A band taking an official “break” from touring and making music is a scary thing to fans, because seldom do they actually return. Late last year, Switchfoot announced that they were “home,” officially taking time off of the road, and almost entirely from the band, but they continued to play a few select previously-booked dates (including their own Bro-Am event), and kept active on social media, all the while reminding fans they’re still around.
On April 1st, the band jokingly teased “project 11,” AKA their eleventh studio album, with the release of a heavy metal version of their hit song, “Meant to Live.” The video also mentioned the album’s release would be in October, but in the hours past April Fool’s Day, they admitted the entire thing was a hoax.
This week, the band began teasing on social media that there may be an end to their break in sight after all. First, they posted an image of a pause button (which also resembled an “11”, while bass player Tim Foreman even cryptically posted an image of the character Eleven from the show Stranger Things), on Wednesday. Yesterday, the band then posted a play button, sending fans into a frenzy.
Today, they ended the silence with an official “Hiatus is over” post with the caption, “The journey begins… 10/19/2018” (Which actually lines up with the April 1st announcement). The band then released a new video detailing their experience during their time off and teased a new album is near. Their email announcement, along with the video, included the caption “We’re Stepping Back Into The Ring. What happens when you stop chasing songs? Do the songs chase you?”
Check out the video below (which appears to have some new music mixed in) and stay tuned for more from the band soon!