Switchfoot’s Jon Foreman: ‘All music is worship’

Switchfoot’s lead singer on why his Christian faith is still a mystery, music that breaks down barriers and throwing a worldwide 20th birthday party for his band’s biggest album 

Switchfoot doesn’t make Christian music. But their breakthrough record The Beautiful Letdown is unquestionably one of the greatest Christian albums of all time. 

This is the paradox at the heart of this hugely successful San Diego based band. On one hand, their frontman Jon Foreman is a pastor’s son who has written songs based on Psalms (‘The house of God forever’) and penned confessional lyrics such as “The day I lost myself / Was the day that I found God”. On the other, he is adamant that he doesn’t write songs for Christians and despises the sacred-secular divide, dismissing the entire category of ‘Christian music’ as a misnomer. He once memorably quipped: “Christ didn’t come and die for my songs.”