FLASHBACK interview (May 2011)
Interview conducted by Felicia Chin
As you wait in great anticipation before rocking out with the Grammy-winning band from San Diego, here’s an interview Switchfoot’s bassist Tim Foreman. The 32-year-old gives us a deeper insight to their upcoming album Vice Verses, keeping faith and positivity alive in calamity, miracles, his fondest memories of Malaysia and more. Get your ‘Ammunition’ before you ‘Sing It Out’ at their show tomorrow.
Hello Hurricane talks about attempts to sing even when life throws a storm at you, what is the main message for your new album Vice Verses, besides being on the polarity of life?
For me, Vice Verses is about life and death, birth and rebirth. These are songs birthed through struggle, so they have a strength to them. It isn’t a concept record though, so it would be an oversimplification to say that’s what the entire record is about. But certainly the title Vice Verses explores the idea that beauty is born through pain. Songs are born through struggle. These are our vice verses.
Tell us something/anything about your new album that you have not revealed to anyone before.
The title track, Vice Verses, which has been a band favorite since it was first written 3 years ago, very nearly didn’t make the record. We were struggling to find the right presentation of the song in order to fit the record. It was recorded on the very last day.
One of the songs in Vice Verses is ‘Restless’- so what makes you restless?
In life, we are surrounded by beauty and pain. And the beauty often serves to contrast and illuminate all that is not right on this planet. I often experience that contrast as a restlessness of sorts- a longing for change; for something beyond the world as we see it.
How do you keep the faith and positivity when there is calamity everywhere?
I like the word “Hope.” Hope is believing in something that is yet to come; something that doesn’t exist yet. Hope isn’t simply trying to see things positively. There is nothing inherently positive in a tsunami, or an earthquake or a war. It would be ridiculous to even suggest such a thing. But to hope means that I believe in life beyond the pain. That the story isn’t finished yet, and the pain is not the final word.
What was the last inspirational book read or impactful movie watched? How did it affect you?
Well, it may sound ridiculous, but I just watched The Shawshank Redemption for the very first time yesterday on our way from Albany to Perth. It’s an incredibly powerful film about hope.
You’ve been around since 1996, what keeps the music and inspiration alive and what do you think keeps your audience coming back for more?
We only play songs that we believe in. Songs that have meaning to us, songs that inspire us artistically and thematically. It is impossible to guess what will connect with our listeners. A much better approach is to write music that is meaningful to us, with the hope that if it resonates within us, it will probably find a home outside of the band as well.
Freedom is a common theme in your body of work, what have you learnt about it so far.
Freedom is a word we throw around a lot within Western culture. We are free to vote, free to love, free to worship, free to create, learn, think, feel, and believe. We are also free to hate, free to destroy, free to become prisoners of ourselves. Freedom is a wonderful and terrifying thing. True freedom lives and dies on the inside. And inner freedom is something that no one else can ever take from you.
What was the most scarring “Hurricane” you’ve encountered in life? And how did you come out of it shining?
Well, I’ve lived my share of storms like everyone else, but I don’t think it would be healthy to divulge all of my most personal storms with people that I’ve never met. That is what close friends and community is for, which I would say is a huge part of reaching the other side of any storm. It is important to have people in your life that can help you weather the storm with truth and love.
Can you recount one miracle in your life?
My family, and I truly mean that.
Complete this sentence: Seeing_________ gives me hope.
Seeing children laughing and playing amidst poverty, loss, and disease gives me hope.
What’s your fondest memory of Malaysia and what are you looking forward to do when you guys return to Malaysia besides the show?
We have great memories of hanging out with some locals and trying all of the great local cuisine.
