Matthew Caws (Nada Surf) on giving yourself permission to be creative – Attention Engineer Episode 50

Matthew Caws (Nada Surf) on giving yourself permission to be creative – Attention Engineer Episode 50


📖 Read the episode transcript

🎁 Get my FREE 12-track album + 31-page zine


Matthew Caws has been playing guitar, singing and writing songs in Nada Surf since 1994. He is one half of Minor Alps with Juliana Hatfield. He’s from New York City but currently lives in Cambridge, England. Find out more at nadasurf.com.

Nada Surf’s new EP “Cycle Through” is out now, a companion piece to their 2020 album “Never Not Together”. They’re on tour in the US in November 2021 and Europe and the UK in 2022 – get tickets here.

Find and follow Nada Surf on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook.

In this conversation, we discuss:

  • how anxiety gets in the way of songwriting
  • the anomaly of artists being financially successful
  • what it’s like listening to the music you made a long time ago
  • how to keep writing interesting material when you’re happily married
  • ageing with your audience – when your existence is a mirror to their years gone by
  • John Cleese’s 90 minute creativity rule

Matthew’s song suggestions:




NEXT

Thank you for visiting!

🎁 Tap to get your FREE 12-track album + 31-page PDF zine of stories, photographs and artwork here.

🏠 My new Penfriend album “House Of Stories” is available to order NOW on super limited vinyl, CDs and KiT hybrid digital albums, with accompanying tees, hoodies and books. Get two songs in your inbox immediately, with another every month til the release date in April (before anyone else).

❤️ Join The Correspondent’s Club on Patreon to receive quarterly bundles of art and members-only music plus extra perks + immediate access to my entire digital archive (digital and analogue memberships available)

🎸 Listen to my first Penfriend album “Exotic Monsters” and browse my back catalogue here.

🎨 If you make things too – or want to know more about the creative process – I’m sharing thoughtful weekly essays here on my experiments in art, music and life on Substack (and I won’t be at all offended if you prefer to read my stuff there rather than on this absolutely gorgeous website).

💬 Chat with me on BlueskyTwitterInstagram and Facebook.

See you soon xo



PS yes, my songs are available everywhere else you listen to music online.
Just search for Penfriend, She Makes War and Obey Robots.

You could even subscribe here to send a message to the algorithm overlords that Penfriend rocks!

Better still ⤵️

Share this:
Podcast

One comment

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *