Switchfoot was founded in San Diego, California.  The band’s members are Jon Foreman, Tim Foreman, Chad Butler, Jerome Fontamillas, and Drew Shirley.  The “Switchoot sound” is a melodic crunch of densely layered sound featuring some electronic experimentation, and often driven by hard-charging guitar riffs, while throwing in a few softer, spacey ballads as well.

Switchfoot was founded in 1996 as “Chin Up”, made up of Jon and his brother Tim, along with Chad on the drums.  In 1997, the band was signed to Re:think Records, a division of Sparrow Records, after only playing a few shows.  They were given the new name “Switchfoot”.  According to Jon Foreman, the name “Switchfoot” is a surfing term.  He says, “We all love to surf and have been surfing all our lives so to us, the name made sense.  To switch your feet means to take a new stance facing the opposite direction.  It’s about change and movement, a different way of approaching life and music."

They released their first three albums, The Legend of Chin, New Way to Be Human and Learning to Breathe.  Learning to Breathe was the most successful of these, certified gold by the RIAA, and received a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Gospel Album.

In 2002 Switchfoot had a large roll in the music for the movie “A Walk to Remember."

In early 2003 Switcfoot released their major label debut, The Beautiful Letdown.  The album has been certified double-platinum, and went on to sell more than 2.6 million copies.  The album included the hit singles, “Meant to Live” and “Dare You to Move”.  A DVD of the band’s live concert, Live in San Diego, went platinum as well.  “This Is Your Life” was also released as a radio single, and the song “Gone” has received airplay on Christian radio stations as well, despite not being released as an actual single.

In 2004, after the success of their album, The Beautiful Letdown, the band released The Early Years: 1997-2000 3 CD Set, which was a collection of the albums released under Re:think Records which included the original artwork for these albums.

In 2005, Switchfoot received five Dove Award nominations, and won four, including Artist of the Year.

Nothing Is Sound was released on September 13, 2005, after adding the fifth member, Drew Shirley.  Switchfoot released the single “Stars” as a radio single, which was played on many mainstream radio stations.  “We Are One Tonight” was released as a single in early 2006.  The album debuted at #3 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, which was an all-time high for the band.

Switchfoot’s most recent album, Oh! Gravity, was released on December 26, 2006.  It entered the Billboard chart at #18 and peaked at #1 on iTunes’ Top Albums chart.  The band prereleased “Dirty Second Hands” to iTunes, and the title song “Oh! Gravity” was also prereleased on iTunes, then as the album’s first single, and then for radio.  The album’s second single was “Awakening”, which received over one million hits on YouTube in less than three months.  On September 4, 2007, “Head Over Heels (In This Life)” was released by Switchfoot’s Christian label, Sparrow Records as the third single from Oh! Gravity.  This single was the first single to be released after the band’s split from Colombia.

On August 10^th, Jon announced that Switchfoot would release their next album as an Indie band, and said that the band had severed ties with Colombia. 

In late October, the band announced that they have created a new record label called Lowercase People Records.  It will oversee the band’s current side projects, and will release the next Switchfoot album.