Real Estate isn’t exactly a simple case to crack. At first glace, you will see an indie rock band out of New Jersey — which seems fairly straightforward. On the inside, you take a listen to their most recent records, this year’s Atlas and 2011’s Days, and you find that the mission of Real Estate is a little bit more complex than you might imagine. Every bit of what they’ve released has been a steady improvement from their still-very-good debut record, but they have been slowly but surely cementing their place within the realm of indie rock over the past five years or so.
I had a chance to talk to frontman Martin Courtney prior to their performance at Krannert Center for the Pygmalion Festival on Thursday.
Smile Politely: I wanted to start of by asking you about your new album, that’s not quite as new anymore, Atlas. I was reading on your record label’s website that “Atlas perfects the sound you’ve been going for.” Do you feel like that’s the label taking liberties, or is that what Atlas is to you?
Martin Courtney: Uh, I think that’s just PR copy being put out there. I mean, its definitely…I don’t know how to put that because we’re hopefully always evolving. It takes elements from our first 2 albums and I think it’s the best album we’ve made, I’ll definitely say that. Yeah, I think as we’ve played together we’ve gotten better at coming up with arrangements and writing songs and literally playing instruments. I wouldn’t say it’s the perfection of our sound, I don’t even know what that means. I guess maybe if our next record is a lot worse maybe that will be true. [laughs]
SP: I was reading some other interviews that you’ve done where you said Atlas was more forward thinking and maybe a little more personal for you. Could you elaborate on that?
Courtney: I think it was just that I had this idea in my head that I wanted to make the lyrics a little bit less nostalgic, so to speak. I think that’s how we had been pegged for our first two albums, because that’s sort of… most of the lyrics were about the past and growing up. That was like the one not necessarily limitation, but restriction I wanted to put on myself. I don’t know the word is, but I wanted to not do that as much. But there’s definitely a couple, at least one song, that is sort of reflecting on the past in terms of looking at the present. But I think in that way, if you’re trying to write more about your present life, it’s going to be a little more personal. I think by writing about the present I ended up thinking more about the future, in a way. That’s what I meant when I said that, it’s just sort of based on wanting to try something new in my songwriting, in my lyrics.
SP: I also saw that you wanted 10 songs exactly for this album, though you wrote a lot more. Where did that limitation come from?
Courtney: I don’t know, I have just sort of always liked concise records; to me that seemed like a good number. Our first two albums were 10 songs, not that I wanted to keep repeating ourselves, but I felt like 10 was good. I mean, if we had 12 songs that worked really well together we probably would have gone with 12, but we distilled it down to these 10 songs that really flowed together. I like the idea of 35 to 40 minutes as a good length for an album. If you go too long people might… not that its bad thing that people nowadays listen to singles and stuff, but I like the idea of putting out a record you can listen to front to back and maybe at the end you might want to listen to again. You’re left wanting more, I guess; that’s kind of the idea. Leave people wanting more instead of leaving people exhausted at the end of the record.
SP: You did some recording, among other places, at the Wilco Loft. What was that like?
Courtney: It was really cool. Their studio is really nice, its really homey feeling. They’ve been in that that studio for 10 year I think, so it kinda shows. It feels very lived-in and very personal. I’m trying to think of the word. I don’t know, its like when you want to take your headphones off there’s a hook right next to you. Things like that, where it’s just very smart. There’s that, and the fact there’s so much gear there. We were spoiled by the amount of gear they had, which was nice. It has everything a professional studio would have, because that’s what it is, with the added benefit that it’s these guys practice space they’ve lived in for a really long time. It just feels very natural and good.
SP: You mentioned the gear, as a guitar player in a guitar band, were you in heaven? It seems like it would be just great to play around in there.
Courtney: Yeah, it was definitely really cool. It’s kind of overwhelming. There were so many options. It was fun just to pick up some crazy guitar just to see how it feels and plug it in and see how it sounds. I ended up using this ‘70s telecaster for pretty much the whole record because I liked how it sounded and it felt good to me. I’m not so much of an experimenter, I guess, especially because I feel like I’m more of the rhythm guitar player. I’ll find a sound I like and stick to it for the record. Except for maybe one or two songs where I let the part that I was playing dictate the guitar that I was using. Matt [Mondale], the other guitar player, he switched it up a lot. He was playing a really nice, really expensive 50s Les Paul for a lot of the songs and trying different amps and different guitars. It’s pretty awesome, definitely overwhelming; one of those things where I played more guitars just hanging out and messing around than I did on the recordings. They’ve got these amazing, beautiful, old acoustic guitars that all sound really different and crazy, full-sounding blues guitars. That’s really awesome, but I ended up using my acoustic on a lot of the record [laughs], because I like the way it sounds and just because I’m less adventurous. I like what I like and that’s it, which is maybe not the best attitude at a place like that. The other cool thing is the amount of keyboards they have. Different organs, two different mellotrons, two pianos: it’s fun to just experiment and see what sounds you can get. It was really neat for sure.
SP: Other cool things you’ve been doing include La Blogotheque, AV Undercover, Pitchfork Fest again: What’s been the best thing you’ve done as a band since Atlas came out?
Courtney: There’s been a lot. I don’t know… now I’m going to be blanking on what my favorite was. We did a show, after we recorded the album but way before it came out, where we played with Glenn Mercer from the Feelies and we got to play some Feelies songs with him. He came and sang with us and we got to feel like we were the Feelies for a couple songs, which was really cool. In terms of press stuff, yeah that Blogotheque stuff was fun. It was a little intense that day: we got flown in that morning from Germany or something and we were exhausted and it was like, “Alright, here’s a room full of people, play some songs. It’s a party.” [laughs] It was surreal, I guess I would say, but definitely fun. The AV Club thing was neat because I’ve wanted to do that for a long time, but I wish we had more time to work on the song because I think it could have been a little better. But its fine, it was okay. Its one of those things where once its out there in the wild its like, “OK, this exists now.” But it’s been cool, we’ve had a lot of cool opportunities since the album came out so it’s hard to put my finger on a favorite. Maybe if you gave me that question later I could give you a better answer.
SP: In Pitchfork’s “Best of the Decade So Far” you were pretty well represented, with Atlas and Days as well as a couple songs. They’re the big tastemaker out there, so how does it feel to have them recognize your work like that?
Courtney: It’s really nice, obviously it feels good; we feel lucky that they appreciate what we do. It’s not lost on us how influential they are and they’ve always been very supportive and nice to us. So it’s good, seeing that is always gratifying and makes you feel like you’re on the right track. It’s also kind of one of those things your mom can share on Facebook, which makes you feel good. You always hope your record is represented on lists like that, but I also think that those lists are really stupid because it’s really just someone’s opinion. When you’re on the good end I’m not going to complain though.
Check out Courtney and Real Estate, as they’ll be performing at Krannert Center’s Stage 5 on Thursday evening with locals Elsinore. Tickets are available for the performance, which begins at 10 p.m.