Real Estate’s Martin Courtney Details Solo Album ‘Magic Sign’ & Releases Single

Check out the official music video for "Corncob."

By Nate Todd Apr 26, 2022 • 12:14 pm PDT

Martin Courtney press april 2022

 Photo by Sinna Nasseri

Real Estate frontman Martin Courtney confirmed a new solo album, Magic Sign, set for release on June 24 via Domino. The New Jersey-born singer-songwriter and guitarist also shared a new single, “Corncob.”

Magic Sign follows Courtney’s 2015 debut solo album, Many Moons. Martin wrote and recorded the material for the new LP throughout 2020 and 2021 at his home studio in Beacon, New York where, “the album came together late at night, while Courtney’s kids slept upstairs and his wife worked overnight shifts at the hospital, a role reversal from his former days out on tour while she stayed home with their family,” as per press materials for Magic Sign.

While Courtney handled most of the recording and producing as well, he had help from co-producer ​​Rob Schnapf who helmed the finished product at Mant Sounds in Los Angeles with mastering from Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound. Additional contributors include Matt Barrick, Oliver Hill, Kacey Johansing and Tim Ramsey.

Martin detailed the lead single and album opener “Corncob” as well as the origin of the title Magic Sign:

The lyrics are about a specific time, the end of youth, pre-adulthood, scummy kid hanging around your hometown a little too long, smoking weed and driving around the surrounding area with your friends to get as completely lost as possible. Eventually getting home using these little green signs that are posted throughout the NJ suburbs telling you which way to go to reach different towns. We called them magic signs.

You do this enough times and it eventually gets harder and harder to get lost. A song about pushing the boundaries of where you grew up until you exhaust the mystery and hit a different kind of boundary. A song about aimless kids looking for direction.

Watch the official music video for “Corncob” directed by Bráulio Amado and Antonio Vicentini below:

Magic Sign Tracklist:

  1. Corncob
  2. Outcome
  3. Sailboat
  4. Shoes
  5. Time To Go
  6. Merlin
  7. Living Rooms
  8. Mulch
  9. Terrestrial
  10. Exit Music

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