Nada Surf
Frontman Matthew Caws talks about bones, Lucky, and the band's roller-coaster career
By Laura Leebove
Published: February 6th, 2008 | 3:06pm
It's usually a nightmare to be slapped with the “one-hit wonder” tag — especially when the one hit gets your band picked up by a major label, then dropped before seeing the second album hit stores. Such was the case for pop-rock trio Nada Surf more than a decade ago: Elektra Records released 1996's High/Low, featuring high school anthem “Popular,” but when the second record, The Proximity Effect, didn't have a similar hit, it was released in Europe in 1998 and the group was left in the cold in the U.S.
Rather than call it quits and make an appearance on VH1’s “One Hit Wonders” TV special, the trio fought for its songs and kept trucking on the indie path, self-releasing The Proximity Effect in 2000 and joining Barsuk Records' roster for 2003's Let Go and 2005's The Weight Is A Gift. Two and a half years later, Nada Surf is offering up its third Barsuk effort, Lucky, and although frontman Matthew Caws insists the album's title wasn't inspired by Nada Surf's career, he knows luck has been on the band's side. “Career-wise, we're incredibly lucky, because we've had two stories when it seems like you should only get one,” he says. “We've had the roller coaster, and we've had the slow build. The slow build is what we've always wanted. We knew it'd be an interesting ride, even if it wouldn't last, and that's exactly what it was — it was quick. But in the end, it's probably for the best.”
When I catch 40-year-old Caws on the phone, it’s noon on a Monday in mid-December. Caws is walking from the gym to his Brooklyn home while a loud crane thunders in the background. After a week in Paris, Caws, bassist Daniel Lorca, and drummer Ira Elliot have a two-week break for the holidays. Then they'll be back and forth between the United States and Europe to tour and promote the new album, out on February 5, 2008. Caws explains that he called the release Lucky because “it's just how it felt. Things have been good this year.” The album also serves as a reminder that people can choose their outlook on life. “It's easy for me to be pessimistic,” he says, “so sometimes … I wish I could learn to just remember to be grateful always.”
The theme of choosing your fate, so to speak, shows through especially on album opener “See These Bones,” a track that came about after Caws took a trip a few years ago to the Capuchin Crypt under the church of Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini in Rome. The crypt is decorated with thousands of bones — “designs on the walls, stacks of skulls, chandeliers made out of children's bones,” he recalls. “It's very solemn and dimly lit.” The walls' inscriptions translate to “What you are, we once were” and “What we are, you shall be,” which inspired the song's chorus of “Look alive, see these bones / What you are now, we were once / Just like we are, you'll be dust / Just like we are, permanent.”
Despite the morbidity of seeing thousands of human bones, Caws says the crypt is a very uplifting place that takes the expression “glad to be alive” to a new level. “You're not just thinking about death,” he says. “You're looking at 200- and 300- and 400-year-old bones. You better be glad to be alive, 'cause it's an effin' miracle that you are, 'cause this is where eeeveryone's going, and there it is, and you're just staring at it. You're just looking at stacks of bones. It's not just bones sitting there by chance. They've been put there to tell you something; it was someone's intent.”
The rest of the album, Caws says, is about “things improving,” as he usually pens songs when he's on the upswing from something he's overcome. “It's 'cause then I feel kind of brave enough to turn around and be like ‘OK, I was really upset at X,’ or ‘I have a big regret called Y,’ or ‘I have a huge insecurity called Z,’” he says. “I feel like maybe I could be in control of it. And what would really help me be in control of anything is just being in a better mood. If you're feeling a little hopeless … anything can seem difficult. But if you can turn your mood around, it's like all of a sudden things are doable.” And when he's in the writing process, Caws can only hope to come across a good riff. “Nothing makes me happier than a hook,” he says. “Very often the impulse of trying to make something kind of does the trick, but one out of 10 times, or 20 times — god, I don't know — I get lucky.”
Issue #27
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