Immediately apparent when listening to Real Estate is their sense of motion. Melodic guitar lines swirl; the rhythm section bounces and folds along; and their literal knack for memory and/or scenic based songwriting transports the listener to a specific place. All of this holds true on their fourth LP, In Mind. Recorded in Los Angeles (and with a augmented lineup), the band is in fine form.
Preparing for some high profile gigs around the globe, we caught up with Martin Courtney and Alex Bleeker on the eve of the album's release, touching on their bi-coastal band arrangement, favorite venues, and recording in LA. Plus, all of the members sent over some tracks that inspired the new record (vibey, as expected).
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Aquarium Drunkard: The band is now bi-coastal. How has this impacted the writing, recording and rehearsing for the new album? Any growing pains and/or nice surprises?
Martin Courtney: Living in different cities definitely forced us to approach this album very differently. In the past, we were able to get together a few times a week and work on new songs as they came. This time, I spent a few months writing and demoing songs and sending them around to the band before we ever got together to work on them. Then, the rest of the band came out to the town where I live (very nice of them), rented a house down the street from mine, and we spent three weeks (in two different sessions) working on the songs and recording full band demos with Jarvis from Woods in an old converted high school art classroom.
Doing it that way, we actually probably ended up spending about the same amount of time on this album as we did on Atlas, just all at once instead of spread out over a few months. And, it was super fun getting up every day, walking to the school together, and spending a few hours jamming. The vibe was really good the whole time, and we approached the songs in a looser, more free way. I really feel like the good vibe during the writing sessions carried through the whole process and is audible on the record. This was a fun album to make.
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