Image Credit: Autumn de WildeToday is the day for all you Nada Surf fans to dash out to your local independent record stores and pick up a copy of if i had a hi-fi! The venerable trio has compiled a collection of covers from unexpected artists like Depeche Mode (“Enjoy the Silence”) and Kate Bush (“Love and Anger”), all handled in characteristic peppy-pop style. There are some inside jokes, too, like Spoon’s “The Agony of Laffitte,” an ode to the end of days at Elektra Records — and a couple of disappointing executives Nada Surf themselves knew all too well.

We sat down with frontman Matthew Caws backstage at Sasquatch(!) over Memorial Day weekend to get his thoughts on reinterpreting the work of others, as well as discovering the unexpected upside — now seen clearly in hindsight — of being dropped by a major label after one really popular song.

Entertainment Weekly: So why a covers record?
Matthew Caws: Because Louie Lino, our keyboard player, couldn’t come on our final tour for Lucky. He’d just built this recording studio in Austin, and he really needed to get it off the ground. And during the course of the 30-second conversation we had about this, like, “Can you do this tour?” “No,” I was like, “Is there anything we can do?” And he said, “Well, you could make a record here. That would help.” So I suggested a covers record, and then we went down there last September for three weeks and did it. Secretly, I wanted to avoid the eight-ball of coming home from tour for a while. Cause it’s not like we’re on this super tight album-tour-record-album-tour-record schedule — but kinda. I mean, I have other parts of my life, too, as an adult. The intent was to do it quick, cheap, without worrying too much. None of this happened. We took it as seriously as an album of our own. I think we just have one gear.

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