Real Estate are rocking the Suburbs

Real Estate are rocking the Suburbs

24 October, 2011
by: Domzig

Just like Quiet Riot did...

Hailing from some small, sleepy town in New Jersey but getting their musical education Brooklyn's vibrant experimental scene, Real Estate's sound is almost a 50/50 split between the down-to-earth, homespun jangle pop of America’s suburbs and the experimental, cut and paste avant-rock of their new home.

One of the most beguiling acts to emerge from last year’s beach pop thing, their recent Domino debut ‘Days’ has seen the four-piece lurch towards the more jangly spectrum of their sound. As a result, it is one of the most quintessential American sounding records anyone has released in quite a while, keeping the complex harmonies and low-key melodies, but smoothing them off with a healthy dose of pop directness. Released last week, it has already turned the UK music press into a bunch of giddy school kids, with even the normally reserved Times coming over like excited fan boys.

With a show at The Garage tomorrow and a date just announced for early December, I caught up with bassist Alex Bleeker to see what all the fuss is about.

Real Estate - Easy by FBi Radio

Let’s start with the recent news that you’re now signed to Domino Records! Does it feel like you’ve hit the big time now that you’ve signed to a big indie?

A little bit. If you’d told me when I was a teenager that I was going to be in a band that was signed to Domino, I probably would have fallen over in excitement. We’ve been really, really fortunate and really, really lucky.

I listened to the new album the other day. Is it right to say that this record is a little more jangle pop and a little less psychedelic than the last one?

Not necessarily. Sure, the jangle pop influences are definitely in there, but we weren’t trying to stay away from the psychedelic stuff either. I mean, on the long outro for the last song we got a little krauty and repetitive, and I consider it be one of the more psychedelic sound tracks in Real Estate’s back catalogue.

So it wasn’t a conscious thing or anything, it just came out like that?

Yeah, it wasn’t like we all said, “let’s clean up and ditch the weird stuff”; we’re all big fans of that sort of music, but we ended up coming at this record from more of jangle pop perspective as opposed to the more psychedelic direction of the last record.

A lot of the reviews have you pegged as a ‘cinematic band’. Are you guys trying to sound like a Wes Anderson movie or something?

I love Wes Anderson, so I’m totally OK with that comparison. I know some people would consider that derogatory or something, but I really don’t. I mean if someone said that it was some sort of recycled artsy, hipster sort of thing, I’d probably take offence to that, but I really appreciate his movies from an artistic point of view and I would be honoured to be compared to that. It sounds like high praise.

The other thing I keep seeing is how ‘surf’ you guys sound. Just how do four guys from New Jersey end up being one of the biggest bands in beach pop.

Yeah, It’s weird isn’t it. I can definitely understand how people came up with that connotation from the first record; we even had a song called ‘Rock the Beach’ on it. But it was more about getting away from all of the crap news about the recession than spending days at the beach. We’d gotten out of school, the job market was fucked, and the music we played was pure escapism. We were choosing not to be bummed out with all that and ‘chill’.

I do think we’ve matured beyond that now, though. You see a lot of reviews going “the sunny sound of Real Estate”, which if fine, but I think our music has more of a reflective, sombre quality than just happy-go-lucky beach pop. It doesn’t offend me when I read that, but it does smack of lazy journalism.

Yeah, I’ve always thought your music was more a love letter to suburbia...

That’s totally what it is. It’s where we grew up and its where were coming from musically.

I saw that Ridgewood was voted the US’s best place to live this year?

Was it?

Yeah! it says on Wikipedia that it was in Money Magazine or something.

Wow, I didn’t know that. It’s a great place to grow up. It’s idyllic, safe and has an open-minded, liberal, but not hippy community. It’s like one of those towns you see in any typical teen movie. You have your cliques at high school, your tree-lined streets and your very average upper-middle class problems.

Last up, you’re called Real Estate right – any tips for someone wanting to sell their house?

Ha ha, I would say be honest with people. It’s what we’ve done as a band and it seems to be working out pretty well. I mean I went on an apartment hunt in New York, and you can always tell when someone is dressing something up to be something that it’s not. You definitely don’t want to be that person.

Play to your own strengths and be honest about your weaknesses; it’s as good advice for life as it is for property.

So you should tell them if it’s haunted...

Yeah, exactly – you should totally tell someone if your house is haunted...

Real Estate play the Garage tonight, and will be headlining the Scala on the 5th of December. The album 'Days' is out now on Domino Records.

Photo by Shawn Brackbill

Domzig