Matthew Rorison Caws (born August 5, 1967) is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is best known as the lead vocalist and guitarist of the
alternative rock
Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...
band
Nada Surf
Nada Surf is a New York City-based American alternative rock band formed in the 1990s, consisting of Matthew Caws (guitar, vocals), Ira Elliot (drums), Doug Gillard (guitar, backing vocals), and Daniel Lorca (bass, backing vocals).
History 199 ...
. Caws is also a member of the
indie rock
Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...
duo
Minor Alps
''Get There'' is a studio album collaboration by American singer-songwriter Juliana Hatfield and Matthew Caws (lead singer of the band Nada Surf) under the band name Minor Alps. It was released on October 29, 2013 by Barsuk Records.
Background
...
, alongside
Juliana Hatfield
Juliana Hatfield (born July 27, 1967) is an American musician and singer-songwriter from the Boston area, formerly of the indie rock bands Blake Babies, Some Girls (band), Some Girls, and The Lemonheads. She also fronted her own band, The Julia ...
.
Early life
Caws was born in New York City, the son of
Peter James Caws and
Mary Ann Caws
Mary Ann Caws (born 1933) is an American author, translator, art historian and literary critic.
She is Distinguished Professor Emerita in Comparative Literature, English, and French at the Graduate School of the City University of New York, and ...
. Caws' mother was born and raised in
Wilmington, North Carolina
Wilmington is a port city in and the county seat of New Hanover County in coastal southeastern North Carolina, United States.
With a population of 115,451 at the 2020 census, it is the eighth most populous city in the state. Wilmington is the ...
. His father was born in
Southall
Southall () is a large suburban county of West London, England, part of the London Borough of Ealing and is one of its seven major towns. It is situated west of Charing Cross and had a population of 69,857 as of 2011. It is generally divided ...
,
Middlesex
Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...
. Matthew Caws' parents, both university professors, took
sabbatical
A sabbatical (from the Hebrew: (i.e., Sabbath); in Latin ; Greek: ) is a rest or break from work.
The concept of the sabbatical is based on the Biblical practice of ''shmita'' (sabbatical year), which is related to agriculture. According to ...
s in
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
—in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, and in the
Vaucluse
Vaucluse (; oc, Vauclusa, label= Provençal or ) is a department in the southeastern French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. It had a population of 561,469 as of 2019.[Provence
Provence (, , , , ; oc, Provença or ''Prouvènço'' , ) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east; it is bor ...]
—which helped Matthew develop early skills in
French.
Caws' mother, a Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature, English, and French at the
Graduate Center
The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York (CUNY Graduate Center) is a public research institution and post-graduate university in New York City. Serving as the principal doctorate-granting institution of the C ...
at
CUNY
, mottoeng = The education of free people is the hope of Mankind
, budget = $3.6 billion
, established =
, type = Public university system
, chancellor = Fél ...
,
[is h] lives in New York City. Caws' father, University Professor of Philosophy at
George Washington University
, mottoeng = "God is Our Trust"
, established =
, type = Private federally chartered research university
, academic_affiliations =
, endowment = $2.8 billion (2022)
, preside ...
,
lived in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
Caws' parents divorced in 1987. In 2007, his mother married Dr. Boyce Bennett. His father married Nancy Breslin, M.D., M.F.A., a psychiatrist turned fine art photographer. Caws' great-grandmother was painter
Margaret Walthour Lippitt.
[account. ]
Caws has a half sister from his father's second marriage named Elisabeth Breslin Caws.
Caws has an older sister, Hilary Caws-Elwitt. She is married to
humorist
A humorist (American) or humourist (British spelling) is an intellectual who uses humor, or wit, in writing or public speaking, but is not an artist who seeks only to elicit laughs. Humorists are distinct from comedians, who are show business e ...
and
playwright
A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays.
Etymology
The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...
Jonathan Caws-Elwitt, who also writes erotica under the
pen name
A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name.
A pen na ...
Jeremy Edwards. They formed the band
The Silly Pillows
The Silly Pillows were an American indie pop band formed by Jonathan Caws-Elwitt. They began as a home-recorded duo of Jonathan and his wife Hilary Caws-Elwitt, sharing tapes through the cassette underground. In the 1990s the band evolved into ...
together and live in
Northampton, Massachusetts
The city of Northampton is the county seat of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of Northampton (including its outer villages, Florence and Leeds) was 29,571.
Northampton is known as an acade ...
.
Musical projects
When the family returned to
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, his parents sent him to the
Lycée Français de New York
The Lycée Français de New York (LFNY), commonly called the Lycée (in English, "The French High School of New York"), is an independent bilingual French school serving an international community of students from Nursery-3 to twelfth grade based ...
. There he joined
The Cost of Living in 1982 or 1983, a band formed by a teacher, Patrick Thouron, and a few students, including
Daniel Lorca
Nada Surf is a New York City-based American alternative rock band formed in the 1990s, consisting of Matthew Caws (guitar, vocals), Ira Elliot (drums), Doug Gillard (guitar, backing vocals), and Daniel Lorca (bass, backing vocals).
History 19 ...
, Stéphane Dehais, and Fabrice Griffoulière-Frère, initiating a long friendship and a promising collaboration. Caws told a Boston audience in March 2018 that he and Lorca wanted to form a band sooner than their parents allowed at age 15.
The Cost of Living split up in 1990, after having released two records, played in venues such as
CBGB
CBGB was a New York City music club opened in 1973 by Hilly Kristal in Manhattan's East Village. The club was previously a biker bar and before that was a dive bar. The letters ''CBGB'' were for '' Country'', '' BlueGrass'', and '' Blues'', Kri ...
, and having a video played on
MTV
MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
, but Matthew and Daniel joined another band,
Because Because Because, with two other musicians. This enterprise was short-lived and they soon split up, despite the recording of a demo, unreleased to this day, for the label
Stickboy, which would later release
Nada Surf
Nada Surf is a New York City-based American alternative rock band formed in the 1990s, consisting of Matthew Caws (guitar, vocals), Ira Elliot (drums), Doug Gillard (guitar, backing vocals), and Daniel Lorca (bass, backing vocals).
History 199 ...
's first single (7"), "The Plan/Telescope", in 1994.
Hilary, Matthew's elder sister, was a college radio DJ. She helped develop and influence her younger brother's musical tastes, lending him records from her impressive collection and cassette tapes of her show. Matthew joined the project initiated by Hilary and her partner, Jonathan,
The Silly Pillows
The Silly Pillows were an American indie pop band formed by Jonathan Caws-Elwitt. They began as a home-recorded duo of Jonathan and his wife Hilary Caws-Elwitt, sharing tapes through the cassette underground. In the 1990s the band evolved into ...
, for a few collaborations.
He also wrote and edited for ''
Guitar World
''Guitar World'' is a monthly music magazine for guitarists – and fans of guitar-based music and trends – that has been published since July 1980. ''Guitar World'', the best-selling guitar magazine in the United States, contains original art ...
'', interviewing, among others,
Oasis
In ecology, an oasis (; ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment'ksar''with its surrounding feeding source, the palm grove, within a relational and circulatory nomadic system.”
The location of oases has been of critical imp ...
and
Mick Jones.
Minor Alps
In 2013, Caws and singer-songwriter
Juliana Hatfield
Juliana Hatfield (born July 27, 1967) is an American musician and singer-songwriter from the Boston area, formerly of the indie rock bands Blake Babies, Some Girls (band), Some Girls, and The Lemonheads. She also fronted her own band, The Julia ...
formed the new band Minor Alps.
The duo's debut album, ''
Get There'', was released on October 29, 2013 on
Barsuk Records
Barsuk Records ( ) is an independent record label based in Seattle, Washington, that was founded by the members of the band This Busy Monster, Christopher Possanza and Josh Rosenfeld, in 1998 to release their band's material. Its logo is a draw ...
.
Julie Gayet
Julie Gayet (; born 3 June 1972) is a French actress and film producer.[< ...]
appears in the Minor Alps music video for their song "Waiting For You."
Personal life
In 2016 he married Emily Bidwell. The couple has stated they will split their time between Caws' residence in
Cambridge, England
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge became ...
, and New York.
In 2022, Caws and his son made a
PSA
PSA, PsA, Psa, or psa may refer to:
Biology and medicine
* Posterior spinal artery
* Primary systemic amyloidosis, a disease caused by the accumulation of abnormal proteins
* Prostate-specific antigen, an enzyme used as a blood tracer for pros ...
called "Living with a Mild
Essential Tremor
Essential tremor (ET), also called benign tremor, familial tremor, and idiopathic tremor, is a medical condition characterized by involuntary rhythmic contractions and relaxations ( oscillations or twitching movements) of certain muscle groups in ...
".
References
External links
Official website*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Caws, Matthew
American male bloggers
American bloggers
American male singer-songwriters
American rock guitarists
American male guitarists
American rock singers
American rock songwriters
Lycée Français de New York alumni
Singers from New York City
1967 births
Living people
American alternative rock musicians
American indie rock musicians
American expatriates in England
Guitarists from New York City
20th-century American guitarists
Nada Surf members
20th-century American male musicians
Singer-songwriters from New York (state)