
Some songs
lyrically on this album are really challenging like ‘The Butterfly Effect.’ Just
to back up, the album is basically about the last day in the life of a
character. That’s the thread that connects all the songs. But the last song on
the album [surrounds] seven minutes after [the character] flatlines, his brain
shuts off. There is that idea in recorded medicine that the brain functions for
up to seven minutes after death technically. And the song explores that. It’s a
reflective moment and sort of sums up the whole record.
But the
record thematically is really challenging. And like you said, it’s sort of a
zeitgeist moment in where we’re at in our culture. The idea of our mortality
and that of memento mori [Latin for “remember that you must die”], is
something in our Western culture we often avoid…I think it’s a really empowering
thing when you ask yourself that question: ‘If today is my last day, how would
I live it?’ That's really where the songs come from.
Rock
Cellar: What is the significance of the new album title?
Chad
Butler: It’s a
fall back to a previous song lyric on ‘Where I Belong’ [from 2011’s Vice
Verses]. We typically play it every night in our live set.
Rock
Cellar: Considering all the songs on Forever Now!, do any come to mind
as being more difficult to nail down than others? Were there any unusual rhythms
done on your part?
Chad
Butler: ‘Same
Blood’ was the single hardest song I've ever had to learn that we’ve made. The timing
is really strange, the way it transitions from section to section. As a
drummer, I grew up listening to ‘90s hip-hop and Motown; more groove-oriented
stuff. And referencing Nirvana, I’ve heard Dave Grohl talk about him basically
ripping off disco beats, turning it into grunge.
A 4/4 time
signature that grooves is kind of my sweet spot. I love that pocket. To be
pushed into new territory with different time signatures and transitions is a
challenge for me. ‘Same Blood’ is definitely the high-water mark for my brain [Butler
laughs]. It is so fun to play live. We’ve been working on that one, getting it
ready for the summer and the tour coming up in the fall. I can’t wait to play
it live.
Rock
Cellar: Two standouts on the new album, “Beautiful Life” and “Natural Causes,” contain
distinct melodic effects. Were you guys inspired by U2 or Coldplay at all when creating
those songs?
Chad
Butler: I love
those references. Growing up in the ‘90s, U2 and Coldplay were a big part of my
musical upbringing - very alternative.
Rock
Cellar: I’m thinking of Coldplay’s A Rush of Blood to the Head.
Chad
Butler: All the
guitar work on there is still super inspiring. And Radiohead. Those are great
references. ‘Beautiful Life’ is a really special song for me. That’s the song
that I fought for the most to be on the record. It is my favorite.
Rock
Cellar: What was the having Mike Elizondo [whose credits include Turnstile, Linkin
Park, Twenty-One Pilots, Sheryl Crow] co-produce half the tracks on this album?
Was everyone comfortable getting back into a past groove?
Chad
Butler: As a
drummer, working with a producer who’s a bass player - he plays everything, but
is primarily a bass player - his ability to communicate rhythm is almost
shorthand between a bass player and a drummer. You’re finishing each other’s
sentences. When I get into a room with him, and he’s calling out fill ideas, or
‘try this,’ it’s so much fun.
I would
say it’s the closest thing I’ve experienced to how professional athletes are
only as good as their coach. When you get an incredible coach with an
incredible team, they’re going to win a championship. That’s how I feel when I
work as a drummer with Mike.
Rock
Cellar: The band re-recorded The Beautiful Letdown and released it
subtitled as (Our Version) in 2023. What prompted that decision?
Chad
Butler: Good
question. The Beautiful Letdown was the album that took us around the
world. We grew up in the San Diego music scene and never really had ambitions
of leaving Southern California. When radio stations across the country started
playing ‘Meant to Live’ and ‘Dare You to Move,’ and then internationally, we
got to tour Australia for the first time, and Europe, and headlining in Asia,
all this stuff, it was mind-blowing.
That’s a
very special memory for us. To celebrate the 20th anniversary, we thought, ‘Let’s
make a version that’s our own.’ We had been playing these songs for 20 years,
so they’ve evolved. There are parts and sounds and lyrics that changed along
the way. It was a really nostalgic and challenging thing to try to recreate it.
Rock
Cellar: For the deluxe version of the album re-recording, you had an impressive
crop of guests to interpret the songs. What did you think when you heard the
guys from Jonas Brothers, OneRepublic, Twenty-One Pilots, etc., singing those
songs?
Chad
Butler: What an honor
to have people reach out and say they wanted to record their own version of it!
Jon Bellion did ‘Meant to Live’ and recorded it with just strings at Abbey Road
in London, and it was a beautiful version of that song.
When you
hear somebody else reimagine your song, like Tyler from Twenty-One Pilots doing
‘24,’ it was beautiful to hear his voice on that song as well. It’s an honor.
And to feel like those songs have impacted artists that now I look at [with
admiration]? I can’t imagine that they ever listened to us because they’re so
talented in their own right and have gone way beyond what we ever did. I’m
like, ‘Wow, they actually heard our music back when they were sort of in their
formative years!’
Rock
Cellar: You returned the favor for the title track to Jonas Brothers’ 2025 album,
Greetings from Your Hometown.
Chad
Butler: That was a
blast. We had a great time. We love those guys and always enjoy an opportunity
to collaborate.
Rock
Cellar: While preparing for this interview, I was surprised to discover that the
band also teamed up last year with Buddy Guy on “Last Man Standing.” Hearing Switchfoot
on a blues number is unusual.
Chad
Butler: Yeah. That
wasn’t on my bingo card last year. We had the opportunity because his drummer
Tom Hambridge is a friend of ours and had connected us to Buddy to work on the song.
Buddy loved it, and I’m really proud of that. I don't know many living legends that
have more of an influence on modern music than Buddy Guy.
Rock
Cellar: On Memorial Day Weekend, Switchfoot played two shows in two countries
in 24 hours. How did you manage that feat?
Chad
Butler: That was
wild. We played at the Indy 500’s huge event before the race with Counting
Crows, and later that night, we played on the other side of the border in
Canada, in Niagara Falls. Somehow, we were able to go across the border and
make it all work out. That was an ambitious day. We don’t often do two shows in
one day.
Rock
Cellar: Amazing. On some of the band’s recent set lists, I noticed you’ve often
been incorporating Bob Marley, Beastie Boys, Radiohead, and Led Zeppelin covers
or snippets. Do you enjoy giving the fans a glimpse of your influences?
Chad
Butler: Yeah. Like
we were talking about earlier with influences, it adds context. I remember as a
kid reading the liner notes on hip hop records and finding out where the
samples came from. And then going to the record store and asking for that
record.
Maybe it
was A Tribe Called Quest sampling James Brown. Then I find that James Brown
record and buy that. Just finding, remembering, and discovering where things
came from. For us, sharing with maybe a younger generation, these songs that we
grew up on, is a gift. We just want to pass that along, for sure.
Rock
Cellar: Finally, I wanted to ask you about seeing you on Facebook dressed as a
Jedi on your birthday back in March.
Chad
Butler: [Laughs] I'm
a Star Wars fan.
Rock
Cellar: Did you see ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’ and if so, what did you think?
Chad
Butler: I have watched
most everything ‘Star Wars,’ but when it got to the more recent stuff, I began
to lose interest. Bring me back to ‘A New Hope,’ ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ and ‘Return
of the Jedi.’
For tour information, go to switchfoot.com.
My interview originally appeared at rockcellarmagazine.com.
