Real Estate
by Allison Cosby
This article is from our December 2011 issue. The full issue is available for download.
Lo-fi indie rockers Real Estate have had a busy couple of years. Since the release of their self-titled album in 2009, they’ve blown up in the blog world and have been touring and recording nonstop. A couple of weeks ago, The Cut had a chance to chat with Alex Bleeker, bassist and vocalist, about recording their sophomore album, Days, touring with Big Troubles, and what the band does in their free time.
“The writing process [for Days] happened really organically, because it just sort of happened over time,” said Bleeker. “When we started touring with the first record, those songs had already been written for something like eight months, and so as soon as we started touring the first record, we started writing new songs. So it was really a process of like two years compiling them all together for the record.”
He added, “Recording-wise, it was very different [than our first album] because we went for a more professional-style studio and we had a producer with us. So that was different from our first album, which was all home recorded.”
Days was released on October 18 of this year, and the band has been touring around the UK and US since then. While on tour, the band members have been spending their downtime playing games on their iPhones. “We like to play different games together, at the same time. Like right now we’re all into Need for Speed and a couple people really like Race Penguin,” said Bleeker.
They have also been spending time with the members of Big Troubles, whom they’ve known since high school. “They’re a few years younger than us, but they’re from the same town. We didn’t become really good friends until the last couple of years,” said Bleeker. “We’re getting along with them really well; we hang out all the time. Every night we just joke around all the time. We love their music, and they’re really great guys. It’s been going really well.”
According to Bleeker, “Writing sometimes happens [while touring], mainly during sound-checks and stuff. We’ll all just be jamming and somebody will be playing something that we like, and we’ll just turn it into a song later down the road. That’s happened a couple of times before.”
The band has played at all sorts of venues: from big, well-known spaces like Webster Hall in New York to places like Garfield Artworks here in Pittsburgh. Bleeker doesn’t have a preference; he just wants to play “wherever the best show is going to be for us that night.” Commenting on the variety of venues they play, Bleeker said, “Garfield Artworks is sort of a DIY sort of club, which will be a welcome break for us on this tour because we’re playing a lot bigger clubs. It has a more unique feel.”
The band has a growing fanbase, and their music has been slowly evolving to a more developed sound in the past couple of years. The press release for Days called the album a “coming of age” record. According to Bleeker, the phrase is referring to both the band members personally and the music they create together. “We’ve grown up as people, and the music has definitely matured.”
