A tidal wave of nostalgia
American rockers are back in Scotland with a new album.. and a host of great memories
AMERICAN alternative rockers Nada Surf have been together for nearly three decades.
The group, who had a huge hit in the 90s with Popular, are back with a new album, Never Not Together, and a stunning single, So Much Love.
Singer and guitarist Matthew Caws, bassist Daniel Lorca, drummer Ira Elliot and former touring keyboardist Louie Lino, who is now a full-time member, will be in Glasgow next month.
Here Matthew tells us how the group keep riding the wave.
Do you remember your first gig in Scotland? I’m pretty sure it was King Tut’s in ’96 or ’97. We’ve played there a lot and I do remember a couple of instances of guilt that our voices were a little shot because, more often than not, we’d have played in Manchester the night before and gone out after the show.
But I take better care of my voice now. I’ve learned not to talk loudly after a show, no matter where I am.
The audience has always been incredible in Scotland, right from the beginning. Any Scottish connections with any of you? Apparently some of my
forebears come from the Isle of Skye. I know that ancestry is like an inverted pyramid and the further back you go, the more ancestors you have, so my mom is exaggerating when she says flat out “I’m Scottish”, but she says it because she’s so proud.
I feel that too. I like to think that I’m Scottish in some part. I did feel as I walked around that more people looked vaguely like my family than in other places. Any Scots musicians you are inspired by? I really love Teenage Fanclub. Some of my friends love the Blue Nile so much that I’ve started listening to them too. There are many more, but the Fannies are No1 for me. You are back again next month. Will you get a chance to explore? One surprisingly good way to get the feel of a place is to go looking for a launderette. You always end up in a real neighbourhood. It’s been 28 years since you and Daniel formed the band. What’s the secret? We have so much great history together. In terms of any disagreements (inevitable in a relationship that long), you have to be tolerant and forgiving. We’re like family at this point. You are an American but have lived in Cambridge for a decade. What do you make of Brexit? Brexit breaks my heart. My older son and I visited World War I sites in Belgium and northern France a couple of years ago, and I wish every Brexiteer could visit those graveyards and see that alltoo-real physical underlining of what a miracle peace in Europe is – and how any union, however symbolic, is worth keeping at almost any cost.
Never Not Together sounds like a title we all need to live our lives by at the moment. Can you explain what you wanted to do? Was it to switch off or help stave off the c *** we are dealing with? It’s not exactly that we wanted to help listeners switch off, it’s that we wanted to try to help put them in touch with energy and inner strength that would help them deal with said c***.
But music is definitely an escape, and we’re happy to provide that too.
I don’t write overtly political tunes often. I did, however, write a very overtly political song last year called Song for Congress, which we released as a standalone single. What was the inspiration behind current single So Much Love? The inspiration was a sense that, despite bad actors having a disproportionate effect on the world we live in,
there’s actually an abundance of goodwill all around us.
Look at something as simple as the way people drive. A few drive aggressively but the vast majority of us want safety for ourselves and for everyone.
Despite the song coming to me very quickly (at a friend’s suggestion that I write a song with that title because it’s how I sign my emails), I tweaked a few details for quite a long time.
Will it be another four years before the next album?
I can’t make any promises but I don’t imagine it will be another four years. One every two or three years is our usual rhythm, but I got married and my wife and I had a baby, and I took some extra time to be present for that.
Never Not Together is out today. Nada Surf play Glasgow’s Saint Luke’s on March 15.