An interview with Switchfoot's Chad Butler on new album 'Forever Now'

photo: Erick Frost

Switchfoot’s compelling 14^th 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 22^nd 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.