Songwriting is one of those activities that’s hard even if you’re bad at it. Putting words to music in a semi-coherent fashion isn’t exactly something you can toss off in a matter of minutes — unless your standards are ridiculously low, I suppose.
Try to write a song that’s actually good, and the challenge multiplies by several factors.
Now do it consistently for nearly three decades.
I’d call it an impossible task if not for bands like Nada Surf, who dropped their first power-pop bomb (albeit a grungier example) with 1996’s “Popular” and have kept right on doing it right through the recently released Moon Mirror — the centerpiece of the group’s Friday afternoon Studio Milwaukee Session.
As you navigate Nada Surf’s catalog, you get constant examples of their ability to supply more hooks than a Bass Pro Shop. Starting with that first splashy single and continuing on tracks like “Imaginary Friends” and “Jules and Jim” and “So Much Love,” they keep figuring out ways to grab the listener. A perfectly timed power chord, a soaring chorus, a verse that switches up the pacing just enough for you to take notice — all reliable tools the band deployed on Moon Mirror and during Friday’s acoustic session prior to that night’s show at Vivarium.
We’ve been spinning “In Front of Me Now” regularly on 88Nine, and even with Matthew Caws flying solo on acoustic guitar, the song’s rat-a-tat verses and life-goals chorus ("Today, I do what's in front of me now") still stirred up the audience in our performance space. That started before the song’s first note, as Caws shared a story about the sitcom-level domestic gaffe that inspired it.
You can hear the full story using the player at the top of the page, but just know that it involved attempting to vacuum and run a bath at the same time, leading to some minor flooding and major self-examination.
“A couple days later, I can’t shake it, and I think to myself, ‘You know what? I’m going to make a promise to myself to only do one thing at a time. No more multitasking,’” Caws explained. “Now, it hasn’t really worked. It helped a little bit. And, ironically, I wrote this song while driving, so not a great start. But we do what we can.”
What Caws did with just his voice and a guitar is well worth listening to here, and make sure you’re in the room for our next Studio Milwaukee Session by becoming a Radio Milwaukee member. The good news is you won’t need to wait long: Hotline TNT will be here this Saturday for a special weekend performance ahead of their show at Cactus Club.
Studio MKE: Nada Surf set list
- “In Front of Me Now”
- “Intel and Dreams”
- “Blizzard of ’77”
- “Come Get Me” (non-broadcast performance)
