When Switchfoot [ tickets ] began recording some new music in January 2005, it wasn't with the intent of making an album. Perhaps an EP, but not a proper album.

"We had two or three weeks off tour in January of this last year," bassist/vocalist Tim Forman explained. "We were touring in support of 'Nothing is Sound' and we had some time to go into the studio.

"We were kind of thinking, 'We've got these songs. Let's just record them and maybe we'll put out an EP. We ended up recording a lot more songs than we originally intended. We got off tour, we went back [into the studio], and realized that we were pretty much ready to put out another record. ... It's a bit of a bold move to put out a record a year after the last one. We were pretty excited that [the record label] let us do it. That freedom of recording without actually titling it 'a record' during the process allowed for a lot of creativity," he added.

The result is "Oh! Gravity," due in stores Dec. 26, a collection of songs that stray a bit from the heavy sound for which Switchfoot is known.

"We were trying to stay away from things we did in the past," Foreman said. "One thing in particular that we wanted to stay away from was this 'wall of guitar' mentality, the idea that rock and roll doesn't have to have a lot of loud, distorted guitar to sound like rock. We tried to keep it to one or two or, at the most, three tracks of guitars on one song."

Fans can hear the changes for themselves when Switchfoot kicks off its "Oh! Gravity" North American club and theater tour with fellow rockers Copeland [ tickets ] Feb. 14 in San Francisco. Presales start today; details are available at Switchfoot's website. Later next year, Switchfoot will play various Christian-rock festivals. Details are listed below.

"We took a break from doing festivals this last year," Foreman said. "We wanted to get back and see some familiar faces. We take it on a year-by-year basis. You don't want to ever get pigeonholed to be this band or that band. If all we did was play small clubs for the rest of our lives, we'd probably really enjoy it, but that in and of itself would be a [pigeonhole]."

The first official track Switchfoot recorded for "Oh Gravity" was "Awakening," which was produced by Steve Lillywhite, a British knob-turner whose credits include The Rolling Stones, Morrissey, Phish and U2.

"That was a total honor," Foreman said. "We went in and did one song with him. That was after the initial January sessions. It kind of reminded us that you can have a lot of fun in the studio and it's OK. It got us back in the mode of five guys in one room playing music instead of doing things separately. After that, we went in on our own in San Diego and we brought in Tim Palmer to do the rest of the record."

Switchfoot did not ask Lillywhite to produce the whole album; instead, he served as executive producer.

"We just love his big-picture input on the song 'Awakening.' If we could have that overall on the record, that would be great. It was us with Tim Palmer day to day working on the stuff. Occasionally, we would send Steve a song. We had kind of an all-star team with everybody working together."

Foreman--who is joined in the band by his brother/singer Jon Foreman, guitarist/keyboardist Jerome Fontamillas, guitarist Drew Shirley and drummer Chad Butler--said it was inspiring to work with Palmer, a UK native.

"One of the rules was you had to be British to work on the record, I think," Foreman said with a laugh. "He worked on a lot of our favorite albums, whether it was Tears for Fears, U2 or Pearl Jam. He's been involved in a lot of great records. If anything, he was a great filter while not being overbearing. The sign of a good producer is someone who knows when to keep their mouth shut and when to offer advice. You can wreck a song if you come in and add too much."