The band has been making music since 1996 and their latest studio effort, Oh! Gravity debuted at number 18 on the Billboard Top 200 album charts. On Jan 31, the band that’s always taken a different approach to music, drove their fans crazy during their first concert in Singapore. The San Diego-based rock band has Jon Foreman, 32, on vocals and guitar, Tim Foreman, 30, on bass and vocals, Chad, 34, on drums, Filipino-American Jerome Fontamillas, 32, on guitar, keyboard and vocals and Drew Shirley, 32, on guitar.

The band shares a passion for surfing and Chad says that they’ve always been participating in surfing contests in California, that’s why it was most apt to name their band Switchfoot, a surfing term for the changing of a foot’s position on the surfboard. The band’s name is also representative of the different musical direction they take.

Chad Butler Up-close

They’ve rocked over 30 stages during their 3-month concert tour last year but the Dutch drummer didn’t always want to take a seat behind the drum set. He’d once aspired to be a doctor and it was only when he received his first drum set in junior high that he decided that this was what he wanted.

But not everyone shared his interest in the percussion instrument, least of all his neighbours and Chad wishes that he had learnt an instrument that didn’t bother his neighbours so much.

Now, the complaints must have stopped because he’s on tour so much that he constantly misses his family. Nevertheless, Chad bites the bullet and even jokes, “I like my band mates but my wife is a whole lot better looking!”

The Independent Label

In Oct 2007, the band announced the creation of their record label, Lowercase People Records. They also revealed plans to release an album as an indie band, in the second half of this year.

“We’re glad to be communicating more directly with our audience by being independent from a major label. We’re now able to put out music however and whenever we want.

“As for our new album, we already have 14 songs and it’s like nothing we’ve ever done before,” Chad discloses.

The band also prides itself on being able to complete things themselves. From painting T-shirts to mixing their own music, they’ll get down and dirty to get it done, but Chad was adamant that no matter what, they’ll never drive themselves because, “we really need good drivers”!

The Switchfoot Sound

Their music, referred to by listeners as the “Switchfoot Sound”, is described as “a melodic crunch of densely layered sound featuring some electronic experimentation, and often driven by hard-charging guitar riffs”.

But Chad puts it more simply, “We’re a rock band making honest songs for thinking people.”