Nada Surf and the Importance of Band Names

I like Nada Surf. They’re a band. And I like them. I own precisely one of their records, an EP. So why do I say that I like them?

Honestly, it’s because I like the name. Nada. Surf. What does it mean? The absence of surfing? A specific kind of anti-surfing? The surfing of the Great Nothing? What would that even mean?

According to an interview, it refers to

“something much more existential, it’s just surfing on nothing. Being lost in your head or in your imagination but you know, whenever I listen to music I always find myself off somewhere. Somewhere in space. You know, in mental space and it’s a reference to that.”

In other words, daydreaming. I always thought they sounded a big shoegaze.

But is that why I like it? Did I, on some semiotic, unconscious level, get that about them?

Or did I just like the way the words sounded together?

Maybe I’ll try and figure that out. And maybe get one of their albums.