Oh, right, right. No, that wasn’t really intentional. We didn’t really think about it, we just wanted to do it different, because we were asked to do a song for that Pixies record, and I love the Pixies so much that at first I didn’t want to do it, because it feels wrong, and also, how could you not fall flat on your face? They’re so great, we were going to do that song and their version is just so perfect. I didn’t want to do a rock version because there would be no point, so I guess that was just an effort to take it somewhere else. But I don’t think that we’re going to get into that kind of thing right now. I mean, we would if it felt natural, but I don’t have the urge at the moment. I mean, I listen to electronic music sometimes, but I’ve been working at a record store near my house just a couple of days a week, which is great, that’s always been my favorite kind of job, because I just buy a lot of used records off of people that come into the store and then I just listen to everything, so I save a lot of money that way, but I’ve just been recently going through a period where I don’t listen to very much electronic music at all. Because I have to play a lot of stuff for people that want to hear a lot of trance and techno and house, and I’ve just been listening more and more to really old, old music. So anyway, no, false alarm on the electronica there.
You used to be a writer yourself and you wrote for some pretty big magazines, so have you been keeping busy in that respect at all?
A little bit, sort of. I guess in the last couple of years I’ve done some freelance stuff for Guitar World and for the daily newspaper in Madrid, Spain. Daniel translated the first few interviews I did and now they’ve been translating them there. I haven’t done much, but it’s been a lot of fun, I did some really strange ones. I interviewed Radiohead right after OK Computer came out. Lou Reed, that was pretty strange. It was weird talking to someone whose voice you listen to so much, that was kind of spooky. And then, Beastie Boys, Jon Spencer, Boss Hog…
And this has all been post-record deal?
Yeah, I did that in the last few years. Pearl Jam… I’ve been doing it a little bit, and I wish I did it more, it’s not like I don’t have the time, it’s a question of energy. Are you a good multi-tasker?
Maybe. I don’t think so. I’m basically doing this just because I love writing and I’ve been lucky enough to have a pretty easy schedule at school, so I can write things pretty much as often as I want.
That’s great.
But I tend to really belabor things, so it takes a while.
Me too, me too. Have you read Let It Blurt? It’s the Lester Bangs biography. It’s unbelievably good, it’s really fantastic. I don’t know if you’ve… have you read Lester Bangs’ stuff?
No, but I just saw “Almost Famous,” so I’ve become intrigued.
Well, he has this book called Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung, a strange title, but it’s a collection of his writings and it’s really, really amazing, but Let It Blurt, the biography is very good as well, and I don’t know why I’m talking about this. Oh, we were talking about belaboring things, but it’s amazing to read about how this guy would write, he just whipped everything off so fast, and it’s so good. He should have been a great novelist or something, but he just happened to write about rock and roll. There was a guy who was writing a book about Blondie, and he was having a lot of trouble and spending like three months, and he’d only written like a chapter and he was freaking out, so he asked Lester to help him out, and Lester, in one weekend, just wrote the whole thing! Literally like two days. Bang-- book. (Laughs) I mean, he did a lot of drugs along the way, which helped and hindered him.
I haven’t read much of what you’ve written; I can’t find it, really.
Oh, me? It’s not that great I’ve just done little…
I did read a little Rentals blurb.
Oh, yeah, that was a long time ago.
It was just because some Rentals site archived it, and I was like “oh, Matthew Caws,” and it was very short, but it was very succinct, it told a lot.
Well, that’s good, I’m glad.
I wish you would write more. Just selfishly, I’d like to be able to listen to Nada Surf and read something that you write every month.
Right, right. Do you write as well, non-music stuff?
Yeah, I’ve been doing features, sort of stuff that goes on. The way that our paper works is that people would kind of start out doing music reviews, because like a CD review you could just bang out and you can see what they’re capable of. So I did that at first, and then I moved into features, and then this year I’ve got a sort of higher editorial position and it’s kept me from doing any kind of 600 word things every week, so this year I’ve been getting way back into music, which is nice, actually because it’s been a much better year for music with your band and Superdrag and all of these good bands kind of, at least on a small label scene, returning.
Yeah, the new Superdrag record is really good.
Yeah. Do you guys ever plan to tour together?
We sort of thought about it, we’d like to. Because we used to tour together a lot, we did a couple of months together. And now the guy that’s putting out their new record is like a down home friend of mine from Brooklyn a few blocks down, we’re just neighborhood buddies.
Arena Rock should just be home to all of the major label spurned bands.
I know, seriously.
What are your plans for new releases?
I’m kind of torn right now because there’s the holidays coming and we tend to have to split up over the Christmas kind of period, and there’s playing more shows in the States, which we need to do, and there’s making new records, so these three things need to be arranged somehow. I’m not sure quite where the priorities are, like right now I’m torn between just going right home after this tour and immediately working on a new record or trying to do more shows. I’d kind of like to do more shows because we had to skip a lot of cities on this tour and I kind of want to do it again and plug in the gaps.
But that requires being away from home a lot longer.
Yeah, but that’s all right. After all this time, I’m kind of dying to do the States thoroughly.
I, and I think everyone else at the Troubadour noticed that you didn’t play “Popular.” Not that that was a critical error or anything, but is there worry that you’ll only be remembered on a larger scale for that one song?
No, I mean by some people we’ll only be remembered for that one song, but that’s fine. On this tour we happen not to have been playing it, even up to two months ago and the shows we were doing in Europe, we usually always play it, but I guess lately we’re trying to do more new songs so, I don’t know, I hadn’t really thought about it very much. I still like playing it a lot; I think it’s funny.
Because, speaking of Radiohead and Superdrag, they don’t play “Creep” or “Sucked Out” anymore, and it seems to be more of a decision.
Right. Yeah, maybe we’ve made a subconscious decision, but I don’t know. Maybe when we come back we'll play it, but who knows, maybe we have a chip on our shoulder and don’t even realize it and just want people to be into the new record.
By Casey Lombardo
Long Beach Union
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