Twelve years into their musical tenure, Switchfoot, well-known for hit singles such as Dare You To Move and Meant To Live, is now calling the shots for their music.

The release of Hello Hurricane ,due out Tuesday, marks the band's first officially independent album, and their seventh overall.

The Story

Shortly after independently recording 2003s breakout album The Beautiful Letdown, Switchfoot signed with music giant Columbia Records. During their time with the label they achieved mainstream fame, accumulating numerous awards and honors and occupied high spots on multiple Billboard charts.

After two more albums, Nothing Is Sound and Oh! Gravity., Switchfoot parted ways with Columbia in 2007. They cited numerous reasons for leaving, including the fact that much of the original staff they had worked with was gone, but it was clear that the deal wasn't working out for either party.

Switchfoot immediately founded their own label, Lowercase People Records, and constructed their San Diego studio.

With complete creative control, and a roster that's now had over four years together, Switchfoot considers this album a redefinition of themselves as a band going into this new era.

"The story of Hello Hurricane starts with the deconstruction of Switchfoot," said singer/guitarist/songwriter Jon Foreman. "We stepped away from everything we were as a band, and then with a fresh perspective, redefined why and who we play music for..."

While fans thought the band was recording Oh! Gravity.'s follow-up, Switchfoot actually ended up with enough material for four records. Sifting through about 80 songs to find the right ones for the album proved to give the band more of a challenge than they had bargained for.

"There were so many different styles you liked, so many different kinds of music that you wanted to cram into a 12-song CD," said keyboardist/guitarist Jerome Fontamillas.

"They didn't feel like the type of songs you wanted to die singing," said Foreman. "For Hello Hurricane, that became the prerequisite for the song: if you're not crying, why are you singing it? If you don't believe it with every ounce of you, there's no point in singing it."

"It seemed like the dream. We had independence, and it turned out to be the hardest record we ever made."

Eventually, the band decided to scrap dreams of self-producing, and collaborated with producer Mike Elizondo (Dr. Dre, Eminem, 50 Cent). This helped the band get their ideas out in the open, and finish the album.

"It was exciting to work with someone from Mike's background and to take some different approaches to rock music," said drummer Chad Butler. "He definitely helped us push the music in some new directions."

The Music

Switchfoot has always been known for being unconventional, while maintaining mainstream appeal. They're usually categorized as alternative rock, only because no one really knows what to call them, due to their tendencies with hard rock, acoustic and even electronic styles.

Above all, they're known for meaningful lyrics that tackle some of the biggest issues of our lives, while also being uplifting and hopeful.

In their two previous albums with Columbia, these traits were not very prominent. With the addition of guitarist Drew Shirley, from Nothing Is Sound, the music got guitar-laden and much heavier - drowning out many of the nuances the group was known for. The lyrics were also unusual, as they centered around discontent but did not offer solutions or glimpses of light at the end of the tunnel.

Hello Hurricane solves all of these problems.

Without abandoning everything they've learned as a band over the past six years, Switchfoot has returned to a sound similar to that of The Beautiful Letdown.

The album starts with Needle And Haystack Life, immediately showing their skills in the studio with swirling guitars and layered sounds, as well as the driving bass of Tim Foreman. The lyrics are to a girl who feels lost in her life. Foreman is encouraging her to not to give up hope, that her life has meaning and purpose.

Next is the first single Mess of Me. This intense anthem discusses realizing your life is in shambles, and having the willingness to put the pieces back together. Foreman said at a concert this summer that it was inspired by all the drug commercials on television, and how he thinks many of them only mask a person's true problems.

Other heavy rock songs include The Sound (John M. Perkins' Blues), which is on the newest BlackBerry Storm2 commercial, and Bullet Soul, which is one of a few Switchfoot songs currently featured on ABC/ESPN college football broadcasts. These songs show that although the album is softer than the previous two, the band has not lost any of their edge in their independent adventures.

The title-track, which features an electric mandolin, conveys what Switchfoot felt was the most important message the of the album.

"Hello Hurricane acknowledges the storms that tear through our lives," said Foreman. "This album is an attempt to respond to those storms with an element of hope, trying to understand what it means to be hopeful in a world that keeps on spinning."

The slower tracks were the ones neglected during their last two albums, but Hello Hurricane features a handful of them. Always is one similar to tracks on their first couple of albums, and it is pretty much piano, strings and light acoustics.

Switchfoot had been caught up in the mix of Christian music ever since their early days when they were distributed in Christian markets. They attempted to shed this image, as their goal was to never alienate any listeners or be too preachy. However, with this album they do have some songs about God and how his love affects their lives.

Hello Hurricane displays a revitalized Switchfoot, on a path that is completely their own. They have made an extremely diverse album that will appeal to many listeners, and it will be the album by which their following efforts will be measured.