All the latest details, rumors, facts, speculation and info on upcoming Switchfoot, Jon Foreman, and Fiction Family releases.
TITLE: UNKNOWN – TBA
ARTIST: Fiction Family
TYPE: New Studio Album
RELEASE DATE: TBA – aiming for Spring 2012
LABEL: Credential Recordings
COVER: N/A.
SONG LIST:
Songs that MIGHT appear on the album
+ Just Rob Me
+ Against the Wall
+ Reality’s Cage
+ My Forgetful Baby
+ Notch on the Tally
+ Damaged
+ Ashes of Rock ‘n Roll (Fool’s Gold)
+ My Girl
+ Reality Calls
+ Against the Wall
INFORMATION: Shortly after the release of the first Fiction Family album, the band was already talking about recording a follow-up, and the new song “Just Rob Me” was said to possibly appear on the next album.
In February of 2009, Sean Watkins stated in an interview that, “We haven’t written anything new on the road but we’ve been working on some songs we’ve already written for the next record. So there’s no new writing, but we’ve been working on stuff.” In an interivew with Christianity Today, when asked about the future of Fiction Family, Sean said that, “I would love to continue. Jon and I talked about more Fiction Family stuff; it’s kind of open-ended when we have time. I also have this band called Works Progress Administration [including Toad the Wet Sprocket's Glen Phillips, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers' Benmont Tench, Nickel Creek's Sara Watkins, and members of Elvis Costello's band]. We just meet as friends in the studio with everybody having fun and just sort of experimenting with music. We have a record and are now trying to figure out what to do with it, but it will probably come out in late summer. So that’s the next thing, but we’ll definitely Fiction it up!” Jon went on to promise that, “The Family reunion is coming!”
In an article on Switchfoot in the October issue of CCM Magazine, they wrote, “And just like the clear skies after the storm, the future is bright for Switchfoot. The band’s nearly finished it’s eighth record, Vice Verses, slated to release in 2010, and Foreman’s re-entering the studio next month to make more music with Fiction Family, his collaboration with Nickel Creek guitarist, Sean Watkins.”
This was later confirmed by Twitter posts from Jon and Tyler Chester, the bass player for Fiction Family. Jon twittered that he was, “tracking fiction family tunes today and tomorrow, first up: a tune called “against the wall” so amped!” Tyler also posted, saying “Very productive rehearsal today with PW, now off to track some new Fiction Family songs. Same thing tomorrow. Good way to spend a day!”
In December of 2009, Tyler Chester posted this to his Facebook and Twitter pages:
In January Feburary 2010, Tyler Chester posted the following on his Twitter:Last minute Fiction Family recording?Yes please! How many songs can we pump out in 10-12 hours? I’m guessing 5. The other members of Fiction Family began posting Twitter updates as well, with Jon posting: Fiction family rock: a tune of mine- “my forgetful baby” and a tune of sean’s – “notch on the tally” amped! with a photo of the lyrics to the song.
Sean Watkins then tweeted about the recording process, saying: Drummer drumming on the old doghouse bass, and jon at the protools helm for fiction family. Fiction family song number 8 to be recorded. Notch on the tally.
Early September 2010 found the Family back in the studio recording. Sean Watkins posted on Twitter, saying: “Great productive day recording with fiction family. Tracked 2 new ones of mine, and finished off two of jon’s that needed touching up.” Tyler Chester later tweeted, “Time to finish up this Fiction Family recording. This record is turning out so, so good.” In response to a fan question about when the album would be released, Tyler ventured “Spring perhaps?” Jon then posted on his Twitter, saying: “got some great fiction family jams recorded this week. Now boarding… plane sweet plane“. Later, Tim Tweeted on from his account, sharing his first experience of listening to the new tunes: “@jonforeman is playing some new @fictionfamily jams on the bus on our drive to Kentucky. They sound great, dig em.”
In October 2010, Jeanna spoke with Jon about the near future of Fiction Family and previewed the album on his iPhone. Jon mentioned that they’re shooting for a Spring 2011 release and that they are presently still recording. According to Jeanna, the tracks on the new record have a “fuller sound with additional instruments, with Sean and Jon taking turns on lead vocals throughout the songs.“
Two Fiction Family shows have been confirmed by Jon via twitter, one show in L.A., another in San Diego. The show in L.A. is to be held on June 13th, 2011 (confirmed), and the San Diego one is said to be performed at the Bro-Am Afterparty on June 18th, 2011 (not-yet-confirmed).
SOURCES:
+ INTERVIEW: SEAN WATKINS OF FICTION FAMILY
+ FACT OR FICTION?
+ WEATHER ADVISORY
+ JON FOREMAN TWITTER
+ TYLER CHESTER TWITTER
+ SEAN WATKINS TWITTER
+ NEW FICTION FAMILY SONGS AND POTENTIAL RELEASE DATE
—————
TITLE: VICE VERSES
ARTIST: Switchfoot
TYPE: New Studio Album
RELEASE DATE: September 27th, 2011
LABEL: lowercase people // Atlantic Records
COVER: Has been revealed
CONFIRMED SONGS:
- Afterlife (3:37)
- The Original (3:15)
- The War Inside (3:39)
- Restless (5:18)
- Blinding Light (4:17)
- Selling the News (3:35)
- Thrive (5:12)
- Dark Horses (3:54)
- Souvenirs (4:15)
- Rise Above It (3:33)
- Vice Verses (5:08)
- Where I Belong (6:53)
INFORMATION: Rumors surrounding this album started after Jon Foreman played the song “Vice Verses” for the first time. He stated that the song would not be on the next Switchfoot album but it would be on the album after that and in fact, would probably be the title track.
Later, Switchfoot posted the following on their Twitter page: “So we haven’t been entirely honest when we said we’ve been recording a new record. The truth is, we actually recorded 4 albums, 80+ songs. We’ll be releasing them one at a time, starting with the first one this aug/sept. We’ll announce the album title this Friday when we finish! The following Friday, this information was released: “Sept. 2009: “Hello Hurricane.” TBD 2010: “Vice Verses” Much love, amigos. -jon, tim, chad, jerome, drew
As for recording so many songs, Jon said, “Yeah, but I don’t know if anyone’s ever going to hear it all. [Laughs] We tracked a lot of songs; songs that I’m really proud of. But they’ll be like my college degree. I went to college for three years, but I didn’t graduate. It’s that fourth year that’s the hardest one, you know. The songs were at that stage where they need that little extra push over the top, but I don’t know that we’re going to go back in time to revisit them because there’s already another good batch of 20 that we already believe in. So the goal was to finish college, but I didn’t do that either.“
In October, Jon twittered that the guys were “headed in to Spot X Studios to track some new tunes…”. In an interview with Stereo Subdivision, he talked more about the album, saying “Vice Verses is an attempt to continue the title which would be an alliteration. Hello Hurricane is two words and so we needed another one like it. For me that song is about polarity; every blessing being a curse and this idea of singing through it, through the vices and finding the other side of them. A line in the song says, “I know there’s meaning to it all/I know there’s a little resurrection every time I fall.” Those are the polarities there. “You’ve got your babies/I’ve got my hearses/Every blessing comes with set of curses/I’ve got my vice/I’ve got my vice verses.” That’s going to be the concept for the next record, the polarity of it all. If the next record came out today, it would be called Vice Verses. We’ve got pretty much most of the songs ready to go. I’m really excited about it. It’s going to be great. It&’s funny because we’ve been playing “Vice Verses” live before we’ve been playing any of the tracks from this record. [Laughs] But that song didn’t fit on this record. It felt different, not in a bad way, but it wasn’t cohesive. And this record was an attempt to say one thing and we really wanted to say what we wanted and felt strong enough to leave “Vice Verses” off of the list.”
In a late 2009 interview with Coup de Main Magazine, Tim said, “‘Vice Verses’ is almost done. I’m not sure if it’s going to be out this year, maybe the year after – but we are very excited about it. We’ve already even written a lot of songs since that, that we’re excited about as well. ‘Vice Verses’ is kind of a different collection of songs – a little more melancholy than this batch – and songs that we’re really excited to get out as well.”
In January of 2010, Jon was quoted as saying, “I don’t know how many of these songs are ever going to be heard… we’ve already replaced a lot of the songs on Vice Verses with new songs.” Jon also shared that, “We actually might put out another record before we put out Vice Verses. We’ve been talking about it… we might release some… “Goodbye Hurricane” or something along those lines that, that would kind of end that chapter before we start the next one.”
In mid February, a fan reported that Jon said at a M&G that they “might combine Goodbye Hurricane, and Vice Verses, and make a double length album.” He went on to explain that they just have so many songs that they are looking for the right ways to release them. The fan also reported that Jon also said that they think a double length album for Vice Verses will be the best.
In February of 2010, JesusFreakHideout posted an interview with Chad where he talked about the release, saying, “No plans [for Vice Verses] in the near future. I think that’s the beauty of the position we’re in, because all of these songs will see the light of day in some shape or form. They’ll each have their time to come out. I think that right now we’re so focused on Hello Hurricane that it would be unfair to these songs to put out another batch right now. They’ll all come out in the future. We were talking the other day about maybe there’ll be another EP or another album that leapfrogs before Vice Verses, y’know? Sort of depends on how all these songs fit together in the right time and the right place.” When asked if the album would be released within the year, Chad replied that, “I would imagine that. I don’t know. It all just kind of depends on how this year shapes up for us.”
During the spring and summer of 2010, Jon and Switchfoot began to debut different songs that are slated/rumored to be on the album. The first were songs called “Dark Horses” and “Against The Voices”, which are both rumored to be songs for Vice Verses. In July, Jon played another new song at an aftershow. The song “She Says (The Black Eyed Blues)”. A fan reported the following: “I was there at the aftershow when Jon played this and he said then that it would be on Vice Verses. Furthermore he had this binder labeled “Vice Verses” with a picture of a zebra on it (no clue why) and he was using it as a cheat sheet when he sang She Says.”
In July of 2010, Jon played two more songs at another aftershow, “All of God’s Children” and “Come Home”. Both, he stated, will be on Vice Verses. In early August, he debuted another new song,“Thrive”, which he said would be on Vice Verses.
The guys continue to say that Vice Verses will probably be a double album. In an interview with Hear It First, Drew and Jon stated that they are planning to tour the rest of 2010, then focus on Vice Verses, aiming for a Summer of 2011 release. In October, Jon stated the guys were about to head into the studio for a week to set the tone for the new album.
Starting in March 2011 is when we see the more solid updates on the process of recording, and the mixing of the album with their producer, Neal Avron, as well as updates (or confirmations?) on the set release date. In several other interviews, the band stated that album Vice Verses is a record that speaks about the light and the dark, the “polarity, birth, [and] struggle“. In an Australian interview in April 2011, the guitarist, Drew Shirley, revealed that there will be some “spoken-word lyrics in some songs” – which, is a new realm the band has never entered until this record. Later confirmed by Lisa, who was at FOTF M&G, that song “Selling the News” was the “spoken-word lyrics” song that the band showed them from their laptop in the Toronto/London shows of Canada Tour May 2011.
According to FMQB, Switchfoot will be releasing a new single from album Vice Verses in July – July 25th or 26th, to be exact.
In March 2011, the band stated that they were aiming for a summer (June) release, projecting at the 2011 Bro-Am time. However, the date has been pushed back, and been confirmed that the album will be released in either August or September of 2011 via Atlantic Records. As the bassist, Tim Foreman, shared in an interview with Winnipeg Rocks Power 97 on May 9th, 2011, “we actually finished it (Vice Verses); we finished it right before the last tour – it’s completely done, mixed, mastered – the whole deal. And kind of just burning the hole in our pockets, you know. We are gonna be sitting on it until, I think in August or September is kind of what we are shooting for the release date. It’s completely done, and we couldn’t be more proud about it.“
It has later been confirmed that Vice Verses will be released on September 27th, 2011, via Atlantic Records (Courtesy of MarketWire).
SOURCES:
+ LIVE PERFORMANCE OF VICE VERSES
+ SWITCHFOOT TWITTER
+ JON FOREMAN INTERVIEW
+ JESUSFREAK HIDEOUT – INTERVIEW WITH CHAD
+ ALAN CHATS WITH SWITCHFOOT -PART 2
+ HEAR IT FIRST – JON FOREMAN AND DREW SHIRLEY
+ TODAYONLINE INTERVIEW WITH DREW SHIRLEY – VICE VERSES, POLARITY, BIRTH, STRUGGLE
+ EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH NEAL AVRON – PRODUCER OF VICE VERSES
+ JESUSFREAK HIDEOUT – SPOKEN-WORD LYRICS ON ALBUM VICE VERSES
+ YOUTUBE – SPOKEN-WORD LYRICS ON ALBUM VICE VERESE
+ VICE VERSES – SEPTEMBER 2011 VIA ATLANTIC
+ FMQB – SWITCHFOOT NEW SINGLE IN JULY 2011
+ WINNIPEG ROCKS POWER 97 INTERVIEW WITH TIM FOREMAN
+ OFFICIAL VICE VERSES TRACKLISTING AND RELEASE DATE
MEDIA:
+ DARK HORSES – VIDEO
+ DARK HORSES – MP3
+ AGAINST THE VOICES – VIDEO
+ AGAINST THE VOICES – MP3
+ AGAINST THE VOICES – LYRICS
+ SHE SAYS (THE BLACK EYED BLUES) – VIDEO
+ SHE SAYS (THE BLACK EYED BLUES) – MP3
+ SHE SAYS (THE BLACKED EYED BLUES) – LYRICS
+ THRIVE – VIDEO
+ THRIVE – MP3
+ THRIVE – LYRICS
+ ALL OF GOD’S CHILDREN – VIDEO
+ ALL OF GOD’S CHILDREN – MP3
+ ALL OF GOD’S CHILDREN – LYRICS
+ COME HOME – VIDEO
+ COME HOME – MP3
+ COME HOME – LYRICS