The five members of the popular rock band grew up in Southern California, spending their days surfing in the Pacific Ocean and their nights playing in San Diego’s clubs.

“I think there’s a lot of connection between surfing and music — at least in our neighborhood at home,” drummer Chad Butler said during a telephone interview. “There’s been a lot of great musicians who have been involved in both communities.

“I think there’s a soulfulness that comes from hanging out in the ocean watching the dolphins, watching the sunset every night and riding a surfboard.”

These days, however, the band mates have precious little time to spend in the water as they are in the midst of a rigorous tour that brings them to the Chameleon Club in downtown Lancaster for a sold-out show Saturday night.

The band is touring in advance of the release of its sixth album, “Oh! Gravity,” which is scheduled to drop on Dec. 26.

“You can call it a warmup tour,” Butler said. “We can’t wait to play these songs.”

The 32-year-old drummer, who grew up listening to his parents’ record collection, which included a lot of Motown and Bob Dylan, said the band is playing about four songs from the new album. Switchfoot also will perform a generous helping of tunes from its breakthrough album, 2003’s “The Beautiful Letdown,” and its follow-up, last year’s “Nothing Is Sound.”

Switchfoot, a term used by surfers to describe the action of moving one’s feet on a surfboard to take a new stance facing the opposite direction, was formed about 10 years ago by Butler and brothers Jonathan Foreman, the band’s principal songwriter, singer and guitarist, and Tim Foreman, who plays bass.

The band’s songs wrap a melodic heart in the muscular trappings of guitar-driven alternative rock. Switchfoot’s lyrics betray a serious-minded band with a strong spiritual side that likes to tackle the big issues of sin and salvation.

The band, first signed by Charlie Peacock for his imprint label, was tagged with the Christian label right out of the gate.

“To me, our roots are in San Diego music,” Butler said. “We call ourselves a San Diego rock band. We’re very proud of the scene down here. We didn’t really know what Contemporary Christian Music was growing up in San Diego.”

The band, however, was embraced by that community and the title track from its second album, 1999’s “New Way to Be Human,” won the Dove Award (CCM’s version of the Grammy) for Song of the Year.

It was clear from the get-go, however, that Switchfoot’s ambitions ranged far beyond the Christian music circle. Though it never strayed from its spiritual roots, the band consistently edged toward the mainstream with each of its albums.

The process was helped immeasurably by the band’s presence on the soundtrack of the Mandy Moore film, “A Walk to Remember,” and completed by “Beautiful Letdown,” which was released by Columbia Records and went on to sell 2 million copies.

Though he is proud to call himself a Christian, Butler said he never had much use for labels when it came to his band.

“We’ve always just made music for thinking people,” he said. “We’ve always just called us a rock band. If you put too many specific labels on your music, it begins to make people feel excluded, and that’s definitely not what I want to do.

“I want to include everybody. As a Christian myself, I think the thing I’ve learned is you’re a Christian by faith, not by genre.”


Switchfoot, Moses Mayfield, Sat., Chameleon Club, 223 N. Water St., sold out, 393-7133. blog comments powered by Disqus