Switchfoot is putting a new spin on their trademark hit, “Meant to Live,” with the help of hit record producer and singer/songwriter Jon Bellion. Their fresh rendition comes 20 years after the alt-rock band burst onto the mainstream with the hit Top 10 track from their debut album, The Beautiful Letdown.
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Penned by Switchfoot frontman Jon Foreman and his brother, bassist Tim Foreman, “Meant to Live” was inspired by both a TS Elliot poem called “The Hollow Men” and U2’s influential 1987 hit “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.” The song’s hopeful message connected with fans across the world and quickly became a staple of the San Diego, California-based band’s high-energy live shows.
The 2023 version, recorded at London’s Abbey Road Studios and released on Friday (July 21), strips away the gritty electric guitar that served as the driving force on the original recording. A sweeping string section, arranged by John Metcalfe, brings a soaring, anthemic quality to the track, transforming it into something entirely new.
The decision to recruit Bellion was an easy choice for the group, who say they’ve been waiting for the perfect moment to come together creatively.
“Years ago, Jon Bellion mentioned Switchfoot in a tweet as an inspiration for a song he was working on,” Jon Foreman says in a statement. “I hit Jon back to tell him that I’ve loved his stuff for years. Since then, we’ve stayed in touch, texting from time to time. Fast forward to this year when we started re-recording The Beautiful Letdown; we had a lot of friends reach out with stories about how that album had impacted their lives – one of those friends was Jon Bellion… hearing Abbey Road strings playing a John Metcalfe arrangement with Jon Bellion’s voice singing those lyrics felt like a graduation (maybe the graduation that this college dropout never got!). It’s like I’m hearing the song for the first time, and I wonder who wrote it and where [the] music even comes from—Bellion and I were talking about it the other day, how this version of the song truly illuminates the lyrics in a new way.”
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“I think ‘Meant to Live’ is one of the best-written songs of all time,” Bellion adds. “That song is actually one of the reasons I got into music. I remember the energy on the song that was so healing, honest, and I felt like a human being. I felt like, ‘Wow, this is probably how all humans probably feel.’ That song opened a lot of insight for me on how to write records where you can connect with me. I thought, ‘If it doesn’t connect with me like Switchfoot’s ‘Meant to Live’ connected with me when I was a kid, then I shouldn’t be writing it. If you would have told me 15 years ago that I would be covering this song cause the band would be approaching me for one of my favorite songs of all time to reimagine the song in a way I saw fit, I’d be completely honored.”
Listen to Switchfoot and Bellion’s reimagined version of “Meant to Live” below.
Photo Credit: Erick Frost
