INTERVIEW: REAL ESTATE

Photo Credit: Sinna Nasseri

Interview by Margaret Corona

I got to chat with Martin Courtney — the lead singer of Real Estate — over the phone Friday before the band’s stop in Cleveland for their “Daniel” tour. 

Margaret: Okay, so I know time is of the essence, so I will jump right into things. You’ve played over a dozen shows so far on the “Daniel” tour and Cleveland is tonight. How’s your spirit? How’s your energy? How are you feeling?

Martin: Feeling good. I feel like it’s been more than that [laughs]. It’s because we did a West Coast leg and now we’re just about halfway through the second of three legs. So I feel like we’re right in the middle of the whole U.S. run. And it’s been going really well. It’s been great. You know, we feel good. The shows have been really fun. I mean, it’s been a bit of a shock, like we haven’t toured in a few years. And this tour in particular has been pretty insane with early mornings and long drives and stuff like, it feels – I don’t know if it’s because we’re older or because this is actually just a more brutal tour than we’re used to, but the actual logistics of it have been not fun, [laughs] but like, whatever. We’re here to work, but the shows have been amazing. So yeah, we’re having a good time.

Margaret: That’s awesome. So obviously “Daniel” seems to be a bit of a shift toward pop, so how would you compare the “Daniel” songwriting process to your previous albums?

Martin: I mean, I feel like we’ve always been kind of, you know, we’re not anything other than a pop band, really. I mean, because, we’ve always had sort of these like, three minute classically structured pop songs, you know, on all of our records. But then we’ll have a lot of other songs that are maybe less traditionally structured or longer or have more “jammy” sections or instrumental songs. And with this record, basically I wrote a couple songs and they were all, like, in that mode, that kind of pop-song-radio-single sort of mode, and I really enjoyed that. And I just was like, “What if we did a whole record like that?” You know, like … I started thinking of this band like, “Okay, we do pop songs, and then we do these other types of songs.” And I thought, “What if we did a record that was just pop songs?” And then I was like, “And then what if the next record [laughs], which we have yet to record, was like all instrumental or something?” So it’s like we kind of split ourselves up. And that’s sort of where the idea for this came from. And you know, I don’t know what we’re gonna do with the next record, but with this one, yeah, it was just basically like I wrote those first few songs and then I just went with it. And I had a lot of fun doing it, because it’s like that kind of thing really comes naturally to me as a songwriter, and I love writing, you know, catchy melodies, that’s sort of like my bread and butter, so it was it was kind of leaning into what comes easily to me, I guess.

Margaret: I would love to hear a little bit about your experience working with Daniel Tashian in Nashville.

Martin: It was great … I mean, he won Album of the Year, like Grammy acclaimed songwriter, like, the most plugged in guy that we’ve ever worked with in terms of his industry credentials, but also just a professional, you know, like a consummate professional. That’s just what I was expecting was somebody that was maybe – he’s worked with like Burt Bacharach, you know? [laughs] – like, this is the guy that’s gonna have the type of personality, he’s gonna be a classy guy, you know? And he is. He’s very classy, but he’s also really, really, really fun and funny and like, just a hilarious guy and really positive and really, like, just immediately put us at ease, you know? We went in there, you know, it’s like, we felt confident. We had a good batch of songs and we were like, ready and rehearsed, so we weren’t necessarily intimidated, but we were definitely in a really nice studio working with, you know, a guy we’d never met before, who has won some Grammys [laughs], and, like, that was new for us. This was all new. But he immediately put us at ease and had a light touch, but he also had a lot of really cool ideas. And obviously, we had him there for his ideas. And so he wasn’t afraid to dig in and say what he was thinking and if he thought of something in the moment, he’d throw it out there, and we would always try it, even if it was something that maybe we wouldn’t necessarily have thought of. I mean, that was the whole point, you know … If it’s my song, and he’s suggesting something that I wouldn’t have necessarily thought of, sometimes the reaction is to kind of get defensive or to be like, “I don’t know if I want to do that.” But, you try to keep in mind, like, we’re here to work with this guy to try something new. And, you know, 95% of the time his ideas stuck, and maybe there’s one or two things where we were like, “I don’t know if this is working,” but it was just having that kind of, like, sixth brain — there’s five of us in the band — and then having him there to like, contribute his ideas was really great. And yeah, and he’s just a super fun dude. Great, great guy to hang out with.

Margaret: That’s awesome. So I like how the album name “Daniel” kind of, partially, symbolizes the band maybe not taking itself or its image too seriously. And I was curious, has Real Estate always had this nonchalant attitude about your public image?

Martin: I think so, yeah [laughs] … I would say, yeah, we’ve either like, not thought about our public image, or always kind of had fun with it. Like, you know, in terms of videos. We’ve always sort of made silly videos, like, we never really wanted to take ourselves too seriously. You know, the music itself is earnest. And like, you know, serious enough but yeah, I think kind of trying to look cool doesn’t come naturally to us [laughs]. With this record, you know, having fun with writing the songs and kind of taking the music seriously but wanting it to feel light and fun. And then wanting to feel natural, like that all kind of played into, you know, the process after we finished the record of thinking of ideas to promote it and thinking of ideas … it’s not like we named the record “Daniel” as a joke, at all, but it was definitely like, it came very naturally. We were like, “Let’s give it a person name, how about ‘Daniel’?” We all loved it and then we just moved on and, like, it feels good when you don’t agonize over things, you know? If you just allow it to flow, which is maybe new for us. I mean, I think we never felt like we were agonizing over stuff in the past. But this record definitely does feel like we’re just very comfortable with ourselves and with the decisions that we’re making. It’s all felt very, very easy in a way, so yeah, it’s felt good.

Margaret: What has been your favorite moment so far on tour?

Martin: Oh, man [laughs], my favorite moment so far on tour. That’s hard. [Turns to bandmates] Hey guys, what’s your favorite moment so far on tour? I will say our first show, we — this maybe isn’t my favorite moment, but it was indicative of what I was saying earlier, that we haven’t really toured that much in the last few years — the first show we played was in San Francisco. And then the second show after that was in Vancouver … I mean, we had a day off to get there. But that’s like a, I don’t know, 20 hour drive or something? And there was a blizzard in Northern California, on our drive day. So we had to take like the longer route and basically, we drove for like 17 hours I think that day [laughs] and it was like, we played our first show and then just sat in the van for 17 hours … I will say, at the end of that drive, I saw that we had another really long drive coming up. And I bought myself a plane ticket [laughs]. I found like a $30 plane ticket from Salt Lake City to Denver, and I said, “I’m not doing this again.” So I very selfishly removed myself from that situation. But yeah, I mean, other than that … these shows have been so fun. And we’ve had like, really great luck with the openers. The opener on the west coast was this band called Florry who are from Philadelphia and they were really fun and like a seven-piece band [laughs], which was like, we didn’t know there were going to be that many of them, but they were just so fun and so great. And this run we’ve had Marina Allen with us — she’s from LA and she’s got a band with her — so it’s just always a treat to have good music to be able to watch before we play, to be able to see a band that we love play every night for two weeks, that’s really special. Yeah, it’s been good so far.

Margaret: So a bit of a pivot here. This is my last question. What was the first concert you ever attended?

Martin: The first concert that I went to by myself with friends, and actually Alex and Julian from Real Estate were there, we were probably 13 and we went and saw Weezer on their like, I think it was right before the green album came out, so it’s probably like the year 2000 maybe, 2001? I don’t know how old I was, I guess I was 15? But anyway, that was the first one I think. Well actually … way before that I went and saw Dave Matthews a few times because my best friend growing up in elementary school, his family were all Dave Matthews Band-heads. So actually, he now is our lighting designer, like, I’ve known him since second grade. And he’s a lighting designer and we still work with him. He’s still a good friend of ours. So, kind of fun to have people like that in your life for that long, but yeah, basically my first actual concert experience ever in my life was seeing Dave Matthews Band with him and his family. It was pretty cool. Yeah, I mean, I loved that band, obviously when I saw them, and then I went through a time, when, for a very, very long time, which to a certain extent is still happening, where I don’t really think they’re that great, but they do have some great songs [laughs]. I’m not a snob about them anymore. I think they’re pretty cool.

Margaret: Okay, that was actually it for me. I wanted to turn it over to you to see if there’s anything you want to add for the BU radio audience.

Martin: Not really, I mean, I hope you guys all come to the show. We’re looking forward to, you know, Boston’s always fun — sort of being from New Jersey and being a band that kind of got its start in New York, it’s like Boston was probably one of the first cities we ever got to play like outside of our home city, so it’s always nice to go back there. Yeah, we’re really just looking forward to the show. It’ll be fun.

Margaret: Well, thank you so much. I so appreciate you taking the time to talk with me and good luck tonight and super excited for Boston. Gonna be awesome.

Martin: Yeah, thank you. Thanks for the chat.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.