Fiction Family

Fiction Family is a musical collaboration between Switchfoot frontman Jon Foreman and Nickel Creek guitarist Sean Watkins. The duo's self-titled, full-length album was released on January 20, 2009. The band has since added a drummer and bassist, Tyler Chester and Aaron Redfield.

According to Watkins, the band's name comes from the fact that "Usually when two guys make a record together, it sounds cool to call them the something brothers. But we're not, so that's how Fiction Family came to be." Says Foreman, "They are two words that hold a lot of meaning for me. I think that much of who we are as a culture lean towards fiction. As for the family of it, you have the entire nation that's kind of looking for family. That's one of the reasons why I like the name. Also both of us come from sibling bands and this is not a sibling band, so this is kind of a fiction family of sort."

History

The two began the collaboration in 2005 by writing songs together, according to a blog post on Watkins's website. Around Mid-2006 they began recording the songs, in bits and pieces while the two were off the road, announcing themselves as "The Real SeanJon," a name jokingly chosen in the hopes that Sean "Sean John" Combs would sue them.

Fiction Family (album)

Fiction Family is the debut studio album by the collaboration between Switchfoot frontman and solo artist Jon Foreman and Nickel Creek guitarist and solo artist Sean Watkins. It was released January 20, 2009 through the indie record label, ATO Records.

Production

History and Recording

Foreman and Watkins began their collaboration in 2005, and eventually pieced together their first song called "Betrayal". The pair continued to write songs in the same manner because Nickel Creek and Switchfoot were both constantly on the road touring. "Whoever was home from tour would chip away at the songs with no real expectations at all," said Foreman. It was "mainly just for ourselves and for the love of the song I suppose."

The tracking of the record was very organic, with little production involved besides some basic samples the two created from scratch. It was recorded completely in Foreman and Watkins' home studios, and with a few exceptions, "every note was written, arranged, played, recorded, mixed, and mastered by Sean and myself," Foreman said.