Hey, what's happening? This is Tim Foreman with
Switchfoot and Bongo Chico, and you're listening
to My Weekly Mixtape right here with Brian Colburn.
Welcome to My Weekly Mixtape, a podcast that
takes the classic mixtape approach to building
a modern playlist. I'm your host, Brian Colburn.
Tonight, I'm excited to welcome Tim Foreman of
Switchfoot to the program. Tim, thank you so
much for joining me today. Hey, it's good to
be here, Brian. I always like to start by asking
my first -time guests this question. What does
the word mixtape mean to you? Well, I remember
recording radio onto a boombox, and you'd wait
for your favorite songs, and then when you hear
them starting on the radio, you'd record them.
And you do that with enough songs till you assembled
a mixtape. And then, you know, if you had like
a best friend or a girlfriend, you pass the mixtape
along. And that was the way that I fell in love
with music. Awesome. Well, today we're here to
talk about the band's new collaborative single,
Last Man Standing, which you guys recorded with
the legendary Buddy Guy. The one and only. Taking
a beating But there's still a comfy inside This
is such a unique collaboration that truly pushes
the boundaries for both artists here, Switchfoot
and Buddy Guy, even though Switchfoot has never
been a stranger to trying to push the musical
boundaries in the band's music. How did this
collaboration come together? Yeah, so Buddy Guy
has been one of our musical heroes since we were
little. The idea of doing a song with Buddy Guy
didn't even seem like that was within the realm
of possible realities. But the music industry
is a beautiful thing. And we're friends with
his longtime drummer, Tom, who happened to be
in town one day with Buddy. And Tom had a day
off. And he was like, hey, let's write a song
together. And Tom's a great songwriter. And we
were like, yeah, it sounds like a lot of fun.
Come to our studio. And so he shows up and we're
like, hey. Kind of a crazy idea, but what if
we wrote a song for Buddy? And he's like, oh,
you know, it's a long shot, but let's give it
a shot. And John had this concept in mind specifically
for Buddy called Last Man Standing, you know,
which is absolutely perfect for Buddy. I mean,
he is Mr. Blues, and he's in that realm of kind
of like the guys. He's the last man standing,
and what a legacy. that he's standing on and
so that was kind of the premise and we wanted
to write a mean old dirty rock song about the
man himself and um buddy heard it and i was like
yeah let me play on that let me let me sing on
that and it just turned into something that was
i mean anything buddy things and plays on it's
going to elevate it and when we got got it back
uh we were blown away Now, the Tom you're talking
about is Tom Hambridge, who's got a ton of experience
in the blues field, obviously playing drums for
Buddy Guy, but he's also honed his songwriting
and producing craft with the likes of B .B. King,
George Thorogood, and Kristone Kingfish Ingram
for some of the newer artists he's been working
with. Meanwhile, over the years, Switchfoot worked
with producers like John Fields. who along with
the band has also worked with Jimmy Eat World,
Semisonic, Soul Asylum, as well as pop artists
such as Miley Cyrus, Pink, and Demi Lovato. Can
you talk about the differences that the two producers
bring to the fold and maybe what was unique about
the sessions with Tom? Yeah, well, I think, you
know, the beautiful thing about music is good
music is good music, right? And you can find
it in any genre. And I think when you're working
with someone like Tom, who's so good at what
he does, I mean, talk about a legend in his own
right. Those are just fun sessions, because I
think you really feel like you're driving a Ferrari,
like anything's possible. You know, you could
make a pop song, you could make a blues song.
There's nothing that I think a good musician
can't do. And we're all inspired by the same
people, you know, whether... you're working with
a pop artist or like you can't find someone who
hasn't been inspired by buddy guy, you know?
So I think, you know, the marriage of working
with Tom on a buddy guy track felt like the easiest
thing in the world. All right. So I want to tackle
a little bit of that influence that you're talking
about there because buddy guy is influenced.
Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton. Basically, if you've
played a blues riff in any way, shape or form
in your entire life, You're inspired by Buddy
Guy. What were some of the things the band learned
from Buddy while working on this track together?
Yeah, well, and I would just add, you know, when
I said everyone's been influenced by Buddy Guy,
I should have added whether they know it or not.
That's a good point. Because, you know, you make
the distinction if you play the blues riff, but
I would argue, you know, if you're playing pop
music, you're standing on the shoulders of these
giants like Buddy Guy. Fair. You may not be aware
of it, you know, but it's all been built on blues
music. And yeah, well, I think he's certainly
a less is more kind of guy where, you know, I
think some of my favorite moments were moments
where he'll just hold a single note, but it's
the right note at the right time with the right
tone. And just a master class in that is doing
the essentials so well. I think his vocal pocket.
and delivery i mean if for you really believe
it when he's singing there's a lot of good singers
out there i don't always believe them you know
but when buddy steps up to the microphone i believe
every single word i saw i had the privilege of
seeing buddy guy on one of the experienced hendrix
tours and when he came out and did a set i i
turned to my wife and said you have to believe
What this man is saying, every story he's telling,
whether it's something that he just wrote lyrically
or if it's something that really comes from the
heart, you felt it in the performance. There's
something that's so real and so authentic about
him. Yeah, authenticity is a great word for Buddy.
So I have to ask, the song is so fantastic. Is
this collaboration a one -off or is it maybe
part of something bigger? Because I'm not going
to lie. Last Man Standing makes me want to hear
an entire album collaboration between you both.
Man, I mean, that would be a true dream. There's
nothing like that in the works. But I will say
this song definitely got us, not that we stopped
being excited by electric guitar, but I think
it got us re -energized in guitar music again.
And definitely sent us back into the studio with
much more pep in our step. We just got out of
a session, actually, recording our new record.
And a lot of guitar, angry guitar energy all
over it. So that's all thanks to Buddy. Now,
is any of the blues seeping into these new tracks
you're working on? I mean, not intentionally,
but always. But always. You know, like we were
talking about earlier, it's all blues. Well...
2025 is obviously shaping up to be a big year
for you and the band because you just said the
band is in the studio. But this year also marks
your debut solo project, Bongo Chico, which drops
on May 30th. Could you talk about the origins
of this project? Because I feel like this has
been a long time coming and maybe why 2025 was
the year to bring this project to its final fruition.
Yeah, I would say the peer pressure was a long
time coming. My brother in particular and the
rest of my bandmates have been encouraging me
to do a solo project for years. But my brother
was relentless about it. Like, you got to do
it. You got to do it. And I was like, every time
I was kind of like, I'm not so sure that I do,
you know, until I finally like, I think the timing
was just right. He was busy doing some solo touring.
My kids weren't so young anymore that I had a
little more free time on my hands. And I guess
I grew curious as to what my solo project would
even sound like. Kind of that existential, well,
I've written for Switchfoot my entire life and
I've never written for my own voice. What would
that even sound like? So then I just started
writing and I was like, okay, if I can get 10
songs that I love, then maybe I'll put it out,
you know? I ended up with 15 songs that I really
loved and made a 12 -song record. I worked really
quick. I think I was trying to outrun my fears
the whole time. I'm really proud of it. It's
everything that I love about music. There's Beatles,
Beach Boys, Zombies, My Bloody Valentine. All
the bands that I grew up loving have found their
way into this album, but it feels uniquely mine
at the same time. So then let's dive into the
album's lead single, When You Walked Away. The
first time I heard this song, I was impressed
because there was a blending of alternative rock
with maybe a dash of power pop. And even though
Switchfoot's no stranger, like we talked about
before, of exploring different musical boundaries,
has this project as a whole given you a little
bit more freedom to maybe explore genres that
wouldn't fit with Switchfoot's sound? Yeah, well,
I think one of the beauties of being a band as
long as Switchfoot has been is that we've had
a chance to really kind of do a lot of twists
and turns along the way. And I think our fans
are kind of expecting that with every record.
But I do think with the Bongo Chico record, I
was able to kind of uniquely showcase the music
that I really love. And I think that's definitely
the flavor that I bring to Switchfoot. But with
Bongo Chico, it's just entirely that. And it's
really a fun thing to be that kind of indulgent
of just like, I just get to make exactly the
record that I want to make. Awesome. What can
people expect from the rest of the album? Well,
it really dives into my love for psychedelic
music, but in a very pop way. Because I love
a good hook. I love chords. I'm obsessed with
chords. And I feel like chords can make you feel
things that words can't, you know? They do the
heavy lifting. And so I really spent my time
just kind of obsessing over... finding the right
key changes and chords and just being really
adventurous with this project. I think we took
big swings the entire way and we just didn't
let up and chose the more adventurous option
every single time. Well, with those big swings,
it certainly landed in a home run as far as I'm
concerned. But while we're here, I'd be remiss
if we didn't talk just a little bit of Switchfoot
as 2025 also marks... the 20th anniversary of
Nothing Is Sound. For me, this fantastic album
was kind of marred in some controversy because
Sony included that XCP copy protection on the
CD. Now, I'm someone who owns 4 ,500 CDs, so
I'm going to admit here, this was an alarming
move to me on Sony's part. But I vividly remember
you personally taking a stand against Sony and
posting the workaround, on Switchfoot's social
channels. Could you talk about the impact that
XCP had on the band? Because most of the articles
that came out around that time focused on the
impact to the fans. And I've often wondered if
this debacle hindered the album in any way, shape,
or form. Yeah, I mean, absolutely. So that was
our second major label. record is following up
our biggest record which was the beautiful let
down our expectations were high because we felt
like we'd made the best record of our career
you know i still think it's one of my favorite
switchfoot records and we got our first shipment
of cds i think the day before it came out and
there was all this legal wording on the back
talking about this new software that was installed
on it none of that had been Run by us. We weren't
the only artists affected. Foo Fighters had a
release same week. In your honor, yeah. Yep.
There are a few others, but it was shocking.
A, even if it hadn't had spyware, and we'll get
into that, but just, I felt like it was a slap
in the face to customers, to fans, to say right
out of the gate, we don't trust you. And looking
back, it seems almost absurd that you would tell
someone. that they're not allowed to copy something
that they own and put it in another media form
that they also own. But back then, that was the
fight that Sony was having with consumers was,
we don't trust you, so we're not going to let
you rip the CD and put it on... iPhones weren't
even a thing. It was iPods at the time. iPods,
you know? And so, you know, major slap in the
face to our fans. But then... Above and beyond
that, it comes out immediately that there was
spyware on the CDs and they were actually gathering
data illegally. Big lawsuit. So I was a computer
science major. I didn't graduate because we got
too busy touring, but that was kind of like the
other part of my brain. And I was like, well,
there's got to be a way to find a workaround
for this. And I kind of figured out a way to
hack the system and posted it online. Of course,
Sony's lawyers were very upset about that. And
they were following me around in interviews.
And it was kind of this big, horrible thing that
at every interview, we weren't even talking about
the music. We had put out this great record that
we believed in. And all anyone wanted to talk
about was this spyware that we had nothing to
do with. And I was like, I guess. the champion
of the people but i didn't even want to be that
i just wanted to be a musician and play the songs
that we had put out and so anyway the cds were
pulled from the shelves immediately because of
the lawsuit this was like in november you know
which is when record labels release their big
releases for the year yeah and it didn't make
it back into stores until after christmas and
then the record was done and it was essentially
shelved you know the message we got from Sony
at the time was we just need to put out another
record real quick and put it behind us. And,
um, that was the story of nothing to sound, which,
you know, it was appropriately named, you know,
it was, um, nothing was sound at that time. That
was a chaotic time. And, um, it's, it's crazy
story to look back on now, but, um, yeah, that
really happened. Well, I want to thank you because
thanks to your help, I was able to put both Nothing
Is Sound and In Your Honor onto my iPod the week
I bought it. So thank you for that, 20 years
later. But with 2025 being the album's 20th anniversary,
and given all that went down the first time around,
are there any plans for the band to maybe try
to celebrate the album's anniversary and make
up for Sony's mistakes with Two Decades of Hindsight?
uh we'll certainly do something i think um you
know we just did the full re -record of the beautiful
letdown um which was the last anniversary we
just had and um so i think right now we're more
excited about making new music than just rehashing
old music that's kind of where our our heads
are at right now but i'm sure we'll do something
because we do love that record Well, then I have
to follow up and press just a little bit. Are
there any new details about the next Switchfoot
album that you'd be willing to share? Some new
song titles? Maybe an idea of when the album's
going to drop? Yeah, we're pretty far along on
it, actually. We spent some time in Nashville
at the beginning of the year working with Mike
Elizondo, who we've worked with on a few records
in the past. Most notably, Hello Hurricane was
the first record that we'd worked with him entirely
on, which is another special record for us. And
we won a Grammy with that record. So it's good
memories working with Mike. And I mean, he's
phenomenal. His studio in Nashville is great,
super inspiring place. So we did a couple weeks
of tracking there. And now we've been finishing
up here in the studio back in California. And
it's a mean rock record. Probably the most aggressive
record that we've ever made. Wow. Super excited
about it. Yeah, we're excited about guitars again.
So we're ready to go. So when do you think fans
will get their first taste of the new songs?
Well, we're hoping that we can get some music
out before the end of the year. That's amazing.
Now, I do want to touch base on another Switchfoot
song, if that's okay, because what it costs from
the Edge of the Earth EP. was a song that you
took the lead vocals on, which is something that
is a bit of a rarity across the Switchfoot catalog.
However, it's such a great song. I'm wondering
why it wasn't included originally on Fading West,
because when you listen to that album and then
you listen to what it costs, it's a perfect fit.
Oh, thanks. That whole EP, The Edge of the Earth
EP, I think there's a lot of songs on that that
arguably could have been on. fading west i think
um we really like that ep and uh i think some
of those songs are more attached to the film
version of fading west than the album um and
that song in particular i wrote during the filming
of fading west when my brother had to fly home
from australia for emergency surgery that his
daughter was going through and really um kind
of a crazy time and so suddenly i'm in a hotel
room by myself john and i normally share a hotel
room you know and um and his guitar is there
because he just had to pack everything up and
go uh we had to cancel the rest of the tour and
so i'm there you know thinking about my brother
and picked up his guitar and wrote that song
for him oh it's an amazing one Well, that was
a really deep focus on one song. I kind of want
to expand things all the way out, kind of a top
level view here for this last question. In the
spirit of my weekly mixtape, if you had to sum
up the entire career of Switchfoot from The Legend
of Chin all the way to the music you're working
on now, if there were three songs that you had
to pick that told the story of Switchfoot, which
three would you choose and why? Okay. I'm not
going to overthink it. Learning to breathe, meant
to live, and dare to move. Switchfoot and Buddy
Guy's collaboration Last Man Standing is available
now on all streaming platforms. Bongo Chico's
When You Walked Away in 1995 are also available
now with the full album coming your way May 30th.
So be on the lookout for that. Tim, this has
been an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much
for joining me on My Weekly Mixtape. Yeah. Thanks
Brian. And to those listening, remember you can
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again for listening, and until next time, enjoy
the tunes.