This week, Switchfoot singer/guitarist Jon Foreman is releasing Dawn, the fourth and final installment in a 4-EP, 25-song project dubbed The Wonderlands. Foreman released Sunlight, Shadows, Darkness and now Dawn as a musical journey through the highs and lows, the “light and darkness,” of the human experience. To celebrate The Wonderlands Foreman is performing 25 shows in a 24-hour marathon throughout San Diego on October 24. Myspace spoke with Foreman about the project, the upcoming whirlwind of gigs and Switchfoot.

Did you have a vision for The Wonderlands or did the vision change much over time?

A lot of the songs were talking about the polar experience of the human identity: birth and death, fear and love and doubt and belief. I thought, What if we use the metaphor of light and darkness and follow the sun around the day? And use that as a metaphor for all these polar elements of our world. So that's where the dream of this whole project started from, creating a musical planet where it's built entirely out of lyric and melody.

You also used several producers for the project.

I had different producers for every song. So Andrew (Wessen) from Grouplove and Taylor (York) from Paramore and Jeff Coffin from Dave Matthews Band and Darren (King) from Mutemath, just different people involved producing different tracks. The trick was how you get all of these different takes and ideas to feel like it's one cohesive project rather than 25 different songs that don't belong.

The song “Inheritance” from the Dawn EP—how did that song come about?

I think all these songs are based on a true story, you know? That line, “I want to be rich in memories not money our love is our inheritance,” I think that was a moment for me. I realized it was a moment of clarity for me.

Did you have a lot to chose from in terms of material?

There's about 10 or 20 songs that we left off. Ernest Hemingway talks about the iceberg principle: to have an iceberg you have to have a ton of work put into it that no one will ever hear. That used to frustrate me, to leave stuff I felt was good on the cutting room floor. As long as people see the tip of the iceberg and get to experience that as far as the music is concerned, that's all that matters.

Whose idea was it for staging 25 shows in 24 hours?

That felt like the logical extension of this whole project. The solo project in many ways was born from the “after show.” I do these things I call “after shows” where after Switchfoot plays and everyone's leaving the venue, I got more music left in me so I go out back and play a few songs in the parking lot or in the bar or the coffee shop down the street. That experience is where a lot of these songs were born. It gave me a chance to play these songs for the first time and figure them out. In many ways this 25 shows in 24 hours is a logical extension of these after shows, 25 “after shows” in a row.

Has it been tough logistically?

Yes. [Laughs]. It's been a very tough situation because you have 25 events to plan and then trying to make every one different. I'm playing one with my alma mater's marching band for example, another one at a Mexican restaurant with a mariachi band or at a wedding playing this outdoor pipe organ and trying to arrange the musicians and locations and transportation. It's been pretty wild.

You're also playing a children's hospital?

That children's hospital means a lot to me. Anyone who has kids they have a story or two and most of my stories take place there at that children's hospital. If you ever feel ungrateful or depressed or angry or any of those emotions if you go down to a children's hospital you instantly realize what's important

Have you been surprised by the response to the 25 shows in 24 hours event?

It's been amazing we've had people saying they're flying in from all over. I'm very excited to see where it leads.

What's on the go with Switchfoot?

We've got a new record that's coming out next summer. I'm very excited about it.

Any plans to celebrate your birthday (October 22) or is that the furthest thing from your mind with the 25 shows coming up?

I want to do something. The thing for me celebrating my birthday is just going surfing with my daughter.