So what's the next step for lowercase people (an online magazine founded by Switchfoot)?
Jonathan: It's kind of one of those dreams that you start off with a lot of passion, and not really have any idea or experience of what you're getting into. We partnered with Geneva Global and that's been great because they have a lot of experience. I think it's a lot more of opening our eyes and looking around and hopefully diving in where people need us and our help. There are a lot of incredible organisations that are helping people around the world, and we don't want to be stepping on somebody's toes. That requires a lot of thought. So we're kind of figuring out what the next place to hit is. You only get so many punches, and you want to make each one count.
Let's talk about your new album. What's the main message you want to get across through Oh! Gravity.?
Jonathan: I think it's not as simplistic as having just one message. I think every song has something to say. Maybe in different layers. It's kind of like a relationship. If I was gonna sum up my relationship with Drew, there probably will be a lot of different aspects and facets that we have. In the same way when we're working on a record, you're dealing with so many different layers. So for this, if I were to sum it up, I think it'll be the idea around gravity - like the title. The idea that everything keeps falling apart when it's supposed to be together. It seems like we daily defy the law of physics, the law of gravity.
(Holding up the album cover) What's the concept of this drawing? Is that... blood on Jerome's head?Jerome: Could be!
Drew: Jerome had a head-bleed that day. (laughter)
Jonathan: We put a lot of the songs in artwork. When you open it up (opens album cover) there are all these hidden stories that we put in there. Different symbols and things that we think are important to the song.
What do these symbols mean (points to a drawing)?
Jonathan: Well all of them are very subjective and can be interpreted in different ways. All the songs you can see down here: "Circles", "American Dream", "Yesterdays", "Dirty Second Hands". This is a clock... a boat... and we liked the idea of the bird - but birds have been done so much. There's a surfboard and a whale there.
Back in the days, you had all these different records you can look at. You have it up, you know, it was a very discernable element of music where you can look at the record as you listen to it. We wanted something that was as large as a record to be able to look at the whole time you're looking at it. It was fun to make.
Well, it does look fun.
Jonathan: Every one of these were drawn separately.
Drew: And put together like a collage.
Jerome: Yeah, like this was a certain section, and that was a section, etc.
Is that an octopus there?
Jonathan: It can be whatever you want it to be. I thought it was a snail.
