Gearing up for a national and potentially international tour, Switch 3 returned to the live scene in mid 2008 and again on 13 September 2008 to launch Calm Before at the Greenroom. Evan said the launch was planned so far in advance that they didn’t realise they had to compete with a number of other events in Canberra including a Raiders match. Plus one of the supports, Monster Elephante, regrettably had to cancel their appearance at the last minute. Despite this, the launch was a reasonable success and the boys were happy to be back on the scene. Fans were exposed to a somewhat changed Switch 3, moving away from their punk sound in their last EP, Memories Fade, to a darker and heavier rock sensibility. As Evan put it, Switch 3 just wants to be a rock band and play music that people can jump around to.

Calm Before was recorded in Sydney during the summer of 2006-07 and since then the guys have been busy perfecting the album while juggling day jobs and managing the band being split between Canberra and Brisbane. The album was recorded with the help of seasoned producer, Anton Hagop, who has worked with the guys previously on Memories Fade.

The group is extremely proud of the record and for the most part Calm Before was a collaborative writing process, with all members putting forward their own ideas and concepts. For opening track, Last Day, the lyrics were inspired by a discussion among the group as to what they would do if you were given 24 hours to live. Evan explained that a lot of the subject matter is dark and powerful and in most cases, the guys don’t share the meaning of their songs. Evan says that usually the subject matter is about personal relationships and experiences, so he doesn’t necessarily want to know the details as it lets him interpret his own meaning.

Evan admitted that at times they found it difficult to articulate their ideas into songs while staying true but over time they got better at it and Esperance, a highlight on the record, is proof of that. Evan recalled that while recording the final track for the album he thought “Oh God I really don’t want this song to be on the record”. As it turned out, the others guys felt the same way so Anton lent them a few practice amps and a small electronic drum kit to take back to their hotel to work on something new, just a simple rock song with no fanfare, and about half an hour later they had created Esperance to complete the album.

While Switch 3 has been around since 2002, Evan, a jazz drummer by trade, took up a position with the group in 2005. Not long after he joined, the guys made an appearance on Saturday Disney to promote Memories Fade where they were challenged to recite their times tables. Evan agreed that it was certainly unusual for a punk band with seemingly adult themes to appear on a children’s program but he recalled having a great time. Since then, there haven’t been any new appearances on kiddies’ programs that we know of. Instead the guys have been hard at work preparing for a massive tour in Australia in early 2009 with hopes to follow it up with a tour in Japan and China. Now Japan is usually an expected destination for many bands but China is somewhat less unheard of so why is Switch 3 making their way to such an unusual destination? Well its precisely for that reason. According to Evan the band is more interested in touring Asia than places like the US and UK simply because they want to be exposed to new music that the region has to offer.

Switch 3’s first single Come To Me, is accompanied by an animation style music video with a similar feel to the award winning film clip for Memories Fade. Evan said being in a music video was a first for him and he found the experience enjoyable. When asked if he felt awkward with the cameras around and if he snuck in the odd geeky glimpse at the camera he chuckled and admitted at times he did feel like a bit of a douche during filming. Well you certainly can’t pick up on the douche factor but check it out for yourselves on You Tube or you can listen to previews of the album on the Switch 3 website and myspace.