Interview: Real Estate performs at Turner Hall Ballroom June 10

On “Darling,” the opening track of Real Estate’s fourth studio album In Mind, the listener is immediately welcomed in with a catchy-as-hell Jangle-pop riff.

It’s simple — just three chords — yet it serves as the refrain for the length of the roughly four-and-a-half-minute song and never becomes stale as the band continually reiterates to it. Before long, Martin Courtney’s John Lennon-like voice slips in, setting the pace for the remainder of the 11-track album that’s filled with memorable melodies and Courtney’s soft, dream-like vocals.

Fans who were skeptical about the future of the band after the departure of founding member and guitar player Matt Mondanile can rest easy knowing that Real Estate was able to not only replace him with guitarist Julian Lynch, but add a whole new perspective to their riff-centric, Jangle-pop sound.

Since the release of In Mind, the band has been promoting the album by touring, but they refuse to fall back into the cycle of constantly being on the road. It’s one of the reasons that there was a three-year gap between their 2017 release In Mind and their final release with Mondanile on guitar — Atlas.

“It felt really long,” says Real Estate frontman Martin Courtney on the phone. “You can get into this cycle of touring constantly and the next thing you know, two years have gone by and you don’t have any new songs.”

While the band is gearing up for another tour — one that will bring them to Milwaukee at the Turner Hall Ballroom on June 10 — they’re also hard at work on a new record, which the band hopes to finish writing this summer and release by early 2019.

Wisconsin Gazette had the opportunity to speak with Courtney in anticipation for their upcoming Milwaukee tour date.  

Wisconsin Gazette: What has the band been up to since the 2017 release of In Mind?

Martin Courtney: We’ve been doing a lot of touring. Last year we played a ton of shows and went all over the world. We had this condensed burst of activity, and then in the fall we started writing. I got a space near where I live in Hudson Valley, NY, and just started writing a lot and working on a new record — playing shows here and there. We have an album that’s not done yet that I’m still writing. I always like to step back and look at the fact that we’re building a catalogue of records that will exist forever. The creative aspect of being a musician is much more gratifying than performing, although it is fun to play shows and stuff, it’s really fun to make new music and be in the studio.

Wig: Why the three-year gap between records?

MC: We toured a lot, for like a year-and-a-half after Atlas came out. We got really burned out and took a long break. We kicked Matt out of the band. There’s a whole lot of shit that played into that. There was a lot of being on the road for that record and then it’s like, when you’re on the road that long you kind of need a break. This time, we’re trying to find a balance of touring. We’re on the In Mind album cycle, touring and promoting that record. But we’re also working on another record.

WiG: Matt Mondanile was fired from the band due to allegations that he had mistreated multiple women. He was a founding member of the band and childhood friend of yours. What was it like having to make that call?

MC: It sucked. I mean, the honest truth is that he was not treating women with any respect at all and being a total creep. Once that came to light, we were like, “Holy shit.” That’s when it was totally clear that we couldn’t make music with him anymore. There was also a lot of stuff between him and me. Another thing I forgot to mention between Atlas and In Mind is that I made a solo record and did some touring during that three-year period. I did that because I felt like I couldn’t keep making music with Matt. We were just not getting along at all. I wasn’t sure if this band was going to continue. He really shouldn’t be a person on the road. He needs to spend some time fixing himself. But yeah it was tough. It was a gradual thing of seeing the friendship disintegrate over time. By the time we kicked him out, I hadn’t spoken to him in six months leading up to that conversation.

WiG: How did you end up adding Julian Lynch to the band?

MC: Julian is another person I’ve known since high school. We were in a couple of bands together in high school and we stayed in touch. He’s been making solo records that are really amazing. It’s been cool working on this new album with him because when he joined the band, we were already in the process of making In Minds. Joining a project that has been existing for a long time I’m sure was a little intimidating or uncomfortable at first. Now he’s been in the band for two years. He’s super comfortable and its really reflected in what he’s been doing on this new stuff in the studio. He doesn’t just play the most obvious, or the prettiest, or the thing you’d expect. He puts a lot of thought into it — into his tone, a lot about texture and what the song is missing that isn’t being provided by something else. He’s definitely an asset. The whole process of making new music has been really good and being on tour has been really positive. We’re definitely reinvigorated.

WiG: How did your involvement with the upcoming film Plus One come about?

MC: A friend of mine from high school — who went to film school —graduated from making short films and self-funding to working his way up to a real studio. He had always said if he made a movie that he would want us to do the soundtrack. The way we’re spread out right now, and the way that their budget was, I ended up doing it myself. I contributed three or four songs — I’m not sure how many they actually used. Some of it is instrumental. But also, the rest of the soundtrack is a lot of Real Estate songs. They would send me clips from the movie, and I would write music to it. I’ve always had this dream of film scoring, so it was nice to have the opportunity from them and to delve into that world.

What was it like promoting the series Twin Peaks with a headlining set at SXSW?

MC: We met Kyle MachLachan and that was cool. I hadn’t watched it at the time but a lot of the other guys in the band were stoked because they’re really into Twin Peaks. But since then I’ve watched the first two seasons, so now looking back I was like, “Oh, that was cool that we got to that.”

WiG: You started as a band that played a lot of festivals, and you’re still at it. I saw on your tour that you’re playing festivals in Canada as well as in Portugal. What do you like or dislike about playing festivals?

MC: Festivals are weird. They can be fun, but it’s easier to answer the negative part. You’re playing a 40-minute set, half as long as usual, to — if you’re lucky — 50 percent of the crowd who are fans. Hopefully people have heard of you, where people pay money to come see you. It’s just people checking you out, and it’s hit-or-miss. We’ve played some festival sets that were super amazing and people were psyched and flipping out, and it’s really positive because you know that when you’re playing a really good set at a festival, you’re winning some people over. At the same time, it can be depressing. We did Coachella in 2012, and our set there was great. Lots of people were there watching us. We did it again last year and I think we were playing at the same time as Kendrick Lamar. Everyone was going to see the headliner, not us. You already feel like you are sucking your soul a little bit, just being there. It’s just not a good vibe. It really makes you question why you’re even doing music — it’s just depressing. But for the most part it’s fun. You run into people in other bands that you know, especially if you have friends’ bands that are playing.

WiG: Your music video for “Stained Glass” is a really unique, interactive experience. How did that come about?

MC: Matt Kallman’s (keyboard player for Real Estate) older brother writes TV advertisements. He made a bunch of successful ads — he had a partner for a long time. They split up and went to different companies. This guy, Craig — he was asking to do something for us for free — he loves the music. We decided on a music video. He came to the meeting with four or five ideas, and we decided that the coloring book idea was so cool. In the back of my mind I was like, “There’s no way we’ll pull this off. This sounds so high tech. I’ve never seen anything like this. I’m willing to like, give this guy a chance to do it, and if he actually pulls it off it’ll be incredible.” He made it happen and it worked out really well.

WiG: All of your recent music videos have been visually stunning, and I really enjoy the play-through tutorials the band has been posting on Youtube.

MC: We were really proud of ourselves last year with all of the videos we did for this record. In the video for “Darling,” there’s the live horse in the video. I think that video turned out really well and its really striking visually. The people who directed it did a great job. Then we did the “Stained Glass,” video which is cool and innovative. We were like, “Oh, we went from like a band making normal videos to like, Ok Go over here with innovative concepts.” We were definitely tooting our own horn. It’s cool to do these things — it’s fun when you feel like you’re not just going through the motions in a way. I don’t feel like we ever really were doing that, but I feel like we upped our game with that last record. We’re still pushing ourselves.

Editors note: The Youtube version of the "Stained Glass" video embedded with this story is not the interactive version. To watch the interactive version, visit www.stainedglassvideo.com.

Real Estate performs at Turner Hall Ballroom on June 10. Doors open at 8:00 p.m. and the show starts at 9:00 p.m. Tickets are $22.50 and can be purchased at pabsttheater.org.