Jon Foreman had it all figured out. After releasing his debut solo album, Departures, in 2021, the Switchfoot frontman began writing a follow-up with the intended title Arrivals. However, the record just wouldn’t come together in the way he wanted it to.
Meanwhile, Foreman continued writing other songs outside of working on Arrivals. It wasn’t until he played those other songs for his brother that he realized he had an entirely different album on his hands.
“He said, ‘I think you made an album, you just didn’t make the one you were trying to make, and I think you should release the record that you made and let the other one go,'” Foreman tells ABC Audio.
The result is In Bloom, which Foreman describes as “the record I was not trying to make.” Fittingly, “letting go” is a big theme on In Bloom, which is also reflected in its title.
“In terms of the garden, the crap that you go through actually can be buried and become fertilizer for the next blooms in your life,” Foreman says. “That metaphor has been really helpful for me … all of these songs are born from the crap of the past few years.”
While In Bloom is not a reference to the Nirvana song, Foreman does nod to Bob Dylan, Dolly Parton and Cormac McCarthy in the lyrics. He also calls back to one of Switchfoot’s biggest hits in the song “Eulogy” with the line “Do you still honestly believe that we were meant to live?”, which was inspired by a conversation he had with a longtime producer friend.
“He said, ‘You know, the song I wanna hear from you is how you think that kid who wrote ‘Meant to Live’ would assess your life now,'” Foreman recalls.
In Bloom is out now.
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