- Handball and rain -

Friday night Febuary 2nd, Silkeborg Music House set the stage for a concert with American artists Switchfoot.

Switchfoot are well known for their songs 'Dare You to Move' and 'Only Hope' from the movie 'A Walk to Remember' and 'Meant to Live' from 'Spider 2', respectively. As with any big event, Udfordringen sends out one of its people and this time is no different. Moreover, this time it's not only to hand out newspapers after the concert either!

The waiting time is long
It's about 3:30 P.M. as I arrive at Silkeborg train station. The interview has been set up at short notice giving me little time to brush up on my English. However, with a pen in my hand, a dictaphone and bunch of questions, I've feel prepared for the interview.
At 15:45 P.M. I'm standing inside Silkeborg Music House where I've managed to find the man with whom I've arranged the interview. He tells me that they'll be a bit late. I sit down to wait.
At 16:30 I'm told that they're done with sound check and will be ready for me in a few minutes…By 5 o'clock, I'm still waiting. But at 5:20 P.M. they suddenly come walking towards me.


Handball, is that a team sport?
I've been planning to ask them about their concert in Hamburg last night and of course whether they noticed all the hype about the handball semi-finals which was taking place in Germany and also the fact that Denmark was playing in one of them. However, first I've got to ask them how many hours of sleep they've had!

Instead of sitting down the lead singer Jon Foreman jumps onto a small stage nearby and starts dancing. The guitarist Drew Shirley is sitting on a chair laughing.

Finally, I get to make my opening line:

-So, you guys just arrived straight from Hamburg. The Danish national team in men's handball played in the World Championship vs. Poland in Hamburg which they lost, unfortunately.

Now, listen closely to their answer:

-Oohh… so that's what was going on everywhere! It was on the big screens all over the place. We've never watched handball before. Is it a team sport or a single sport?

How do you respond to that, when you, like the rest of Denmark, are struck by handball-mania? It's almost unforgivable, is it a team sport or a single sport?! We then have a small chat about handball and how you play the game.


You gotta know how to surf to be in the band
From handball we proceed on to surfing, and Switchfoot sure knows something about surfing! Switchfoot is actually a surfing term which means to take a new stance facing the opposite direction. And according to the band, it's about change and movement - a different way of approaching life and music.

-Does everyone in Switchfoot know how to surf?

-Yes, it's a requirement! says Jon while laughing and adds:

- Pretty much everyone in San Diego knows how to surf.

However, surfing is not what Switchfoot spends most of their time doing. Approximately 200 days a year they travel around the world playing concerts.

-Is (the) music worth it?

It means 200 days away from family and friends. When I ask Jon and Drew how someone deals with being away that much, they responded as following:

-I feel incredibly privileged to be able to make a living by making music that matters to me. But it's always going to be like that after completing a record when you ask yourself: is it worth it? Is it worth being away from our families 200 days a year? So far it has. But it can't ever come to the point where selling records becomes more important than communicating, Drew concludes.


Finally, I want to know what they think about Denmark.

- I went out for a walk, Jon says.

- In the rain? I ask surprisingly, because it's been pouring down all day.

-Yeah, I thought it was just a light drizzle…But it was pouring down… I got soaked! says Jon while laughing.

- Does it usually snow in Denmark? Drew suddenly asks while looking out at Silkeborg River which has overflowed its banks.

- It does, but this year we've just had a lot of rain , I tell him and say something about global warming.

The interview has come to an end, but before letting them go, I have them promise that they'll play 'Meant to Live' at tonight's concert.



(Interview conducted by A.K. Grønhøj, Udfordringen, a Danish newspaper, February 07)

Labels: articles., interviews.