Switchfoot has released eight full-length studio albums since its founding in San Diego in the mid-1990s, with a ninth on the way in January. Jon Foreman is second from left.

Jon Foreman and his band Switchfoot are travelling through Colorado in a van when he picks up the phone to chat with The Bulletin.

“It’s an adventure, man,” he says, laughing. “You’ve just got to roll with it and see what happens.”

Foreman is speaking specifically about the group’s slow pace through a snowstorm on the way to a gig in the mountain resort town of Aspen. But he might as well be summarizing Switchfoot’s past couple years as it made both a documentary film and an album called “Fading West.”

The band will screen the film, play music and answer questions when the “Fading West” tour stops in Redmond on Thursday (see “If you go”).

“This is different than anything we’ve ever done and because of that there’s different joys and different challenges,” Foreman said. “Showing the film as your opening act is really a chance to say things that you could never put into song and … allow (people) in more than we’ve ever allowed them in.

“It feels like a communal experience,” he continued, “which is one of the reasons I loved music to begin with.”

Switchfoot started in San Diego, where Foreman and his brother Tim, along with drummer Chad Butler, formed the band in 1996 and set to work putting out three records of quirky, catchy pop-rock for an independent record label.

In 2002, prominent placements in the film “A Walk to Remember” catapulted Switchfoot into the public consciousness, and they were snapped up by a major label.

In 2003, the band released “The Beautiful Letdown,” an album that sold more than 2 million copies and spawned two mega-hits, “Dare You to Move” and “Meant to Live.”

Along the way, Switchfoot transformed from a scrappy little rock band to purveyors of some of the most irresistibly soaring tunes in the crunchy, often scowling world of mainstream rock. It helped that Foreman’s lyrics frequently grappled with the biggest of the big questions: life, love, faith and so on. The band was initially marketed as a Christian rock act, but its universal themes helped push Switchfoot beyond that niche.

A decade later, the band has returned to its roots, somewhat, for “Fading West,” where the central theme is not faith in God, but faith that the next big wave is right around the corner.

“We grew up watching surf films and the typical story is guys chasing waves around the globe,” Foreman said. “We thought, ‘Well, that’s pretty much what we do with music. What if we made a movie about chasing songs and waves around the planet?’”

The documentary was filmed during Switchfoot’s 2012 world tour, and it follows the band to exotic surf spots in Bali, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand. A trailer for the movie reveals lots of gorgeous scenery and music, as well as some bumps in the road that draw the band closer together.

Switchfoot has been bouncing around the idea of a surfing-focused film for 10 years, Foreman said. “Fading West” is completely funded by the band.

“It was kind of a labor of love in that it was an endeavor that was very honest, and I’m proud of that honesty that we chose to leave in,” Foreman said. “There’s definitely parts that I don’t like watching, but … those also represent a past that you’ve made it through. You’re on the other side, you’ve survived and you’ve got things to be thankful for in the process.”

With the film now out, Switchfoot will turn its attention to releasing “Fading West” (the album) in January. It’s the band’s ninth full-length studio effort, and as you might guess, it’s sonically influenced by the band’s travels, with not only standard guitar/bass/drum/keyboard sounds, but appearances by an array of instruments from across the world, as well as a South African children’s choir.

“As you’re trying to make the soundtrack for that movie, it feels like … to just throw traditional rock ‘n’ roll instruments on top would be disingenuous with the visuals that you’re seeing,” Foreman said. “So we really pushed ourselves (to use) guitars only as a last resort.”

That said, the three sneak-peek songs on the band’s new digital EP sound … well, they sound like Switchfoot, but with a twist.

That was the goal.

“We wanted to make sure that in every song you could really feel the horizon,” Foreman said. “I think rock ‘n’ roll is a cityscape and everything is stacked on top of each other exploding out of the speakers. We wanted to make an album that felt like you could actually breathe, and see the horizon and feel the wind a bit more.

“We’re always trying to push ourselves,” he continued. “The moment you lose that sense of wonder and exploratory motion, I think you begin to die as an artist.”

If you go

What: Switchfoot

When: 7 p.m. Thursday

Where: Ridgeview High School Auditorium, 4555 S.W. Elkhorn Ave., Redmond

Cost: $25-$35 in advance, $30-$40 day of show, plus fees. Tickets and other outlets available at the website below.

Contact: www.j.mp/switchfootinfo