But once recorded, for their post-grunge 1996 debut High/Low, (helmed by Weezer producer Ric Ocasek) it became a massive chart hit that entirely overshadowed the album. “We just had to go around the country playing that song,” says Caws, bored even by the memory.”Popular” was a geek-rock needle in a blistering, alt.rock haystack. And although it was completely unrepresentative of the band, it came to define them It was also their undoing. Keen to cash in, the label, Elektra, now hoped for an album’s worth of “Populars”. “They wanted quiet verses, dotted with cultural references, followed by giant 20-guitar choruses with funny lines about high school,” he says.When, with album number two, The Proximity Effect, the band didn’t – or rather, refused to – deliver, Nada Surf were unceremoniously dropped.”It would have been nice for the record to have come out on time,” says Caws, still smarting from the experience. “Everything was going in such a good direction – it was a logical, rational career path – and then it got completely messed up, sending us off on a huge tangent where I think most bands would have broken up.”A frustrating waiting game followed as Nada Surf fought Elektra for their album. “We could have made another record, but we really thought this second one was good.

We wanted it to come out, we wanted to tour it,” he says passionately. Instead of moving on, the band took odd jobs (Caws in a record shop) and, well, waited.But far from seeing this enforced hiatus as a low point, in retrospect Caws is very positive about this period; even describing it as a luxury. For the first time, since “Popular”, he had the space to write music unfettered “Just having no one watching is a pleasure,” he says. “If you’re a solid career band, you don’t have those moments of freedom. It was nice.”When, after more than two years, Elektra finally let Nada Surf have their album, the three-piece released it themselves and, in their excitement, set off on a self-financed US tour.

In terms of sales, The Proximity Effect was not a patch on High/Low (and spawned no hits), but it was moderately well received The band were now ready to move on. Freed from the weight of expectation, and with a little help from their friends’ studios, they slowly set about recording Let Go, their third and best album to date.”Looking back, I like that our third album was written from a real-life perspective – not from the perspective of someone riding in a bus, playing festivals. No one was expecting it or asking for it,” says Caws, as though he still can’t believe the warped luck that has come his way. “Because our career had gone so pear-shaped, there was no pressure to keep playing any one kind of music. It was like making a first album,” he says.Melody is still “super, crazy, important,” to the band but this new freedom gave Nada Surf the chance to try something new. “Before, we’d been scared to pare things down, which is silly We thought our music had to rock It was a new thing for us to have a light touch,” he says.