Nada Surf Share ‘New Propeller’ Video
Nada Surf | Photo Credit: Paloma Bomé
Nada Surf returns with their anticipated new LP, Moon Mirror, on 13th September via New West Records. The 11-song set was produced by the band with Ian Laughton (Supergrass, Ash) and recorded at the legendary Rockfield Studios in Monmouthshire, Wales. Moon Mirror is Nada Surf’s first album in four years and marks the 30th anniversary of their debut single, ‘The Plan’/’Telescope’.
A thrilling and moving leap forward for the band, Moon Mirror is true to the human experience—as meaningful and mysterious and sometimes absurd as it is. These new songs thrum with love, grief, deep loneliness, doubt, wonder, and hope. There is hard-won wisdom and hard-won belief in possibility. It has everything fans love and expect from the band: play-on-repeat heart punches, poetic and thought-provoking musings on the world around them, and bittersweet anthems that begin quietly but explode into soaring harmonies.
Today, Nada Surf released the video for the album highlight ‘New Propeller‘ which was directed by Mark Pellington (The Mothman Prophecies). . Matthew Caws says the song is “a rumination on changes. It’s probable that during most years, most decades, we’ve felt that the present is peeling away from the past, that things are taking a new turn, sometimes a darker one. That ‘things are different now’ These last years have been no exception. It feels obvious to say that things are changing faster than ever, but they really are. AI is a new frontier that is raising so many questions, and it’s undeniable that we’re in a different political world than we were a few years ago. Mark Pellington helped us explore the murky waters of the present with our ‘Just Wait’ video in 2021 and now he’s helping us again.” Pellington says, “We filmed real people affected by this new world — working, living, reading, teaching, with images as metaphor, abstraction and as cryptic remnants of progress, exploring issues of nature vs. consumerism, nostalgia, the cost of progress and perhaps the eternal quest for connection and simplicity joy.” Caws adds, “It’s unavoidable that parts of our lives will change, and some parts may be erased, but I feel hopeful knowing that as long as we have each other and keep a sense of community, we’ll be able to live out our days feeling alive and present.”
Share Nada Surf’s ‘New Propeller’ video directed by Mark Pellington
The band previously released the video for the first single, ‘In Front of Me Now,’ a heartfelt warning against sleepwalking through the one life we have. With “In Front of Me Now,” Nada Surf returned to a Billboard airplay chart for the first time in 28 years, debuting in the top 40 at AAA Radio. The band’s last radio chart appearance was their breakout hit “Popular,” from their debut album in 1996. “Why wasn’t I present?” frontman Matthew Caws asks himself. “I could have been living.” On the chorus he promises himself, “Today I do what’s in front of me now.” Of the Neilson Hubbard & Joshua Britt-directed video for the song, Caws said “We know the pandemic is over, but we made a Covid-era video to save on gas. Made on location (i.e. where we live) in Cambridge, England, Sarasota, Florida, Ibiza, Spain, and Austin, Texas, we bring you ‘In Front of Me Now,’ my diary of not being a great multi-tasker and wanting to be present for everything from now on if possible.”
Caws says, “Every time we make an album, I’m asked (and ask myself) what it’s about. I never know how to answer that question. I’m still trying to figure everything out, and that’s probably as close to a theme as there is. Looking back over the years, I know what our songs are about in theory: trying to reach acceptance (of circumstances, of oneself, of others), connection, a constant search for possibility and the bright side, a willingness to change, forgiveness, curiosity, checking in with one’s mortality, motivations and judgements, etc. But in the moment when making one up, I have no idea what I’m doing and maybe that’s ok. I’m just trying to stay honest with myself and take my best guess at making sense of the world.”
Long hailed as a must-see live act, Nada Surf has announced the first legs of their 2024 Moon Mirror world tour. Beginning on 2nd October in Washington, DC, the US tour features an appearance at the When We Were Young Festival in Las Vegas, where they will perform their 2002 fan favourite Let Go in its entirety. Supporting the US dates will be their New West labelmates, the acclaimed New Zealand-based indie-rock band Office Dog. The European leg of the tour will launch on November 14 in Madrid. Please see tour dates, with more to be added, below.
Nada Surf formed in New York City in 1992 and released their debut single, ‘The Plan’/’Telescope’ in 1994. They signed to Elektra Records and released their first full-length High/Low in 1996. Produced by Ric Ocasek of the Cars, High/Low was an instant hit based on the massive success of its lead single “Popular,” but the band truly hit its stride in the 2000s, starting with the release of 2002’s Let Go. Anthemic, catchy, yet emotionally knotty, that album won them new fans and greater acclaim, and they built on both with each subsequent release, including 2005’s melancholic The Weight Is a Gift and the bone-raw The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy. Rather than summarise their celebrated career with a traditional greatest hits package, on 2016’s Peaceful Ghosts they recorded some of their most popular songs alongside the Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg, one of the only remaining film orchestras in Western Europe.
For most of the band’s thirty years, Nada Surf has had the same core lineup: Matthew Caws (vocals, guitar), Daniel Lorca (bass, vocals), and Ira Elliot (drums). On Moon Mirror, they are joined by their friend and longtime collaborator, Louie Lino.
Nada Surf’s Moon Mirror will be available across digital platforms, on compact disc, and standard black vinyl. A limited 2-LP Moon Mirror (Reflection) - Deluxe Edition will be available on ‘Galaxy Splatter’ colour vinyl and features a bonus LP including 10 original demos for the album recorded by Matthew Caws. The Deluxe Edition will also be available as a limited 2-CD version as well. A limited Opaque Jade colour vinyl edition including an orange flexi disc single featuring an exclusive, unreleased recording will be available via Rough Trade. A limited coke bottle clear colour vinyl edition will be available via Independent Retailers worldwide. Moon Mirror is available for pre-order NOW via New West Records.
Moon Mirror track listing:
1. Second Skin
2. In Front of Me Now
3. Moon Mirror
4. Losing
5. Intel and Dreams
6. The One You Want
7. New Propeller
8. Open Seas
9. X Is You
10. Give Me the Sun
11. Floater
Nada Surf on tour:
July 3 - Saint-Malô-du-Bois (Nantes), FR - Poupet Festival
August 2 - Crozon, FR - Bout du Monde Festival
August 3 - Olivenza, ES - Contempopranea Festival
October 2 - Washington, DC - Atlantis *
October 3 - Philadelphia, PA - Underground Arts *
October 4 - New York, NY - Webster Hall *
October 5 - Boston, MaA- The Paradise *
October 7 - Montreal, QC - Le Studio TD *
October 8 - Toronto, ONT - The Great Hall *
October 9 - Detroit, MI - El Club *
October 10 - Chicago, IL - Thalia Hall *
October 11 - Milwaukee, WI - Vivarium *
October 12 - Minneapolis, MN - Fine Line *
October 15 - Seattle, WA - The Crocodile *
October 16 - Portland, OR - Wonder Ballroom *
October 18 - San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall *
October 19 - Las Vegas, NV - When We Were Young Festival
October 20 - Las Vegas, NV - When We Were Young Festival
October 21 - Solana Beach, CA - Belly Up *
October 22 - Los Angeles, CA - Teragram Ballroom ~
October 23 - West Hollywood, CA - The Troubadour *
November 14 - Madrid, ES - La Riviera
November 15 - Bilbao, ES - Kafe Antzokia
November 16 - Zaragoza, ES - Las Armas
November 21 - Dublin, IE - Academy
November 22 - Manchester, UK - Gorilla
November 23 - London, UK - Islington Academy
November 24 - Luxembourg - Den Atelier
November 25 - Amsterdam, NL - Melkweg
November 26 - Brussels, BE - Botanique
November 27 - Cologne, DE - Carlswerk Victoria
November 29 - Paris, FR - Bataclan
November 30 - Lille, FR - Aeronef
December 1 - Hamburg, DE - Markthalle
December 2 - Berlin, DE - Metropol
December 3 - Munich, DE - Backstage Werk
December 4 - Vienna, AT - Arena
December 6 - Zurich, CH - Dynamo
December 7 - Milan, IT - Santeria Social Club
December 8 - Clermont-Ferrand, FR - La Cooperative de Mai
* support from Office Dog
~ support from Blair Gun
