Fiction Family

Fiction Family
Sean Watkins, half of Fiction Family
Background information
Origin	Cardiff by the Sea,California, U.S.
Genres	Indie folk
Years active	2006–present
Labels	ATO, MapleMusic, lowercase people
Associated acts	Switchfoot Nickel Creek
Website	fictionfamily.com
Members	Sean Watkins Jon Foreman Tyler Chester Aaron Redfield

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."

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.

However, on March 13, 2008, it was reported that The Real SeanJon had changed their name to "Fiction Family." They had already completed the record and had tentatively titled it "Betrayal" before the name change.

It was also rumored at one point that Starbucks might put out Fiction Family's record, sometime in the summer of 2008. "We’re doing the final song right now, and there’s a rumor that there’s a large company that produces caffeinated beverages that might put it out in a few months. So, we’ll see," said Foreman. But later, Foreman stated that the record would be released in January 2009, and a press release by Nickel Creek later confirmed the release date of the self-titled album, Fiction Family. It was released on January 20, 2009, by ATO Records, and entered the charts at number 71.

Fiction Family released their first single "When She’s Near" for free download on their website, and an accompanying music video was released in December 2008.