It would have been hard to predict that the sound New Jersey indie rockers Real Estate created on their last two albums would end up being so genre defining right now, but that’s exactly what they are. When you first listen to 2011’s Days and 2014’s Atlas you can actually capture hints of mid-nineties rock acts like Gin Blossoms, or Counting Crows —but Real Estate’s essence comes off more effortlessly and sincere characterizing the mellow slacker vibes that many emerging rock acts seem to be gravitating towards these days. Of course, they’re free of the pressure to create a radio hits for a record label and instead have built a nostalgic cult following of fans made up of reminiscent rock dads and enthusiastic hipster kids.
Their brand of sun-tinged hazy guitar rock is right alongside the likes of Kurt Vile and Mac Demarco, and whether they’re capitalizing on the trend intentionally or not, Real Estate is carving out their own corner niche as a band capable of elevating their easy listening mellow studio sound in the live setting. With their unsuspecting rise to fame comes along question of where Real Estate will take their sound next, so before the band’s stop this Wednesday at Paradise, we caught up with lead singer and guitarist Martin Courtney to talk about the tour, ideas for the next record, and his excitement to play Radio City Music Hall.
AP: You’re out on a post Atlas tour. Is this just an additional summer tour kind of thing?
MC: Pretty much. Were doing a festival up in Toronto, and then something in Western Mass a week later, so we figured why not connect the two and make a little tour out of it.
AP: Have you guys been able to settle in and enjoy the success after Atlas? Did it live up to your expectations as far as what it was able to do for you guys as a band?
MC: Yeah, it was funny because when we put out Days it was really coming off of our first record, which was a much smaller feel. The jump between our first and second record was so drastic in terms of reception and the shows we got to play and everything that it almost made this album kind of dampened in a way. But yes, we’re playing the biggest shows we’ve ever played and gotten to do some cool stuff over the past year. It’s been really great.
AP: You’re playing Radio City Music Hall tomorrow night is that something you ever imagined?
MC: No, I’m pretty excited about that. I’m just actually packing my car, and basically preparing for the show right now. I don’t even really know what to expect. I’m excited to see just what the venue is like, check out the backstage of Radio City, it should be really cool, I’m looking forward to the show.
AP: Have you seen a show there before?
MC: The last time I was there was a long time ago to see the Christmas show. I’ve never seen a concert there, so yeah, I’m pretty excited to be on stage. I guess the stage is really big so, it should be pretty cool.
AP: Your band members live in different parts of the country now. Is time on the road now a creative time to work out new ideas and songs?
MC: Kind of. We haven’t really started getting creative yet for the next record. We’ve all been sort of working on other projects while busy touring on Atlas. Actually, I’m starting to write the next record right now. We haven’t figured out exactly yet how we’re going to do it. A lot of the process is just me writing, recording some demos, other guys recording some demos. Matt [Mondanile] and I talked a little about, because he lives in Los Angeles, maybe this summer going out there for a week so we could work on some new stuff together. I have a feeling there is going to be a lot of emailing demos and stuff back and forth. At a certain point—maybe before we go into the studio—we’ll spend a month rehearsing before we record the next record and go over things. That’s kind of the way I see it working out, at least.
AP: Your records all have had some sort of trend to them. Do you have a sense of where you’d like to go with this one in terms of lyrics or sound?
MC: No, that kind of stuff sort of presents itself during the process of recording the record, and is usually pretty late in the game. We’ll have a bunch of songs recorded and that kind of stuff happens really naturally. I feel like we’ve had some really vague conversations about wanting to switch it up in a way, may be a little more loose for the next record because now we’ve had three ten song LP’s that are sort of sonically tied together. I guess Days and Atlas are kind of tied together, the first record is a little bit more of a wildcard because we recorded it ourselves and it’s a little more lo-fi. I think we want to try to get back to that vibe of the first record—where maybe the way we record a song isn’t necessarily the way we play it live, or try to do things in the studio and make a slightly weirder record, but who knows?
AP: You do somewhat present yourself live in a different way than the studio already, right?
MC: Yeah, I think that’s just because when you play live, you’re louder. I don’t know, I think its hard to capture a mellow vibe live. It’s a harder thing to do than it is to be energentic, and I think our material seems like a little more energetic when we play live. It’s hard to keep peoples’ attention when you got just a bunch of mellow tunes. I think it depends on the show, too. Honestly, if you catch us on a specific night it can be a different show depending on how we want to present ourselves. The setlist has a lot to do with it, too—the songs we end up playing on a particular night.
AP: I heard your cover of “He’s Gone.” There’s so much say about the 50th Anniversary. I think of you guys as sort of a reemergence of jam-rock with an indie flare to it. Is the [Grateful] Dead an influence, and does it influence how to play live?
MC: It depends on who you ask in the band. Alex Bleeker, our bass player, is a really big Grateful Dead fan. He loves them—they’re his favorite band. I feel like I’m really familiar with two of their albums, one of which is American Beauty which is like “the one.” I really like them, but there is such a spectrum of Grateful Dead fandom and I’m not that deep, but I know everyone in the band definitely appreciates them, there’s no haters.
I do think early on we talked about wanting to keep our songs loose in terms of playing live. Hopefully we’ll be able to stretch out certain sections, not necessarily jam—sometimes there’s a light amount of jamming, but for the most part I wouldn’t call us a jam band. We recorded a cover of a Grateful Dead song that is going to end up on a compilation eventually. So that’ll cement where we stand in the Grateful Dead world.
AP: There’s a lot of talk about how you came out of this regional suburban scene of Ridgewood, New Jersey. Are you able to check up on it? Do you ever go back and see if there are kids forming new bands and being creative?
MC: No, I cant say that I really do. Its funny. I’m in Ridgewood frequently because that’s where my parents and my wife’s parents still live.We’re there all the time, but I don’t know…We did play a show in Ridgewood maybe two years ago, and some local high school kids opened up—that was really cool. I wanted to make it like a yearly thing. It’s hard to organize things like that, but I do know that there are kids still playing music in town.
We did a show last year in New York. It was the biggest show we’d ever done, and this teacher from our high school that used to put on the open mic night came. He was the guy that organized the concerts, the first dozen that we played as friends. He was there at the show and was like “Oh man, it’s so amazing to see you guys are doing this and there’s still all these kids playing music.” He stopped doing the open mic nights because there was no funding or something, the night he came and saw us he was like “That’s it, I’m bringing them back.” I hope the kids are still doing it. That’s always my favorite thing—when we’re playing a show and a fan will come up to us, and he’s a young kid that’s like “I’m in a band and we totally rip you guys off” I love hearing that!
AP: You’re playing Wilco’s Solid Sound festival. Does that stem from the connection of you guys recording in their studio? Did your relationship start from that, or was it simply just using their space?
MC: It’s kind of more the latter. I’m really excited to play that festival, I think its going to be really cool. But no, we used their studio and met a couple of them that week, but we don’t keep in touch. I’m just a big fan of Wilco, so yeah, the fact that we were asked to do that festival made sense. It was cool that they were asking us because we used their studio, but no, we didn’t really start any sort of relationship, hopefully then though.
Tickets are still available for Real Estate’s show at the Paradise Rock Club on Wednesday June 24th $26.50 Ages 18+
and for Wilco’s Solid Sound Festival in North Adams, MA June 26-28