With their ninth studio album, Nada Surf-Matthew Caws, Daniel Lorca, Ira Elliot, and their longtime friend and collaborator Louie Lino-continue pursuing their humanistic vision of the world through hooky, catchy rock songs with sharply drawn, yet tenderly felt lyrics. Never Not Together, out on Feb 7th, is a wide-ranging collection of songs that revel in the group's ability to evoke and reflect grand and intricately wrought emotions, whether through sweeping guitar solos or hushed-whisper vocals. "Empathy is good, lack of empathy is bad, holy math says we're never not together," Caws declares at the end of "Something I Should Do," a crashing powerpop track with an insistent melody that adds urgency to his thoughts about 21st-century life. The concept of "holy math" which informs that line-and the album's title-was inspired by a Justin Vernon appearance on the Song Exploder podcast, where the Bon Iver leader talked about the interconnectedness of humans. "We're all together, and that's just the way it is, and the way it always will be," says Caws. "That's the sacred truth of it." Never Not Together was recorded at Rockfield Studios in Wales, where artists like Echo & the Bunnymen, the Flamin' Groovies, Iggy Pop and Oasis recorded albums. "I've been seeing the name on albums for so long," says Caws. "It's a working farm, and the founder/owner, Kingsley Ward, would come in and tell us stories when he wasn't farming. I'd walk into town every morning and listen to the sheep talking as I walked by them." That openness to listening-to their fans, to each other, to the world-has helped inform Nada Surf's legacy as down-to-earth rock stars-musicians who can command festival stages around the world while connecting to audience members on a personal level, conscious of the shared humanity every step of the way.