Switchfoot won artist of the year at the San Diego Music Awards, released their new album Oh! Gravity and is currently touring the United States promoting their latest album's release. Amongst all this chaos, the band's guitarist Drew Shirley still finds time to make Hallmark slogans...

Switchfoot

It's not too long after the December 26th release of Oh! Gravity, and Shirley says, "I hope that it (the album) will move the people that hear it. I don’t get into the numbers game too much, the whole “how much will it sell”. It's great if it does really great and it's okay if it doesn’t do very well because I just hope that it means something to the people that get it and that it moves them because we write our music to move people."

The band is already well on the way into their upcoming plans for 2007. "We’re gonna kick off with a tour supporting the album. We want to play all of these songs live... I mean we’re a live band—we wanna get out there and play. We spend too much time in the studio and start buggin’ out...we just need to get out and play our songs in front of the fans where they really take flight and take shape, that’s where we really live and breath—on the road."

"We’ve sat and talked with Dave Grohl at a festival and it was such an honor. We were just talking about surfing and hanging out, things we like to do," he recalls.

"Sheryl Crow one time, that’s a whole other thing... We’ve gotten to hang out and open for her a few times. I know her guitar player Peter pretty well, and we’ve just had dinner some times, and she’s just hanging out, talking about her dog and stuff, and it's like—oh my gosh she’s just a normal person too," laughs Shirley.

Of all the people he's met and places he's been, his favorite music moment is centered around a little something he gets to do on stage. "When we play live, I get to go crazy with sounds (on this one song), just weird, crazy space-rock sounds that are kinda psychedelic, but kinda Zeppelin at the same time. Those are my influences. Jimmy Page is one of my greatest heroes so I feel like that is one where that moment is super cool for me because of that."

Things are not always easy in the music industry. In fact, sometimes it can get a little discouraging. "Yeah that happens a lot actually! You know, first of all we have the greatest job in the world so I’m not complaining. I wouldn’t ever complain like we have it rough because we get to make music for a living. But when things get stressful and we’re on the road and things aren’t going right, I just pull out a stick of Juicy Fruit gum and it just moves you," he laughs, "that definitely picks me up!"

Even when times are tough, or not, there is one thing that remains constant. "I’m thankful for my family. There’s a life when you leave music...things that overshadow music, and it is really just composed of the relationships in my life, my family and my friends—those are the things that are most important to me."

With all of the hype in this world, Shirley contemplates the one message he would leave behind to fans—if it were his last... "We have a slogan in the band and it would be the title of the last song of my life… Life is Short, Live it Well. You only get one life. Now I’m starting to sound like a Hallmark commercial!" he laughs.

For more information, or to check out Switchfoot's upcoming tour dates for a show near you, visit their official site .

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sup?   |2007-07-19 00:22:14 Drew's gotta have his Juicy Fruit Gum. He's Awesome! Reply 0   0

too-cool-kitty   |2007-02-05 07:36:27 Juicy Fruit. hahahaha love it! Reply 0   0

kjones   |2007-02-04 20:21:15 This is really good. I loved the bit about them talking to thier idols and realizing their just regular people. Reply 0   0

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."