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 signed with Think
Records and released three albums. They included “The Legend of Chin”, (1997) “New Way To Be Human”, (1999) and the gold-certified, “Learning to Breathe” (2000) before
signing with Columbia Records. Then then released their fourth album, “The Beautiful Letdown”, on its Red/Ink subsidiary, upping the band to Columbia proper after the album
sold more than a million copies. (It eventually sold 2.6 million.) The band released two more albums with Sony, 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, before going their separate ways with the company.
I first met these boys in the late 90’s and was immediately drawn to the music they had created. I was living in Encinitas at that time and they were in Cardiff which was
basically the next exit south on freeway 5. Once VHI and MTV started playing their videos I knew they were going places. I was right, they blew up overnight. The weekend at
the inaugural KAABOO FESTIVAL the home town stars hit the stage to a raucous crowd of local fans and concert goers and yelled “THIS IS OUR TOWN” and kicked it into high gear.
The moment the music started the SoCal fans went nuts yelling and singing along to every chorus. I felt like a proud dad watching them kill song after song and hit after hit.
SWITCHFOOT has been touring a lot this year and if you get a chance to see them do it.
