Switchfoot shares surf life, film and songs

The Island Now

Together for more than 20 years, the band Switchfoot has achieved a level of success that brothers Jon and Tim Foreman and their high-school friend Chad Butler never anticipated when they first formed in San Diego in 1996.

The Grammy Award-winning rock band recently released their 11th full-length album, Native Tongue, which debuted in the top 10 on multiple Billboard, Amazon and iTunes charts, and embarked on a tour to share their message of love and hope with their fans.

“These are polarizing times where the loudest voice is often the voice of anger or fear,” says band co-founder Jon Foreman. “This album is an attempt to sing that hope into life. To bring a group of diverse songs under one common banner. Hatred is not your native language. Love is your Native Tongue.”

The SoCal natives have sold millions of records, including their 2003 double-platinum breakthrough, The Beautiful Letdown, and 2009’s Grammy Award-winning Hello Hurricane.

With a string of hit singles, such as “Meant to Live,” “Dare You to Move,” “Mess of Me,” “The Sound (John M. Perkins’ Blues),” “Dark Horses,” and “Afterlife,” Switchfoot has performed sold-out world tours, raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to aid homeless kids in their community through their Bro-Am Foundation, and earned themselves a global fan base devoted to their emotionally intelligent and uplifting brand of alternative rock.

Switchfoot traces its roots to the beaches of San Diego when the Foremans and Butler connected as surfers (Jerome Fontamillas joined in September 2000 and Drew Shirley in 2005). Though they competed in national surf championships on weekends, their real bond came from a common love of music. They decided to form a band, chose the name Switchfoot (a surfing term), put themselves through months of sweaty rehearsals in their garage, and then hit the road.

After just 20 gigs, Switchfoot released three albums, The Legend of Chin (1997), New Way To Be Human (1999), and the gold-certified Learning to Breathe (2000), followed by their fourth album, The Beautiful Letdown, which has sold 2.6 million copies, 2005’s Nothing Is Sound, which debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard album chart, and 2006’s Oh! Gravity, which climbed to No. 1 on the iTunes Album chart.

Itching for creative freedom, Switchfoot financed the building of its own studio where they recorded their seventh album, the hard-hitting Hello Hurricane, and its groove-oriented follow-up, Vice Verses. 

Switchfoot premiered Fading West on opening night of the 2013 Summer X-Games. The band has been very active in the action sports world, having performed at numerous NFL and MLB post-game events, as well as at the U.S. Open of Surfing in 2011.

The band’s current Native Tongue tour will bring them to The Paramount on Saturday, Feb. 23 at 7:15 p.m.

To witness Switchfoot’s growing wave in the music world and catch their latest show, go to www.paramountny.com for tickets.

The Paramount is located at 370 New York Ave. in Huntington.

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