By now, whether you are Christian or not, you have heard at least one hit song from the beloved Christian rock band Switchfoot.
While all the band members are Christian, they prefer to be known as just a rock band because they say their music contains broad themes that everyone can enjoy, whether it be “Meant to Live,” “Dare You to Move” or their newest hit single, “Awakening.”
The San Diego-based group now has a new original song out called, “This is Home,” which plays in “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian,” the latest “Narnia” film which this past weekend seized the box-office crown, with $55 million in ticket sales over its debut weekend.
The Switchfoot song is featured during the end credits of the film, and appears on the Original Walt Disney Records Soundtrack CD, which released May 13.
The Christian Post caught up with Jerome Fontamillas, who is often found jamming on the guitar or keyboards for the band, to discuss the new “Narnia” song and to get the 411 on Switchfoot’s latest projects.
The following are excerpts taken from the interview:
CP: Tell me a little bit about “This is Home” – Switchfoot’s new song, recorded for the movie “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.” How does the song tell the journey of these four kids?
Fontamillas: Well, the whole idea of the song – if you read the Chronicles the series from beginning to end – it’s this idea that the place you live now is not the place you are really meant to be. You feel this is just a passing by and there is something bigger for you beyond this place. This song has a longing to go to that place. ‘This is Home’ is about longing to be in the place where you belong and destined to be.
CP: What do you think is the destiny of these four kids?
Fontamillas: Well, I’m sure for the four kids, Narnia is their place to be. But you know, you can relate it to you. ‘This is not my place. I belong in a place bigger than this.’
CP: Now, have you read the books?
Fontamillas: Yes, I have … when I was a kid.
CP: Was it surreal to work on a story you read when you were younger?
Fontamillas: Yeah. It was surreal to be a part of a work like this. Reading C.S. Lewis all my life, it’s an honor and a privilege to work on something like this. So when they called us up and said, ‘Hey can you work on a song for the movie?’ we were like pretty floored. We were like, ‘Really? For Chronicles of Narnia? That’s amazing.’
CP: A lot of your songs are known to contain messages that Christians can relate to. Do you see any such messages in this song?
Fontamillas: Oh, yeah. I mean a lot of our songs have Christian themes because C.S. Lewis is a big part of us. We read a lot of it at work, so a lot of the themes he had put in his book, you can see them in a lot of our songs.
We have a song called, ‘Meant to Live.’ The idea is that we are meant to live for something more, something bigger than where we are at.
We have a song called “This is your life,” where you are talking about ‘Is this all there is or is there something big you could be living for?’ And a lot of C.S. Lewis themes are in that area.
CP: How about for this song?
Fontamillas: ‘This is Home,’ like I said before … this song has a longing to be in a place where you are destined to be at.