With its play on words, Vice Verses, the title of Switchfoot’s new album, coherently suggests the album’s theme: everything has two sides. “Every blessing comes with a set of curses,” singer-guitarist Jon Foreman sings on the title track, all the while wondering if “there’s a meaning to it all.” That theme runs through the album’s 12 songs and is even reflected in the album’s black and white cover. “The whole thing is about polarity,” says Foreman. “We wanted to write about the polarity of what it means to be human, the lights and darks. I’m always intrigued by the tension that exists between life and death. When making Hello Hurricane, there was a graveyard right by the hotel we were staying at while we were mixing it, and I spent a little bit of time there each morning walking through and sorting it out…really Vice Verses started there. This record is as much about loss as it is about what we still have while we’re living.” The Grammy Award winning San Diego band first formed in 1996 when Foreman and his brother Tim put the group together. Butler says the band members were all friends from their days together at high school. At the time, the San Diego indie rock scene was thriving as bands such as Rocket from the Crypt and Drive Like Jehu had just started to gain national attention. “We love music and playing together,” he says. We thrive on the communal aspect of song and the stories that are invested within. We’ve been through a lot together… Incredible, wonderful moments and also really destructive, painful moments. You can feel that weight in some of the songs. It’s an incredible dream-come-true to say, ‘It’s time for a new Switchfoot record’ and to be able to go into the studio and make the album exactly how we want to make it.”