>> Switchfoot Talks Hello Hurricane
“Hello Hurricane acknowledges the storms that tear through our lives,” states Switchfoot singer and songwriter Jon Foreman. “This album is an attempt to respond to those storms with an element of hope, trying to understand what it means to be hopeful in a world that keeps on spinning.”

With Hello Hurricane, Switchfoot is set to thrive in 2009 with a newfound independence: a new home studio HQ, a new label, and a return-to-roots creativity and sense of purpose. After ten non-stop years of working as the world’s most humble multi-million selling rock band, the hard-charging North County San Diego-based quintet saw recording sessions for their aptly-titled seventh full-length album as a unique chance to reassess, reflect, and rededicate.

“We built our own studio so we wouldn’t be paying and playing by the hour,” says Foreman of their self-styled Studio of the Foot home. Beginning in 2007, the band tracked more than 80 songs and allowed themselves to get lost in the music again and get back to basics. “That’s why we see this album as a new beginning of sorts,” continues Foreman, citing the inspiration that likewise moved bandmate/brother Tim Foreman (bass), Chad Butler (drums), Jerome Fontamillas (keyboards), and Drew Shirley (guitar). “For us it was a feeling of true freedom.”

The album’s driving and urgent “Mess of Me” – with its personal declaration of independence, as Foreman passionately announces to the world that “I wanna spend the rest of my life alive!” – powerfully demonstrates the edge behind the new tones. Not content to settle into a single groove, the band moves from the high flying album opener, “Needle and Haystack Life,” to songs like the stirring “Always Yours” and the sweetly soaring “Your Love is a Song,” which – by its very nature – cries out for many waving hands illuminated by a blue cell phone glow.

The anthemic, riff fueled “This is the Sound,” with its utterly timely generational themes, finds Foreman spitting, “This is the sound from the discontented mouths of a haunted nation!” The “Hello Hurricane” title track is even more poignant when it comes to the band’s perspective on themselves and the world around them. “I’m not talking about ‘Rock You Like a Hurricane,’” says Foreman with a wink before turning reflective. “There is a real despair that I see when we travel around the country… and its music that people turn to in a time like this. I wanted to reach out to those people with song.” (source: Sparrow Records)

>> Matt Redman To Hit The Road With Casting Crowns
"Matt Redman (“The Heart of Worship,” “Blessed Be Your Name”) releases a new album entitled WE SHALL NOT BE SHAKEN on August 25 and will join Casting Crowns for its Until The Whole World Hears Tour from September 17 through December 5.

Explaining the theme of his new project, Redman says, “Our constant and unfailing God deserves our constant, stable, unfaltering worship. God is everything He says He is. I hope these new songs might help you voice that worship to Him, as you seek to be everything that you say you are.” Hear the first single from WE SHALL NOT BE SHAKEN, “This Is How We Know,” at iTunes." (source: Sparrow Records)

>> Robbie Seay Band Will Tour With Bethany Dillon
This fall, Houston based Robbie Seay Band will continue to share the stirring message of its acclaimed current album, GIVE YOURSELF AWAY, on the Songs of Hope tour presented by Compassion International. The shows will run from mid September through November 10. Bethany Dillon and Caleb Chapman are also on the bill.

In this article entitled “Live More and Acquire a Lot Less,” singer Robbie Seay shares “some thoughts on our global mission and call to be involved in serving the poor and oppressed”—a message that will shine on the upcoming tour. GIVE YOURSELF AWAY, featuring “Song of Hope (Heaven Come Down),” is available at iTunes for just $7.99. (source: Sparrow Records)

For more info on these artists, visit the JFH Artists Database.