When Switchfoot headlines the second night of FM 94/9's sold-out "7th Anniversary Bash" on Nov. 8, the North County-based band will preview its seventh album, "Hello Hurricane," two days ahead of its release.

For an in-depth look at several of the songs from "Hello Hurricane," read the interview here with Switchfoot frontman Jon Foreman. For other topics covered in our interview with the band's singer/guitarist, keep reading.

"Hello Hurricane" is Switchfoot's first release for Atlantic Records. Its previous three studio albums were put out by Sony-owned Columbia Records. The band and Columbia parted ways in 2007.

"It's currently in vogue to bash a large record company. This is not really what this is about," Foreman said. "I think every logo on the back of a CD or back of any brand is representing the people that work for the company, and the policies that are currently in place at the company. We've got some great friends that used to work at Columbia; we had some great times over there, but it came to a point where they were continually destroying the teams that they assembled.

"Our music is very communal, and for us to distribute it in a way that didn't tie into that sort of family, it didn't feel honest. ... So that's why we built our own studio; we cut ties with Columbia. We even stopped working on music as a band for a little while."

Foreman recorded some solo EPs and started a side project called the Fiction Family with Sean Watkins of Nickel Creek. He also shared the stage at L.A.'s Hotel Cafe with Tom Morello, the Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave guitarist who is now the Nightwatchman.

"He's an incredibly creative player on an instrument that has a lot of people doing the same thing. I appreciate his work ethic. And then as I got to know him, I think it was just a matter of seeing who he is as a person. Every time we'd hang out, he was just incredibly friendly and genuine. And that's rare to find in general, but especially in Hollywood."

When the focus was on Switchfoot, the band maintained all control.

"We tracked the whole record completely on our own dime and basically just our own opinions what the record should be. And then Atlantic chased us down. To be honest, we weren't interested in what they were offering at first, because we were very excited about putting it out on (the band's) lowercase people records. But at the same time we didn't know what that meant, and we didn't really know how we were going to get it out to the world on our own."

Atlantic's sales pitch won the band over. Producer Mike Elizondo came on board and was "crucial as the closer."

"He was our Trevor Hoffman of four or five years ago maybe. He came at a point where we were finally starting to realize what the record was going to look like," Foreman said.

Elizondo, with such an eclectic resume as a producer and musician ---- Eminem, Dr. Dre, Natasha Bedingfield and Maroon 5, to name a few ---- would figure to push the band to new places. Foreman said that wasn't so much the case.

"He said, 'Don't be afraid of what you've done for the past six records.' We had already pushed ourselves far enough," Foreman said.

"Very few of the experimental tracks made the record. One made it on Karl Denson's new record, and I think one might make it on Meat Loaf's next record. On our record, the song that pushes things the furthest is 'Sing It Out,' a song that has no solid indicator of time until the bridge ---- we've never had that much restraint before."

Foreman doesn't restrain his passion for the written word.

"I like reading. It keeps me occupied on the road. I think reading and running are the two best substitutions for an ocean on the road."

Foreman's interest in philosophy is wide-ranging one that takes in thinkers from C.S. Lewis to Nietzsche.

"I'm not afraid of anyone's point of view. I'm excited to learn where people are coming from. I think that fear in many ways betrays a lack of resolution on your own part. So if there is a fear, then maybe it's something to be looked at. Many times the people who are yelling the loudest about why they're right are often afraid they might be wrong."

Switchfoot's activities as a band inevitably extend to a cause or charity. Its upcoming tour will act as a traveling food drive, with the band collecting donations at concerts for local food banks.

"The stage and the screen are blurted versions of what it means to be alive. The things that we do in secret are more important, the way you treat people when no one's watching," Foreman said. "I think what I tell you is much less important than what I do. I feel like we all have different roles to play."

In October, the Huffington Post Web site posted a piece by Foreman titled "Goodness Precedes Greatness: A Call for New Heroes in Troubled Times."

"I want to get better at communicating with the written word," Foreman said about why he wrote it, "and the idea of writing something for the Huffington Post seemed like a challenge to me. I like challenges."

In the piece, Foreman writes "that the best parts of our human nature can be seen in sacrifice or surrender. A mother sacrificing her time for her child, a teacher devoting her afternoons to help students off-the-clock. These are truly our most incredible moments as a species: moments of unmerited kindness. Goodness. Virtue. Nobility. Grace. Morality."

Switchfoot, with the New Archaic

When: 6 p.m. Nov. 8

Where: East County Performing Arts Center, 210 E. Main St., El Cajon

Tickets: Sold out

Info: 800-696-1929 or tickets.cyt.org

Web: switchfoot.com