I waited until walking Matthew Caws out of the studio, after recording with him for nearly an hour, to ask him the deeply biased first question that came to my mind about his band, Nada Surf: “What does it feel like to have a direct line on people’s tear ducts, and to watch people just fall apart in front of you when you’re singing your songs?” (To be clear, I am people.) The music Caws has made leading the band Nada Surf over three decades and now 10 studio albums is failsafe emotive singalong – weep-along? – indie rock, thanks to incredible group chemistry and the songwriting plus vocal register of this heart-on-his-sleeve front man.
Caws and bandmates Daniel Lorca (bass), Ira Elliott (drums) and Louie Lino (keys) laid down the 11 tracks that make up Moon Mirror, their new LP and first on the New West label, at Rockford Studios in Wales after doing some jamming to work out compositions (“to make them feel good to all of us”) at Lorca’s place in Ibiza. But the first fragments of these songs were born in the early morning hours Caws spent for a couple of months dedicated to writing, setting an alarm for 5:00 or 5:30 a.m. in an attempt to beat the inner critic that might otherwise thwart his creativity later.
“Usually what the inner critic uses as fuel is ‘I could’ve started a couple hours earlier’ – there’s always a little guilt and shame about timing and stuff,” he said. “But what I found was that really early in the morning, that critic was asleep. I can’t have wasted the day, there’s been no day! It’s before the before. So it was really freeing.”
Lyrically, the results rang as authentic and true to who and where he is right now, which is “a good place.”
“I think I used to write more about romantic struggles because I was looking for happiness. But now I’m really happy and settled in my life so I’m trying to look OUT more,” said the married father of two, who splits time both in the U.S. and abroad.
And yet, a Nada Surf record must poke and prod at the heart, to ask questions and implore self-discovery within its listeners, as forever modeled by Caws. “I’m drawn back to trying to figure myself out because I don’t live as efficiently as I should and I’m always trying to figure out what’s going on in there,” he said. As proof of this continual struggle, he admitted that the album’s first single “In Front of Me Now” was inspired by a minor tragedy of attempted multi-tasking…and also written while driving. (META!)
Caws played that song plus Moon Mirror standouts “Second Skin” and “New Propeller” – and a 2002 record Let Go fan favorite, “Blizzard of ’77,” by request – at WNXP. He told stories of his gifted 1960 Gibson guitar, and of being a (for better or worse) Very Online Guy who has indulged in political arguments 1:1 with trolls that might just soften when treated with humanity, civility and “calm.”
The artist described his editing process, of finding the place where “the spell breaks” and you might lose a listener within a song, and deciding right there to cut or revise. We also wondered aloud why it is so much easier to cry on airplanes, and Caws recalled his somewhat satirical ‘90s track list philosophy that gives credence to the sequencing on Moon Mirror.
Listen to our conversation and the solo acoustic in-studio performances here and on WNXP’s podcast channel. Fingers and toes crossed, Nada Surf will extend their Moon Mirror tour and stop back in Nashville with the full band in 2025.