Quello che voi siete noi eravamo, quello che noi siamo voi sarete… Was ihr seid sind wir gewesen; was wir sind werdet ihr sein… What you are now we used to be; what we are now you will be… Como vosotros nosotros eramos; como nosotros vosotros sereis…
That’s the start and the end of the story
From the Sharks and the Jets
To the call in the morning
And life is just bets anyway
Look alive
See these bones?
What you are now, we were once
Try as they might no one’s immune to
Misfiring and acting on the wrong clues
And thinking it’s time to re-do, re-do
I feel rain in the movies
And the talk before the screen lights
I hear strings in the park
I don’t like to call or write
Except when it’s too late at night
I mostly just think in the dark
Look alive
See these bones?
What you are now, we were once
Just like we are
You’ll be dust
And just like we are
Permanent
You were too tired to eat to hungry too sleep
Just imagine the spee ee ee ee eed
It’s just what you need
Look alive
You see these bones?
What you are now, we were once
And just like we are
You’ll be dust
And just like we are
Permanent
The lights in the city
Are more or less blinking
Which side of the [West Side] Story
Decides what you’re thinking?
Warm arms and cold faces
We’re squinting, we’re hurrying
We’re taking inventory
We’re digging, we’re burying it
Do you remember when the light was low?
Do you remember when it fell?
Do you remember when we went through her house?
Remember ringing the bell?
Look alive!
See these bones?!
What you are now, we were once!
And just like we are
You’ll be dust!
And just like we are
Permanent!
[chorus, refrain, et. al. mixing and fading… like dust slowly falling…]
Songwriters: Matthew Rorison Caws / Ira Sebastian Elliot / Daniel Lorca
IT’S a story that could be straight out of a Stephen King novel. But rather than the Overlook Hotel in Colorado, the setting is a crypt in Rome.
That’s where Matthew Caws, frontman for indie-pop band Nada Surf, found inspiration for “See These Bones,” a single off the New York group’s fifth studio album, “Lucky,” due out today.
Such a macabre place may seem out of sync with Nada Surf’s dreamy pop stylings, but in fact Caws lifted the lyrics straight from the floor of the Capuchin Crypt. That’s where, in the 18th century, monks arranged the bones and skulls of 4,000 of their predecessors into elaborate patterns and objects – including chandeliers made from children’s bones.
“The experience was really unbelievable. It was like having a forced epiphany,” says Caws, still awed. “It’s so brutal.”
He was particularly drawn to two plaques on the ground which read “What you are now we used to be; what we are now you will be.”
“The message was that you are here to enjoy life,” says Caws. “You have to be awake for it, because this is it.” (Download “See These Bones” at nypost.com’s MPFree column.)
Nada Surf has been making the most of it since being formed in 1993 by high-school pals and longtime bandmates Caws and bass player Daniel Lorca, and drummer Ira Elliot, a former Fuzztone.
The threesome quickly scored a hit with “Popular” from the band’s 1996 debut, “High/Low.” But when their label, Elektra, wanted the same type of quirky single on their sophomore disc, 1998’s “The Proximity Effect,” and Nada Surf refused to add one, the band was soon dropped.
Caws and company kept the faith, however.
He took a job in a record store in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, as the band continued to perform and work together. In 2003, Nada Surf resurfaced with the gorgeous record “Let Go” and have been thriving on the indie scene ever since.
The 40-year-old single dad recently returned to Williamsburg after living on the Upper East Side’s York Avenue, where he bribed pals to visit him. “As soon as I found out it was called the bedpan of New York, I left,” he says.
As an insightful songwriter, Caws can’t help but wear his heart on his sleeve – or in a press release.
In the latest one for “Lucky,” Caws describes himself as a manic depressive without the mania – “Yet I’m ready to be cheerful at the drop of a reason,” he says. “I’m always looking for rapture in music.”
Looking for that lift through song is a Catch-22, however, since his job is to “mine” his own life for problems and represent them in a song.
“You can’t do that for eight hours a day, or you go crazy,” he says.
For now, he’s relieved to be done with the album and go on tour. Nada Surf performs at the Music Hall of Williamsburg on Thursday, the Bowery Ballroom on Friday and Terminal 5 on April 11.
