Vice Verses is the eighth studio album by American alternative rock band Switchfoot. It was released on September 27, 2011, with a July 20 radio date and August 2 digital release for the lead single, "Dark Horses".
The song "Vice Verses" was first performed by Foreman during one of the singer's solo acoustic shows on April 12, 2009. Foreman iterated to the audience that the song was not slated for release on the upcoming Switchfoot record at the time called Hello Hurricane, but would appear on the one after.
Later that month, Switchfoot announced that in addition to Hello Hurricane, the album that was to follow already had a title as well: Vice Verses. This came on the heels of a Twitter post in which the band said they had recorded four albums worth of material during the Hurricane sessions and intended to release the records one by one. This plan was short-lived however, with Foreman later stating that the band has "already replaced a lot the songs on Vice Verses with new songs" and that Vice Verses is a departure from Hello Hurricane. In October, Foreman said that most of the songs were ready to go and "if the next record came out today, it would be called Vice Verses." In December, bassist Tim Foreman was quoted saying that the album was close to done and that he thought it was going to be even better than Hello Hurricane.
Nothing more was heard regarding the project, however, until July of the next year, when Jon and guitarist Drew Shirley said the band was aiming to complete Vice Verses by the Summer of 2011. After the conclusion of the Hello Hurricane tour, the band members each took personal time off but very quickly resumed work on Vice Verses. On November 21, Shirley tweeted that the band were "tracking new songs in the studio tonight. You'll see..." while the next day, Foreman simply tweeted "making vice verses."
In January 2011, the band began official recording for the project, announcing via email that they had enlisted Neal Avron and Mike Elizondo as producers for the album. Adam Hawkins, an engineer during the Hurricane sessions, was also brought on board to work on Vice Verses. During the Hello Hurricane tour, Switchfoot began debuting new songs that were possible inclusions on Vice Verses. In the summer months, the band played a song titled "Against the Voices", which Foreman stated in would be "from the next record." On August 8, Switchfoot debuted a song titled "Dark Horses" at a show in Chicago. At a subsequent performance, Foreman stated that he liked the track and it was "probably going to make the cut, I hope, because I like it."
Foreman also played various other songs at his acoustic after shows throughout the tour, including "Thrive" and "She Says (The Black Eyed Blues)", both possibilities for release on Vice Verses.
On several occasions, the band stated that they were pushing for Vice Verses to be a double album, though they eventually scaled the project back down to a single disc collection.
On January 31, the band tweeted that bassist Tim Foreman was laying down bass tracks on a song titled "Selling the News". In February, a tentative track listing was posted on the web. The first track to be mixed off the record was called "Blinding Light".
On April 6, the band tweeted that they were "going into the studio one last time to put the finishing touches" on Vice Verses, with final mixes to come later that week. On the 9th, Foreman debuted the song "Restless", a track that is slated for release on the record, during a live performance. Final mixing was completed on April 13, with band photographer Andy Barron tweeting that he was "watching the band sit in a dark room in hollywood listening to #viceverses front to back."
During a two-week stint in Canada, the band debuted "Restless" live, performing it for the first time in its full-band arrangement on May 18 at the London Convention Centre. They played "The Original" for the first time in Kingston on the 20th, and a re-worked version of "Dark Horses" on May 23 in Winnipeg, MB. Two more songs, "Afterlife" and "The War Inside" saw play during the tour as well.
The band previewed their material throughout the summer months leading up to the album's release, offering fans a chance to hear the lead single, "Dark Horses" at their Bro-Am event. The band also previewed some tracks during a tent event at the Alive Festival on July 1.
The band premiered 11 of the 12 tracks on September 17 through ESPN Music commencing with the match between Oklahoma and Florida St.