Matthew Caws has heard it all before: one-hit wonder, flash in the pan and novelty act. The affable lead singer/guitarist has taken the bullet of these tags ever since his New York City-based band scored a hit on MTV back in 1996 with the tacky single, “Popular.” Ten years have come and gone, but Caws is quick to point out the biggest misconceptions dealt to Nada Surf these days.
“One is we get hit with the one-hit wonder tag, and the misconception about that is, it wasn’t even a hit. It was all over the TV that’s for sure, but it didn’t get near the Top 40,” says Caws on the phone from his apartment in Brooklyn. “And the other misconception is that we disappeared for awhile and there’s the misconception about our career being rocky. And another is that we are from California.”
Nada Surf has been a band for ten years, a lifetime in the music industry. It goes without saying that their brand of punk-pop-rock should have them paired with today’s hot ticket melodic rock bands like Death Cab for Cutie, The Shins and The New Pornographers. Caws shows a glass half full theory, when speaking of his peer’s recent success.
“We’re lucky to be around one of these periods, where it seems pretty much trend free. It’s not like it’s a grunge era or an electronica era or anything,” says Caws. “It seems like every time a wave comes after that, what you have for a moment is straight up stuff. Like Death Cab, for all their incredible aesthetics, they are just a great band. I feel lucky to be able to have stuck around long enough to see one of these peaceful periods.”
Nada Surf formed in the early 90’s when Caws met bassist Daniel Lorca in high school. Later they gigged around New York City in a few short-lived bands and eventually settled on the name Nada Surf. Drummer Ira Elliott soon joined later and they released their debut High/Low on Elektra with Cars legend Ric Ocasek serving as producer. Although the success of “Popular” placed Nada Surf in heavy MTV rotation, the band stayed grounded and continued to tour heavily, and in 1998 they released their follow-up- The Proximity Effect. Living up to the hype of High/Low had the band battling skeptics on their sophomore effort, however their overseas reception was much warmer, as it remains still today. 2003’s Let Go, was garnered as a critically-lauded masterpiece and much of the band’s turnaround can be owed to their choosing Seattle’s Barsuk records to release Let Go.
We’ll never have to go through it again and we’ll never have to waste our time being tempted by it or wondering if we want to check it out, that’s done, ” admits Caws about serving his major label time. “I love Barsuk and I’m very happy there.”
Nada Surf enlisted Death Cab for Cutie guitarist Chris Walla to produce their latest release,The Weight is a Gift. Recorded at singer-songwriter John Vanderslice’s Tiny Telephone studios in San Francisco and at Walla’s Hall of Justice in Seattle, The Weight Is A Gift begins where Let Go left off in carrying forth the band’s contemplative tone. Walla, who previously just produced his own band’s recent blockbuster Plans, and The Decemberists’ Picaresque has coaxed the trio into making a low maintenance pure pop rock record. Walla’s knack behind the board were clearly not ignored by the band.
“He’s never worked with anyone else, never been an intern or assistant, just a self-taught mad scientist kid who is really good at experimenting, getting his hands dirty and getting involved,” comments Caws about Walla. “There are a few songs where he stayed up all night to just write that little guitar part because he thought it needed that one little lift.”
Caws lists Echo and The Bunnymen’s Ocean Rain and The Ramones’ Rocket to Russia as two instrumental albums that had an impact on his development as a musician and writer. The eleven songs on The Weight Is A Gift, delivers Caws’ evasively dark lyrics mixed with the band’s pop formula melodies. Blurring the lines between sorrow and hope, Nada Surf are proving to be the craftiest nerds this side of Death Cab for Cutie. Hence the track “Imaginary Friends” where Caws sings,” hey, I’m bewildered and writing myself notes/that say if you fake happiness then no-one knows.”
Although bands like Spoon and Built To Spill have been making records for almost as long as Nada Surf, they haven’t had to live under the tag of owning a ” hit single.” Using Let Go as a new reference point, The Weight is a Gift, is primed to be Nada Surf’s second step back into credibility, as their recent run of U.S. shows opening for Rilo Kiley attests. Playing with fiery abandon and honest to goodness enthusiasm, has never gotten old for this trio.
“We really do like playing and enjoy it. That’s what kept us from breaking up through a lot of periods, where we technically were supposed to,” says Caws. “Still, we really really enjoy playing and it does kind of feel like a rebirth, because all of a sudden we’re being appreciated for what we always wanted to be appreciated for, which is making a good record and not any kind of curiosity.”
