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Switchfoot

American alternative rock band

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 5, 2026
Entity authorityQ722232
Source-derived summary

Switchfoot is an American rock band from San Diego, California. The band was founded by brothers Jon (lead vocals, guitar, piano) and Tim Foreman (bass guitar, backing vocals), alongside Chad Butler (drums, percussion), in 1996. They have been joined by Jerome Fontamillas (guitar, keyboards, backing vocals) since 2001, and by Boaz Roberts (guitar, backing vocals) since 2026. Drew Shirley (guitar) was a member of the band from 2005 to 2022.

After early success in the Christian rock scene, Switchfoot gained mainstream recognition with the inclusion of four of their songs in the 2002 film A Walk to Remember. This led to the release of their major label debut The Beautiful Letdown, which was released in 2003 and featured the hit singles "Meant to Live" and "Dare You to Move". Commercial success continued for the band throughout the 2000s; their fifth album, Nothing Is Sound (2005) peaked at number three on the Billboard 200, while their seventh album Hello Hurricane (2009) received a Grammy Award for Best Rock or Rap Gospel Album. The band has released 13 mainline studio albums to date; the most recent, Forever Now, was released in 2026. They have also been noted for their energetic live shows, which have been described as "energetic, loud, and passionate".

According to Jon Foreman, the name Switchfoot comes from a surfing term.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Switchfoot” is american alternative rock band. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Switchfoot, American and alternative, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1996, 2001, 2026, 2005—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1996. For this dossier, Switchfoot, American and alternative is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “american alternative rock band” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q722232. VIAF identifies the subject as 135132194. The Library of Congress control number is no00036318. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1996, 2001, 2026 and 2005.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Switchfoot”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Switchfoot primary sources, Switchfoot archive and Switchfoot research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Switchfoot” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.