An interview with Nada Surf

It seems their major 1996 hit Popular has finally subsided in the musical horizon as a pesky nuisance of Nada Surf’s existence. The Line of Best Fit caught up with the senior Brooklyn band’s drummer (Ira Elliot) to discuss the direction of the new album Lucky before a San Francisco acoustic show. We also discussed how the band argued over the album title and the constant appeal of acoustic shows for the band. Elliot proved to be a helpful “ambassador” for some questions that were geared more towards lead singer/songwriter, Matthew Caws. He also hints at the possibility of a vinyl box set of all five Nada Surf albums in the near future.

What do you think the appeal is for you guys as far as live acoustic shows?
Well, Matthew is already getting to the point where if he had his choice he would be doing the acoustic shows rather than the electric ones. At this point, it’s better. They are certainly easier in terms of carrying equipment around. Sound check is much faster. The quiet guitar, bass, and percussion format just brings out the song and the words better. The harmony is especially brought out.

It’s great practice for us because when it’s loud it’s much harder to sing harmonies and get the pitch right. All that kind of gets lost in an electric production. Acoustic shows tend to bring out the more personal elements of our songs.

It seems like the band is returning to its primordial roots as far as the genesis of each album when you perform songs acoustically.
Yes and no. A lot of rehearsals were done both ways. Some were just out of convenience. I can grab a percussion box and go over to Matthew’s house and do some arrangements work. There were a number of times when it was easier to just do that. We couldn’t have a full band rehearsal so we just did that. Then you can juggle with things by saying: “well if the bass line is going to be this then this part is going to be this.”

There were both though electric and acoustic. In Daniel’s large apartment in Williamsburg we could set up and play in the afternoons for hours and hours without bothering anyone. So in that sense we had our own Monkees type of rehearsal space.

So do you all live close by each other?
We’re close. Our entire places sort of center Daniel’s apartment in Williamsburg. He’s kept that apartment there for 17 years. He never lives there anymore though. He stays with his girlfriend mostly. Friends stay there and sublet it though. It’s a pretty big space too, like 1,800 square feet or some shit. I lived there for a year which was about the same time we were making The Weight is A Gift. I kind of lost track of the time. Just when we started the touring for that album I moved in there after my divorce. It was the ultimate bachelor’s pad. I liked the neighborhood so much I moved with my girlfriend up the street. I live about four blocks down on the same street. Matthew lives about six blocks south from there.

Between albums there’s been a considerable amount of downtime. I was just wondering what you do to past the time?
I don’t do much. I’m like Mr. Bad Example. I have no hobbies. I don’t like sports. I don’t collect anything besides a few guitars. I’m a super slacker during those times. If there’s nothing to do and I don’t have to do anything then that’s what I will do. I’ll do the wake n’ bake or lie around the house and watch bad movies on TNT. I’m a couch television guy. I’m very sedentary. I’m an underachiever. I’m lucky that I have this excellent job to support my ultimate laziness.

Why the album title, Lucky?
Clearly the album title at first glance looks like we’re talking about ourselves and that is in fact true but it’s more than that. It was a general reflection on Matthew. I’m speaking for Matthew on this because to be honest with you Daniel and I argued with him about the title of the album. It was a long debate. The actual original album art was going to be a flamed email debate as to the various merits of demerits of this particular title. The cover was going to have text all over it. The bottom line we thought the record will speak for itself. There was a lot of back and forth and Matthew was very firm about. In the end we gave the title to him. He wrote all the songs anyway so he can call it what the hell he wants.

For Matthew the album title really had to do with the reflection he had about the general nature of his life at the time. I think he gets stuck on words that appeal to him and lucky was one of those words. It talks about how it has to deal with a state of mind. You can choose to look at the negative things in your life or you can choose to look at the positive things. It’s kind of a state of optimism really. Daniel says that he doesn’t believe in luck at all because it sounds like a superstition in a way.

So there was a debate in the band which was good because it opens it up for a lot of different people. That’s why we ended asking people to write in. We put up a thing on Myspace asking people to send in a sentence or paragraph about your relationship with that word. People sent in all kinds of stuff. There were a lot of people that said we don’t believe in luck. Then people said I’m lucky because I have a great family or friends. Or I’m lucky because my dad was in the hospital and now he’s okay. All these unbelievable stories came in. In fact my mom was one of the very first people to send in a reply. She’s not credited but one of the little blurbs on the sleeve is my mom. Years ago when we put up a link to be a part of the street team when those were done more she signed up immediately. “Yeah, I’ll put up posters around Arizona.” “I’ll put up two posters in Tucson.” She wanted to go sell T-shirts for us. So lucky is basically about positivism really.

I noticed there are definite themes of death on the album but not in the morbid sense they are usually presented in.
Yeah, ‘See These Bones’ is the primary example. We talk about death in ‘The Film Did Not Go ‘Round’ but we didn’t write that. You would think ‘See These Bones’ would be morbid since you are looking at a room full of bones. The song was taken from this monk’s crypt in Italy. That moment looks at that moment as a place to reaffirm your life. The bones are sort of saying, “look at us, you’re going to end up exactly like we are. There’s not doubt about it. You’re just going to be a pile of old bones.” We call you from the past to live. It’s a scary and harsh reality but its reality. That reminds me of friends over the years that seem to be motivated by death. They say stuff like, “come on man we got to do it because one day we’re going to be dead.”

The friend I am thinking of was like that because his parents died when he was really young. It has to do with your relationship to death. Very few people around me have died. My parents are still alive. I lost my grandparents but very few people very close to me have died. So you definitely get a different relationship to death as people leave your life. I think that experience of being in that crypt and hearing that phrase, “where we are now you will be and what you are we were once.” It’s beautiful in a way.

As far as Matthew becoming a father it seems there is a lot of life in the album as well. The polarity of that situation reminds me of Matthew’s infatuation with flying and how it seems like a great concept but you aren’t grounded anywhere.
This keeps coming up too. In ‘Whose Authority’ he makes the comment that I have no authority over myself. I’m proud to be speaking on his behalf. I feel like his ambassador.

The three of us our atheists so we don’t believe in a God but I kind of think it would be nice to have to answer to somebody. I don’t believe in anyone but it would be nice to have someone guiding you or telling you what to do. Maybe that would make things easier. To surrender yourself and have an authority to answer to is interesting. I think there’s an attraction and repulsion to this idea at the same time.

It’s a double-edged thing. You want to fly but if you do you might crash into something. You don’t one great thing without sacrificing something else. There’s always this yin yang thing going on in all our debates. Basically we’re all neurotic and say, “Oh, I really want this great thing but it’s going to come back and get me.” Karma is another concept we like to talk about.

You guys have been together for quite awhile. I was wondering why you think that’s the case.
It’s a number of things I think. Yes, we’re good friends but we do well as individuals as well. It gets harder and harder since we know each other so much. When somebody starts telling a story we usually know how it’s going to end. It’s like friends you have since your childhood. You put up with them for some degree just because of the history. Luckily there are months out of the year we won’t see each other at all if it becomes strained. Now that is important when we have time off. Matthew is the most reclusive and then it’s me. Daniel is the most social. He tends to be the one who is throwing a party. We have enough time apart where we don’t drive each other completely mad. The other thing is that we enjoy making music together. It’s like that teenager thing when you just want to be in a band. Pick up an instrument and turn up the volume. It’s still just as satisfying as when we started doing this. We don’t want to let it go. We’ve soldiered through a lot of stuff. Just the fact that we went through so many crazy experiences together keep us together too. We did a tour in the depths of Italy where we had to rewire the entire PA system. We had booked an acoustic tour like this but they expected us to play electric when the crowd showed up. We ended up borrowing all this gear.

We were in the army together in a way. That forms a solidarity that is hard to get around. I think we are sort of marveling at this too now. We’re lucky. Five records in. That in and of itself is fucking mind-blowing. I can lay them out on the table. A vinyl record here and EP there. Maybe I shouldn’t say this but we’re thinking of putting out a box set of all five records on vinyl. That’s exciting that you can see your career as a physical object.

As far as the last two albums you seem to have a lot of contributors. Have you ever thought of adding another member to the band?
There was quite a bit of conversation in the last few weeks/ months stemming from the fact that the last two albums have been full of other things like cellos from our friend Phil. We’ve had great success in the past as a trio. We cover a lot of ground that way and the shows really sound good. For various shows we have people come in and help us play keyboards or piano and that always sounds fantastic. So the question always comes up as to whether we ask a fourth person to come onstage with us. That brings on a whole host of conceptual juggling. You got to ask, “who are you going to get?” Basically it boils down that you need to hire a friend because you don’t want to hire some session cat from L.A. There’s very few people that we know that can do it because they are either in their own bands, have their own careers, or wives and children.

Our friend Louie has production with us over the years and we didn’t even call up him we called up his wife to ask if he could come out on the road with us. We knew he would say yes. She gave him the greenlight so we had him for three weeks. We have a friend up in Canada who is very talented named Howie Beck. He’s a mulit-instrumentalist but he’s got a new record coming out so he’s off the charts.

There is a balance there with three. The trinity. With a fourth person are they standing in the background? Are they behind Matthew? It’s hard to find people that are going to do that. Technologically speaking we could conjure up a fourth member with a sampler but it’s not the same all the time. So, yes we would do that but it would have to be the right person. Now I’m, going to get a ton of mail. “I’ll do it. I play maracas like a motherfucker!”

How have you seen the fanbase changing over the years?
I’m happy that the fanbase has gotten larger and wide in terms of age. Our core audience is still college age, about 18-26. That’s who are the biggest music fans. There are kids that are considerably younger that can’t get into shows. We have a lot of all-age shows for that reason. From twelve on that’s when you start digging music. When I’m meeting kids I meet their parents too who their kids turn them onto the music. The dad turns out to be a year younger than me. That’s very satisfying too. I’m about to turn 45 in a couple weeks so its strange and thrilling to see all these average fans that could be my children.

I’m glad we don’t have the same fanbase that we did in 1996 with theses MTV video people. Now we have real music fans. We have this sort of underdog status still since we are on the lower part of the dial. It’s attractive to me.

For the songs like ‘I Like What You Say’ and ‘Are You Lightning’ on the new album do you think Matthew is approaching love in a different way now that he is a married man?
Well he’s actually not married. He had a child though and a new relationship with his girlfriend. The thing with ‘Are You Lightning’ is that that song was written during the last sessions for The Weight is A Gift. It wasn’t finished then but between then and now he doesn’t wonder anymore now that he knows. The ending of the song was put on later after the relationship had started. There was a closure to some of those songs.

He’s definitely grown up a lot. The last couple of years have been a sea change for him with the birth of his child. He’s definitely taking on responsibilities he never thought he was ever going to take on. From the point-of-view of someone who watches his behavior he’s the kind of guy who is cynical of ever decision. He’s a very yes, maybe kind of guy.

He’s become decisive now that he has a kid. There’s always this questioning thing even when his life is really going well. He can’t help but wonder if something is going to come along that’s not amazing. That’s always slinking behind the surface and you hear it on those songs.

The press release for Lucky made it seem that many of the contributors on the album dropped by like they were on “a sitcom.” Was that the case for all of them?
A lot of them were spontaneous drop-ins. When we were recording in Seattle of course Ben Gibbard was there. So if he comes to the studio of course you are going to turn the mikes on and have him go for it (‘See These Bones’) Roderick of The Long Winters also dropped by (‘Ice On the Wing’) and we would have had Chris Walla contribute but he was busy. We had one night with a bunch of people there that we just threw the mikes on and had a big clapping tambourine party. We did all kinds of stuff. For ‘Beautiful Beat’ and ‘Weightless’ Matthew sent the tracks to Ed Harcourt in London and he laid down a piano line that really brought those two songs together.

The one on ‘Beautiful Beat’ is especially great. I had this epiphany that Daniel and I have theme songs on this record. My song was ‘Beautiful Beat’ (though Matthew didn’t write it for me) and Daniel’s song is definitely ‘The Fox.’ It’s the most evocative of his personality. That song wouldn’t be on the record if he hadn’t fought for it. That song was always on Matthew’s B-list but Daniel said he would leave the band if that song wasn’t on the record. He was only really half joking because the tonality of the song was really his kind of thing. He likes things that are dark and creepy. I like things that are bright and poppy. We are always trying to balance those out on albums. It turned out to be a really great late-night song.

I think it’s time for me to leave but give me one more.

What do you think makes this album different from the other records?
I look at this record as a continuation of the last two. We just write what we write and we produce it and there it is. It’s different only because it is a new album and not because we came at it with a different mindset or production style. We tend to do things the same way. We aren’t super adventurous.

mp3:> Nada Surf: ‘These Bones’

Links
Nada Surf [official site] [myspace] [album review] [live review]