In the early 2000s, around the release of the breakout album The Beautiful Letdown, the San Diego group carved out a lane that included both contemporary-Christian-music and alternative-rock markets - thanks to lyrics that trended more toward motivational than explicitly Evangelical along with some undeniably catchy hooks and guitar riffs (which also played too well in the 2002 Nicholas Sparks adaptation A Walk to Remember, starring Mandy Moore as a preacher’s daughter with leukemia).

That ability to tackle an array of subjects without speaking from any pulpit is what made Switchfoot stand out from other so-called Christian-rock bands when it first emerged.

“So that became a place that I realized I could talk about God, girls, sex, politics, whatever it was, with complete honesty, in front of whoever I wanted to, and feel completely comfortable because it felt like the song was some sort of armor. “Music was this safe place where I realized I didn’t stutter when I was singing,” he remembers. Speaking from his car - he originally tried the beach but decided it would be too loud - Foreman is discussing the craft of songwriting itself, which he first discovered as a high-schooler with a speech impediment who had just moved from the East Coast to California.

Yes, the Switchfoot lead singer and songwriter often writes about his Christian faith, but that’s not what he’s referring to right now. To Jon Foreman, songwriting is a sacred thing. “I think if there was a song that captured the essence of what we’ve been doing and what we’re trying to speak to, ‘Dare You to Move’ would be probably the one.”

Switchfoot who we are