There aren’t many bands that willingly play at house parties right after a show, but for Real Estate, those house parties have helped establish the band’s name. Sometimes, the parties are even better than the clubs.
Originating from the suburbs of New Jersey, Real Estate is a young, upbeat foursome that loves to travel. On their first tour, about a year ago, the band started playing house parties for some extra self-promotion, and because they just love to play music.
“We were in Pensacola, Florida, and we played at this club. Maybe like 10 people came, like really lame. We were super bummed,” said frontman Martin Courtney. “Earlier that day, these kids had sent us a MySpace message saying like “Hey you should come play at our house. We’re gonna have a party.'”
The band considered it, but didn’t commit. However, after the less-than-spectacular show, the band decided that a house party could be cool.
“It was just like 20 high school kids on a Tuesday night,” said Courtney. “And you know, they had school the next day. And they were all drinking and partying. It was really funny. So we played in their living room and they were super into it and it ended up being a really, really good night.”
The four members of Real Estate, Courtney, Alex Bleeker, Etienne Pierre Duguay and Matthew Mondanile, knew each other before they formed the band a year and a half ago. Having played together and in various other bands since high school, the foursome didn’t create Real Estate until after graduating college.
This longtime friendship is a key ingredient in the unique sound that Real Estate creates. “Since we’ve known each other for so long, we kind of share this deep well of influences. We’ve just been sharing the music that we listen to forever, since we were like little kids,” said Courtney. On that list are bands like The Grateful Dead, Television and New Jersey’s own Yo La Tengo.
“And plus since we’ve been playing together for so long we know each other’s styles. There are kind of solid influences but then there is just the vibe of us knowing each other,” said Courtney. “That’s probably the biggest influence on our music.”
Real Estate released their debut self-titled album last November via Woodsist records. The album has a distinctively soft, melodic indie-pop sound. Somewhat by accident, the band recorded their songs in a variety of places, giving the album a unique, raw feel.
Aside from producing records, the band is mostly into travelling and touring. Not every new band gets to travel overseas before they’re even two years old, and Real Estate lucked out, but with a simple email, the band managed to get a booking agent in Europe, and they did their first tour across the ocean in January. Real Estate is going back this May to play at the Barcelona Primavera Sound Festival.
With all the touring, the biggest obstacle that the band usually has to deal with is just finding a time and place to practice. Often, they end up using Courtney’s parents’ basement.
“We’ve been lucky,” said Courtney. “We’ve been able to get some decent shows from the start. We didn’t have much of a period in the very beginning where we were struggling. I guess we’ve done it so many times before, we’ve been in so many bands that we knew what we were doing in terms of trying to get shows.
Real Estate will be playing at Club Lambi on March 13.
