Despite being critically acclaimed on a worldwide scale, the five-piece Californian rock band remain humble as ever. Long having claimed to be "Christian by faith, not by genre", frontman Jonathan Foreman likes to emphasise that 'who you are offstage is what really matters' - and that life should be your testimony as a Christian. Recently having released their latest project Oh! Gravity., 3/5 of the guys from Switchfoot joined the Christian Today crew offstage, in London's Shepherds Bush Empire during their European tour. (Jonathan Foreman; leadsinger, Jerome Fontamillas; background vocals, keys, guitar, Drew Shirley; guitar)
How is the European tour going so far?
Jerome: It's amazing.
Drew: Great.
Jonathan: It's something to be thankful for. You can come half-way around the world and you have people singing along. That's an honour.
Any memorable experiences?
Jonathan: [In Germany], we went to the club next door, and there was a jazz session.
Jerome: In Hamburg.
Jonathan: Yeah. There was a club next door that was...
Drew: A bit open-minded.
Jonathan: A little bit of mic-nite. So there were all these guys with trumpets.
Jerome: Flute players!
Jonathan: It was a club where we found out that the Beatles used to play in. So [I nudged the guys] and said 'We gotta play there!' So we went over there, and it was great. We had the flute player join in on "Let Your Love Be Strong"...
Jerome: "Faust, Midas, and Myself". [Both tracks from Oh! Gravity.]
Jonathan: Yeah, "Faust"... It's stuff like that that keeps it fresh, you know?
It's great that your music is spreading all around the world. I was in Korea two years ago and your music was playing in a restaurant there.
Jonathan: Cool. I've got a lot of Korean friends. Our first record The Legend of Chin was named after a friend who is Korean.
