San Diego rockers Switchfoot are gearing up to head out on a massive, three-month tour in support of their latest studio album release Native Tongue. To help promote their upcoming trek, Switchfoot stopped by our studio to discuss all the ins and outs of performing, crafting a setlist, love for fans and more.
ICYMI check out our Tour Update with the band, and then make sure to read more from the interview below, because their musical wisdom was too good to keep to ourselves!
Love is the universal language:
"I feel like we live in a culture that has been convinced that hatred and fear are the voices of which with we speak to each other and this is an album that is a reminder that love is our native tongue. When we were little somebody gave us a bottle in the middle of the night, somebody changed our diaper, and these acts of love are why we’re here and the idea that we have much more in common with each than we do our differences. So this is an album hoping to remind people that fear is not your language. Love is your language." - Jon Foreman
On spectrum of songs:
"Native Tongue is probably our most diverse album we’ve ever released, I think it’d be safe to say. 14 songs—we’ve never put that many songs on an album and it felt like a very free spirited time for us as a band, creatively. Choosing to paint with some colors that maybe have always been there, but we’ve never chose them to put them on an album before.
"Native Tongue and Voices are certainly in a more modern-leading direction and then there’s songs that are completely at the other end of the spectrum—Beatles-y, '60s guitars, and I love that we live in a day and age where you can do that on an album." - Tim Foreman
On the title track of Native Tounge:
"The title track for me is the one that feels like it’s the closest to the heartbeat of what we’re trying to express right now as a band. That was a song that, for us, pulled us all back together, because like you said we were on hiatus for a little while. When I passed that song around to the fellas it was this moment where we all said ‘Ok, I think we have something to say. It’s time to string up the guitars. Let’s take this thing on tour. Let’s go around the world." - Jon
On live debuting a song:
"It’s nerve-wracking for us. You want it to be as good as the record or better—to have that energy and to have that spontaneity. We kind of got together and rehearsed it before we went over to India to play it live and that whole plane ride around the world to get there, that’s the only song I was thinking about.
"Yeah we’re going to go play for an hour and a half on this big stage, but that one new song to debut in front of those people, that was the most important." - Chad Butler
Motto of the record:
"This was the record where the motto was just chase joy and pursue it. So this was kind of like if Sgt. Pepper’s and Queen got together in 2018 and had a baby, that’s what we wanted to create. There’s a lot of freedom and not a lot of thought of anyone outside of the studio. Just our own enjoyment. That was the goal." - Jon
On music and time travel:
"Music is an odd art because it’s a form of time travel. You enter in at one place in time and you exit somewhere else. If the moment is powerful enough, you can both exit changed, you know? It can be a transformative experience. My goal every night is to break down the barrier between the stage and the crowd, so usually I’m jumping in at some point. Or just because I want to feel like we’re in this together. That’s the point." - Jon
On "Dare You to Move":
"We have a lot of friends in bands who wrote songs about their girlfriend that was their big hit. Then things go south with the girl and you still have to play the song and I feel like we’re really fortunate in that’s still a song we love playing. It’s a song that means more to me now than when I wrote it. I remember we’ve been through a lot as a band. Every new experience seems like it adds a new flavor or color to that song. You have to find a way to make it fresh every time." - Jon
The beauty of live music:
"Years ago I hated playing live music because I’m kind of a perfectionist and I knew that in my bedroom with my four-track I could get everything perfect. Then live, things go out of tune, I make a mistake, Chad makes a mistake, I make a mistake, the power goes out, and then over time I realized that those are beautiful elements of what it means to be alive.
That’s what life is! It’s embracing the chaos.
"It was an epiphany—I was at an Elliot Smith show in Nashville and there’s a lightning storm and the power went out. The promoter comes up on stage with a candle and a megaphone. He’s like ‘Everyone be calm, we’re going to see what happens. Power’s out all over the city. Just stay calm and we’ll see what happens.’ Elliot Smith comes on with just an acoustic guitar and everyone is just absolutely silent. You could hear it. I mean there weren’t too many of us there but everyone was completely still and I realized he had embraced the moment and that, to me, is what I came to see. I came to see my hero and I saw a hero rise to the occasion.
"I think when you see something going wrong, there’s an opportunity to rise above it. That’s the only place where you can prove who you really are. That’s the way I try and see things going wrong. The mic cuts out, the string breaks, what are you going to do? That’s the beauty of live music." - Jon
Catch them on their tour, which kicks off Valentine's Day!
Native Tongue Tour Dates:
Feb 14 – The Orange Peel – Asheville, N.C.
Feb 15 – The Mill & Mine – Knoxville, Tenn.*
Feb 16 – Tabernacle – Atlanta, Ga.
Feb 17 – Ryman Auditorium – Nashville, Tenn.
Feb 19 – The Fillmore Silver Spring – Silver Spring, Md.
Feb 20 – The Fillmore – Philadelphia, Pa.
Feb 22 – Wellmont Theater – Montclair, N.J.
Feb 23 – The Paramount – Huntington, N.Y.
Feb 24 – House of Blues – Boston, Mass.
Feb 28 – Danforth Music Hall – Toronto, Ontario
Mar 01 – House of Blues – Cleveland, Ohio*
Mar 02 – 20 Monroe Live – Grand Rapids, Mich.
Mar 03 – The Fillmore Detroit – Detroit, Mich.
Mar 05 – The Pageant – Saint Louis, Mo.
Mar 06 – Egyptian Room at Old National Centre – Indianapolis, Ind.*
Mar 08 – Park West – Chicago, Ill.
Mar 09 – Park West – Chicago, Ill.
Mar 10 – The Sylvee – Madison, Wisc.
Mar 13 – New Daisy Theatre – Memphis, Tenn.
Mar 14 – Club Brady – Tulsa, Okla.
Mar 15 – House of Blues – Dallas, Texas
Mar 16 – House of Blues – Houston, Texas
Mar 18 – Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater – Austin, Texas
Mar 19 – Aztec Theatre – San Antonio, Texas
Mar 21 – Iron City – Birmingham, Ala.
Mar 22 – The RITZ Ybor – Tampa, Fla.
Mar 23 – House of Blues – Orlando, Fla.
Mar 24 – Revolution – Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Mar 27 – State Theatre – Minneapolis, Minn.
Mar 28 – Sokol Auditorium – Omaha, Neb.*
Mar 29 – Uptown Theater – Kansas City, Mo.*
Mar 30 – Fillmore Auditorium – Denver, Colo.*
Mar 31 – The Depot – Salt Lake City, Utah*
Apr 03 – Rialto Theatre – Tucson, Ariz.
Apr 04 – The Van Buren – Phoenix, Ariz.
Apr 05 – The Wiltern – Los Angeles, Calif.
Apr 06 – Arlington Theatre – Santa Barbara, Calif.
Apr 07 – Warfield Theater – San Francisco, Calif.
Apr 09 – McDonald Theatre – Eugene, Ore.
Apr 10 – Crystal Ballroom – Portland, Ore.
Apr 11 – Neptune Theatre – Seattle, Wash.
Apr 12 – Neptune Theatre – Seattle, Wash.
Apr 13 – Queen Elizabeth Theatre – Vancouver, British Colombia
