Reynaldo 1 Kristine Marie T.

Reynaldo Professor Ick English 127 15 October 2008 Switchfoot: Fostering Awakening I came to this course having little more than vague ideas about Romanticism being an antithesis to the Age of Enlightenment, being all about emotion and personal expression. And then we studied the visionary Christianity, celebration of the child, and social commentary of Blake, Wordsworths advocacy of harmony between nature and man, his ascription of a social role for the poet and poetry, and his radical poetics, the haunting imagination of Coleridge and his conception of the poet as sacred, the high drama and egotism of Byron, the emotionality and idealism of the revolutionary Shelley, the intensity and ambition of Keats, his great dedication to his art, and I found my understanding of Romanticism altering, broadening. By the second part of the course, when we had discussed the women writers and activists, Romantic Orientalism, the satirically gothic novel of Jane Austen, and the unromanticized lived Romanticism of John Clare, the socalled Romantic spirit seemed to me too homogenizing a term to cover all the distinct, varying, and sometimes dissenting voices of Romantic literature. I had, for the longest time, agonized over which contemporary artist Id choose to assert as the modern-day Romantic. Nobody seemed Worsdworthian and Coleridgean and Byronic and de Quincey-esque and Austenian and Clare-ish enough, all at the same time. That and my deplorable cultural deprivation coupled with the desire to choose someone non-mainstream made the choice hard. I couldnt only make up my mind; I couldnt even settle it on anyone. So there I was, bogged down by deadlines and deploring my state, listening to the song I often listen to when Im drained and questioning why I keep doing what I do. The headset was blaring the music track, the familiar lyrics resonating in my head: Last week saw me living for nothing but deadlines,

With my dead-beat sky but this town doesn't look the same tonight These dreams started singing to me out of nowhere And in all my life I don't know if I've ever felt so alive, Alive Here we are now with the falling sky and the rain, We're awakening Here we are now with our desperate youth and pain, We're awakening Maybe it's called ambition, but you've been talking in your sleep About a dream, we're awakening. I want to wake up kicking and screaming I want to live like I know what I'm leaving I want to know that my hearts still beating Its beating As it has often done, Awakening by Switchfoot roused me in more ways than one. Not only did it remind me not to just go through the motions of life but to keep in mind my reasons for plodding through; it also gave me a subject for this paper. Though I wasnt a die-hard fanI didnt even know the band members names until recentlyIve liked Switchfoot since high school, ever since I learned that Only Hope, popularized by Mandy Moore, was originally theirs. I find their songs thought-provoking and uplifting, with the sort of lyrics that you read more than twice. However, I hesitated to choose them for this paper at first because they didnt immediately remind me of Wordsworth or any of the other Romantics. They dont blatantly celebrate nature or childhood or emotions or the imagination or art. Some of their songs do have those subjects, but such songs are few; most of their songs are concerned with other things, like technology and the postmodern crisis of meaning and materialism and relationships and God. Especially God. What concerned me was that the Romantics were generally secular. Even when they rejoiced in some divine power, that power, that solace, was

usually in nature or the imagination or society, not in religion. Only a few, like Blake, called upon the Christian God. But then I thought, todays reality is different from that of the Romantics. The concerns of their time may not be the concerns now. There may be some similarities between the problems they confronted then and those that we confront now, but they are not exactly the same. Thus, I cant expect todays artists to merely repeat what the Romantics said then, to advocate or attack the same values, issues, and things. Instead, I chose to consider characteristics I deem Romantic and look for their manifestations in a contemporary context. I think that Switchfoot embodies the Romantic characteristics that Im looking for: idealism, social consciousness, a revolutionary spirit, a desire for positive change, compassion for people and things human, a belief in the significance of the self and of introspection. Switchfoot is an alternative rock band from San Diego, California, composed of Jon Foreman (vocals, guitar, songwriter), Tim Foreman (bass guitar, backing vocals), Jerome Fontamillas (guitar, keyboard, backing vocals; and who is, by the way, a Filipino), Drew Shirley (guitar), and Chad Butler (drums) (switchfoot.com). The very name of their band, when I learned what it meant, reminded me of the Romantic Movement and the way it challenged and departed from the literary conventions of the day. Switchfoot is a surfing term that means taking a new stance facing the opposite direction. It can also mean gaining a new insight (landofbrokenhearts.org). As Jon put it, its about change and movement, a different way of approaching life and music (Switchfoot Learns). Indeed, Switchfoot offers an alternative way of looking at life, different from a jaded, materialistic, postmodern view, posing questions many people dont bother asking. In their many songs, they talk about the hypocrisies and harshness of modern society, its indifference, its materialism and consumerism that turns even things like love into commercial products, the alienation that technology gives rise to, the meaning of life, the role of faith. Though the problems challenged by Switchfoot are contemporary ones, they are similar to those challenged by the Romantics. They both cried out against a society that is fraught with injustice and apathy, a society infatuated with science and the machine, a society whose morality has been corrupted, a society gone out of tune.

The more I learned about Switchfoot, the more I realized that they are more similar to the Romantics than I previously thought. Like Blake, the socio-political commentary of Switchfoot is infused with their Christian faith. Though the band members are vocal about their Christianity, and though they sing about and for God, they have never let themselves be labeled a Christian band. They have always maintained that they are Christian by faith and not by genre (landofbrokenhearts.org). I think my faith is bigger than a genre, and genres were invented to sell records, states Jon (qtd. in Bradley). Switchfoot embodies Wordsworths ideal of the poet as a man speaking to men. We have always tried to break down the wall between the stage and the audience, Jon says. Communication has always been the goal. You see, I want to sing a song that will continue long after we're gone (switchfoot.com). Indeed, they have gone to great lengths to bring their musicand themselvescloser to those who wish to listen. In their website, they have a video blog of sorts, where they talk to their fans, share anecdotes, crazy moments, and their work in the studio. They also sometimes consult their fans about band decisions, like which singles to release, which tracks to include in an album. But such freedom did not come without a price. They parted ways with major record label Sony Music and went independent to get rid of the middle manthe corporate barrier between their songs and their audience. Aside from the artistic freedom going independent can give them, they also said that they wanted to be a part of a label that gives directly to social justice causes, one that is more eco friendly (Switchfoot). This desire for communication is apparent not only in the choices they make and their efforts to interact more with fans, but also in the songs themselves, through which they share experiences, musings, things close to their heart. I agree with what a Switchfoot fan has said: The reason I like this record so much is because the songwriting is so transparent, so close to the listener. It feels more like they are sharing it with you in their basement or garage rather than showering you from the distance of brightly lit and unapproachable stage (Stidham). Though I dont know of a Switchfoot song that blatantly celebrates nature, the wonder that they have for nature is evident in their songs like Awakening, The Shadow Proves the Sunshine, and Stars, among others. Like Wordsworth, for Switchfoot, nature is connected to some divine powerfor Switchfoot, that divine power is God. The band

members are also given to reveling in nature. Says Tim, "The best part about surfing is being out right before sunset. The wind starts to die down and the sun kind of jumps in with you. It's hard to see how anyone cannot be aware of God's presence" (landofbrokenhearts.org). In the same way, Jon expresses his awe of the sublimity of nature: You walk along sunset and you can feel the energy something intangible in the air. All that motion and no real change. We're all thirsty for it: thirsty for life, true love, meaning, the kingdom of the heavens for the water that breathes new life inside Inside all of us, we know the truth of life... that there's something more than the next new cell phone or gadget or relationship... and that our heart beats in time with the sunset. Eventually everything fails me, but when I look at the sunset or the sky, I'm reminded what it's like to be alive (landofbrokenhearts.org). Switchfoot also celebrates innocence and childhood in such songs as Innocence Again and Awakening. Jon talks about wanting to be "like a little kid at the beach running around without his trunks. Unencumbered, without the highly refined, stifling sense of self-awareness (landofbrokenhearts.org). He also says, There's a crusty shell we get as we get older that shuts us off from being blissfully oblivious. We've all been hurt. It's a way of portraying the thing we often try to protect and hideour innocenceas a strength" (switchfoot.com). Regarding creativity, Jon, like Coleridge, talks a bit about songs that write themselves, about songs that were born out of artistic, and for Jon, divine, inspiration. Talking about the composition of Only Hope, Jon says, At one of my lowest moments, this song was given to me, I say given, because I think God sang this song to me at the end of the day (landofbrokenhearts.org). He also says something that sounds very much like Keats negative capability: The best songs are the ones that don't have my fingerprints on them. I don't feel like I'm wrapped up in it. I feel like they're outside of me (landofbrokenhearts.org). He thinks that the goal, rather than to try and be bigger than life [is] actually to be smaller and allow the song to speak bigger. The idea is that I need to decrease to be able to sing these songs (landofbrokenhearts.org). The words inside the cover of the Learning to Breathe album are also reminiscent not only of Keats negative capability, but also of Shelleys Ode to the West Wind: Welcome to the fallout: where the truth and the shadows have become blurred. This is the incompletion... and we are holding our breath. But

look! The winds of redemption have come to within the confines of our frozen fists. "Behold, I make all things new." And in this newness there is hope for the hopeless, where the eternal lines of the heavens collide with our own humanity. In the divine comedy where up is down and down is up we lose ourselves to find ourselves, love is the movement. This is the revolution. (Kerosene) Jon, like Shelley, is often seen as a revolutionary. Drew Shirley, one of their bandmates, says this about him: I see Jon as half visionary, half revolutionary. Here's a guy who envisions an idea. His brain is always spinning, always like, How can we make things better? How can we do things differently?... And the revolutionary side is, Let's put it into plans and make it happen. Let's get it done. (landofbrokenhearts.org) And Switchfoot does get things done. They dont just dream of change, they actually work to bring it about, and not only through their songs. In an interview, they say, we kind of came to the conclusion that maybe we should stick to doing it in tangible ways rather than the pipe dream ways (Interview: Switchfoot). Switchfoot is involved in several non-profit organizations that strive to make the world a better place to live in. These organizations, which have taken them to Thailand, India, and various parts of Africa include: Habitat for Humanity, To Write Love on Her Arms, an organization that helps peoplemostly teensthat are involved in depression, and even self-mutilation and suicide, and Bono's organization, DATA (Kerosene). They also set up Bro-Am, an annual benefit concert and surfing contest to raise money for Care House, a non-profit ministry to homeless or problematic teens, and young mothers in crisis pregnancies (Lee). They were also involved in the benefit concert Call + Response: A Concert to End Slavery, which aimed to raise awareness about human trafficking and the millions of people who live in some form of bondage (Kerosene). Not only do they contribute to such organizations and projects, but they also use their influence to actively enlist the help of people, especially of fans. Says Chad, We all want to see this world change for the better. We hope that you'll come with us and get involved in something much bigger than ourselves (Kerosene). In a world weighed down by inequality and materialism, Tim says Switchfoot never stop[s] learning. The Western world struggles

so much with material things. Its pretty much a parade from the store to the trash can. So often, were reduced to mere consumers that we forget whats important and our vision becomes so small (qtd. in Melton). Switchfoot, however, seeks to nurture what is inside of people first before moving on to change bigger things out there. And this they do through their music. Says Jon, Our songs are more about the politics of the heart than they are about foreign politics. I dont think we can solve the outside problems until we solve the ones within (landofbrokenhearts.org). He says that he wants to writes songs that people can relate to, but he also says that its not about becoming popular, about making hits, but its about writing a song that makes my own heart sing. Something that's beautiful and true. And if that's done well, then that's gonna resonate with someone else (landofbrokenhearts.org). When asked why, despite all the difficulties they face, they fight on, Jon says that they always ask, How do we involve art and beauty and mix that with truth? How do we sing songs about redemption and second chances and enact that with our hands? (Inteview: Switchfoot); and he answers in a Keatsian fashion, I feel as a musician, thats the reason I keep doing what I do. Its too beautiful not to be true (Inteview: Switchfoot). What is truth for them? What is beauty? How true and how beautiful is their art? They did not give very specific, logical definitions. Indeed, such concepts are difficult to explain. But this illogicality that somehow, intuitively, makes sense is like Romanticism, in a way. Its not so much about rationalizing and being all conventional and proper and definite. Its more about expressing what you think, how you feel, in words that are real to you, in words that speak in a manner that seems free, in music that tugs at your heartstrings and whacks your guts. As Jon put it, How does it make you feel? Pitch, timing, chord progression, music theory... Yes, yes, important indeed, but how does it make you feel? (landofbrokenhearts.org) Because they speak to me, because they make me feel, because they dream, because they work for change, because they believe that they can make a difference, because they give people hope, because they live what they singfor all of these and more, my modern Romantic is Switchfoot.

Works Cited Bradley, DeAnne. Switchfoot gives back. HamptonRoads.com. 11 September 2008. 13 October 2008 <http://hamptonroads.com/2008/09/switchfoot-gives-back>. Interview: Switchfoot. MattConner.net. 14 August 2008. 12 October 2008 <http://mattconner.net/2008/08/interview-switchfoot/>. Kerosene & electric sparks | switchFEED.com. 12 October 2008 <http://www.switchfeed.com/>. landofbrokenhearts.org. 12 October 2008 <http://www.landofbrokenhearts.org>. Lee, Cindy. Switchfoot prepares for the Switchfoot Bro-Am. Breathecast. 22 March 2005. 13 October 2008 <http://www.breathecast.com/Christian.Music.ArtistSwitchfoot/Interview-222_469.htm>. Melton, Valerie. Switchfoot partners with group to address depression, addiction during tour. The Joplin Globe. 10 April 2008. 13 October 2008 <http://www.joplinglobe.com/enjoy/local_story_101184424.html?start:int=0>. Stidham, Daniel. My Top 40 Albums - #28. Reeds Records. 17 February 2008. 13 October 2008 <http://reedsrecords.blogspot.com/2008/02/my-top-40-albums28.html>. Switchfoot. Awakening. Oh! Gravity. Columbia Records/Sony BMG, 2006. switchfoot.com. 12 October 2008 <http://www.switchfoot.com>. Switchfoot. interlinc. 14 October 2008 <http://interlinc-online.com/artists/index.html? p=2&id=25>. Switchfoot Learns to Breathe. JesusfreakHideout.com. 25 September 2000. 13 October 2008 <http://www.jesusfreakhideout.com/interviews/Switchfoot.asp>.