Nada Surf was the band that did things a little in reverse: they made the big time in the mainstream (remember “popular”?)

and later grew in popularity and gaine cred among the indie crowd. Now on the Seattle based, Barsuk label (Rilo Kiley, Mates of State) Nada Surf has found a new place to call home. In anticipation of their Friday show @ 930 Club, I talked with lead singer and guitarist Matthew Caws about the what-ifs and ups and downs of the industry. After fourteen years they manage to stay true to their pop-rock roots, but, Nada Surf has grown up, too.

BYT: Your tour started recently…

Matthew Caws: Two weeks ago, Mexico City, we had never been there. It was kind of exciting, we don’t get to go to new places very often. The amazing thing was landing and looking out the window and seeing Mexico City and it being really like ten times bigger than anything I’d ever seen, it just went of forever, like this ocean of lights, it was incredible.

BYT: “Lucky” dropped this year, how has it been received on tour so far?

MC: Really well, you know, umm… I have nothing bad to say about touring or our audiences are so nice and seem to get nicer with each record. It’s going really really well. I’m told that tickets are suffering just as much as cds are for some reason we keep on selling more and more tickets. I like to hold on to the naïve illusion that people want to get away from their computers and do something live.

BYT: You’re playing Bowery Ballroom on Saturday? And it’s sold out, so that’s hopeful…

MC: Yeah, it is. And they’ve been really accepting of the new songs and people we were playing a lot of them before the record came out and it all seems to be going very well.

BYT: Are you doing anything acoustic on this tour?

MC: We do acoustic shows once in awhile, but we’re not really doing that this tour. There was a time on the last American tour when I would go out to the merch table with a guitar and play whatever songs we didn’t get to play during the show that people wanted to hear. Probably because we’re having such a great time with the other bands, we haven’t been spending as much time out in the crowd. We still bring our acoustic guitars in case we want to play a record store or something like that.

BYT: “Lucky” is your fifth album and you’ve come a long way since ‘96’s High/Low. Do you feel like you’re still the same band you were twelve years ago?

MC: Well in some ways, but I think it’s like asking if you’re the same person you were and you definitely are but you’ve been through a lot more so you have a different outlook, and we’re physically the same band; it’s the same three guys it was then. I enjoy concerts more, I just have a better time these days because I guess I got used to the job, at first it didn’t feel completely…like I’m not really an extrovert, I don’t think I was born to be on stage, I just love records so much…

BYT: It’s just kind of something you have to do to do what you love…

MC: Yeah! Yeah, you know, I was just so obsessed with records that the ultimate would be to make my own. And now I really love concerts and touring and the whole thing, I think we’re the same, but more comfortable.

BYT: If you weren’t doing this though, what would you do?

MC: I worked at a couple record stores, those were the jobs I loved. I was a temp for a long time, I hated it, but it paid well, for a lot of our recording and records and stuff. I used to be a writer/editor at Guitar World, you know, the magazine. I loved that, I really miss that job. The only other really obvious thing I could see would be becoming an English teacher at some point.

BYT: So you were an English major?

MC: Yeah, English Literature and Creative Writing. Which is a pretty lame major, and instead of being a double it’s a half and half major. My senior thesis was fifty pages of fiction. And the silly thing about creative writing in college is that there’s not really a right or wrong, even if you’re not very good, you’ll still do well.

BYT: You bounced around a bunch of labels, you started out on Elektra and you’re now on Barsuk. Hasn’t it been frustrating going from label to label? Did you ever consider just producing them yourself?

MC: Yes, it is frustrating, but I find business and music business moderately interesting, as an outsider, but when it comes to our own dealings, I like learning about it, but in terms of our own career it’s just about making the music. Now, we have a very happy home and don’t really have to think about business anymore. But there was a point after we were dropped from Elektra that the only way we could release our second record was if we released it ourselves because they were insisting that if anyone else produced it they would have to pay this huge premium to buy it off them, but they were okay with us self-releasing it. So we put our own little label together, and I enjoyed the experience but I found that I was definitely not psychologically cut out for doing both things. And I really admire people who can, like people in your city like Dischord and Mack from Superchunk with Merge doing his own thing. I really think that that’s very impressive, to keep making records, thinking creatively and doing business. One day, I’d like to maybe put out other people’s records. I wanted to have a re-issue label, but it was pretty much just so that I could put out a record by Big Dipper, one of my favorite bands growing up, but Merge just put out a Big Dipper collection, so I guess I don’t have to.

BYT: You have officially been together since ’92, that’s sixteen years of Nada Surf. And you started in school together…

MC: We met when we were in fourth grade or something, but didn’t start playing together until maybe tenth grade.

BYT: You’re from New York. Does it bother you when you’re compared to West Coast, surf-rock?

MC: I can understand it. We get it partially because of our name. But it’s my own fault, because this band started out as a reaction to another band we were in that was very careerist, and we wanted it (Nada Surf) to be fun. So I gave it whatever name I felt like, which was Nada Surf, and it means like floating around in space; because every time I listen to music I feel like I’m really far off in the sky or something, so that’s the faulty reason. And we like harmonies so much, that could be another reason we get put in that category, so it’s easy to think of really birdsy, you know, the Beach Boys.

To a certain extent it’s nice to be mis-categorized, misunderstood, because then you have to set it straight. People get surprised when they see you live, or learn that you’re from New York.

BYT: I haven’t seen you live before, is your live show a lot different than your albums?

MC: Yes, I think we’re a lot faster, that usually surprises people. We’re a bit more of a Rock band, with a capital R.

BYT: Okay, before you were describing music as almost an out of body experience. If you had to describe it in a phrase, how would you describe it?

MC: Well, I think it’s the most direct route to my imagination. I immediately picture myself somewhere else, as a different person. It’s like dreaming, but awake. And in every art form you’re given some thing and made to imagine the rest, so in a painting you’re given this picture but you’re missing what it feels of smells like or how you’re related to the scene. I think music goes to your subconscious faster than other art-forms. It’s more physical. The rhythm; the way you breathe, you walk at a certain speed, your heart beats at a certain speed. You know, you’re up you’re down. There are these cycles all over the place; just the way you jiggle your leg, there’s a rhythm there. I think music just makes you feel things physically faster than other art-forms.

So much for a phrase, but If they put on a show that’s anything like what he described music being like for him, it should be an experience worth remembering.

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9:30 club with The Jealous Girlfriends & Delta Spirit, Friday. 8pm $20

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